Events

Deadline: May 1st, 2018 Payment: 2 cents per word up to 8K words Note: Reprints Accepted General Details: We are always looking for dark fiction so please feel free to submit to our projects!  Below are all the projects that are in open submission periods.  We are taking multiple submissions for each project.  Please double check the guidelines before sending us your work.  If you are looking for payment compensation, then make sure you are submitting to a project that offers payment.   Each project is different and offers different compensation, so again please make sure you know what you're submitting to.   Below is an outline of our general guidelines. What we like: Supernatural horror (monsters, ghosts, witchcraft, ect.) Neo-noire (murder, conspiracy, mystery) Urban settings (not a must, but it catches our attention) Speculative Fiction (dark dystopian themes) Cyberpunk themes What we aren't looking for:  If your story utilizes any of these tropes then we can't publish it no matter how good it is!  It's not that we hate these themes, it's just not what we're looking to publish! No vampires No Werewolves No Zombies No Cthulhu Mythos Midnight Hour Volume 1 & 2 Strange things happen when the clock strikes twelve... Our flagship anthology is now open for submissions.  These books will be available on kindle, hardcover, paperback, and audiobook format.  The title page of each story will be illustrated.  We are looking for horror, dark sci-fi, dark speculative fiction, neo-noire, and cyberpunk themes.  Please read the general submissions for more details. Below is a little more about the project. Word Count :  1500-8000 words.  This is not a hard word count.  If you think you have a story that fits what we're looking for, but is a little long or a little short, send it our way. Payment:  We are offering 2 cents per...

Deadline: May 1st, 2018 Payment: 2 cents per word up to 10K words. Longer stories are welcome but the pay cap is $200. Note: Reprints Welcome There's no doubt that the Holidays are the most magical time of year, but that doesn't mean dark happenings aren't lurking beneath your Christmas tree as well. These books will be available on kindle, hardcover, paperback, and audiobook format.  The title page of each story will be illustrated.  We are looking for holiday related horror, dark sci-fi, dark speculative fiction, neo-noire, and cyberpunk stories.  We like stories with Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza themes.   Alternatively, they can simply take place during the holidays (like how Die Hard isn't really about Christmas) or even just involve wintery or snowy settings.  Please read the general submissions for more details. A word of advice:  If you plan on sending us a Krampus story, please make sure it's a great one!  We'll only have room for one in our collection and we're anticipating a lot of submissions so send something original! Below is a little more about the project. Word Count :  1000-10,000 words.  This is not a hard word count.  If you think you have a story that fits what we're looking for, but is a little long or a little short, send it our way. Payment:  We are offering 2 cents per word up to 10K words.  You are free to send us longer stories, but we cap payments at $200 per story for this project. Rights:  We are not asking for ownership of your story.  Just the right to print it. Reprints:  Yes, we accept reprints.  Beggars can't be choosers and we understand we're a fledgling brand.  If your work appears elsewhere, please make sure you double check with the other publication to make sure your story is eligible to print. Multiple Submissions :   Yes. Deadline :   May 1st Send...

Deadline: May 11th, 2018 Payment: Royalties Castrum Press is excited to announce that submissions are open for the Future Days Anthology The first of the Days Anthologies The Future Days Anthology is a short story collection that imagines where humanity finds itself in the future. Your story could be set tomorrow, next year, next century or in the next millennium. We are accepting stories in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror genres, all we ask is you take our readers on a journey into the future of the human race they will never forget. Your story must be between 7,000 and 10,000 words. Submission closes on Friday 11 May 2018. Your story must comply with our Submission Guidelines. The Small(ish) Print Successful submissions will receive a percentage of net profits following publication with the caveat that the stories will not be reproduced without the publisher’s consent for 12 months following publication of the relevant anthology. We can only accept one submission per anthology per author. We automatically reject submissions made after the closing date. All submissions must be original material, owned by the author, and must not have been published via any form of media before submission either free or paid. All submissions must comply with our submission guidelines. Featured image is (C) Copyright Duncan Halleck http://duncanhalleck.com/ Via: Castrum Press.

Deadline: May 13th, 2018 Payment: 6 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales. The reading period for Sword & Sorceress 33 will begin on MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018. It will end on SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2018. If you wish to submit a story to the anthology, please follow the Guidelines below. Guidelines Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, Sword & Sorceress 27, Sword & Sorceress 28, Sword & Sorceress 29, Sword & Sorceress 30, Sword & Sorceress 31, and Sword & Sorceress 32 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry, horror, or dark fantasy. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we don't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story. No reprints. No simultaneous submissions. With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second submission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years). If you have not previously sold to Sword...

Deadline: May 14th, 2018 Payment: 5 cents up to 3k word (story cap is 5k), or $25 flat for reprints Note: This one is for the ladies Note: Reprints Allowed This fall, Word Horde will be releasing Fright Into Flight, an anthology of horror stories by women themed around the idea of flight, edited by Amber Fallon. Whether you’re flying the unfriendly skies or safe on the ground, we think you’re going to enjoy this turbulent ride. Here’s a peek at the cover… — From the earliest depictions of winged goddesses to the delicate, paper-winged fairies of the Victorians, from valiant Valkyries to cliff-dwelling harpies, from record-setting pilots to fearless astronauts, women have long since claimed their place in the skies, among the clouds and beyond. Word Horde presents Fright Into Flight, the debut anthology from Amber Fallon (The Terminal, The Warblers), in which women take wing. In these stories connected by the unifying thread of flight, authors including Damien Angelica Walters, Christine Morgan, and Nadia Bulkin have spread their wings and created terrifying visions of real life angels, mystical journeys, and the demons that lurk inside us all. Whether you like your horror quiet and chilling or more in-your-face and terrifying, there’s something here for every horror fan to enjoy. You’re in for a bumpy ride..So fasten your seatbelt, take note of the emergency exits, hold on to your airsick bag, and remember that this book may be used as a flotation device in the event of a crash landing. — Amber Fallon has picked a great lineup of stories for Fright Into Flight so far, and we’ll be opening up preorders soon, but for now, we’re looking for a few more stories to fill in the gaps. As Amber says, “I want stories with wings and teeth, I...

Deadline: May 15th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy (Charity Anthology) This is the call for submissions to the third anthology to benefit the Whittier Birthplace. Deadline for submissions is May 2018. This year's book will be nonspecific as to genre - mystery, horror, SF - as long meets criteria below. Criteria: Story must have connection to Whittier, be it through his life, his works, or a landmark. Previous stories have included tales set on the Whittier Glacier in Alaska, Whittier, California, and Mount Whittier, New Hampshire (all actual locations named after him) as well as his homes in Amesbury, Haverhill, and Hampton. Other stories have been inspired by his poetry. Your story does not to be set in Whittier's lifetime (unless he's a character, obviously). All stories are preceded by a related photo (provided by the Birthplace) with a caption that emphasizes the connection to Whittier - in other words, the connection to Whittier can be fairly subtle, the caption will cement the reason why it's in the book.  The story must also contain some degree of humor. We already have a whimsical ghost story in which Whittier deals with a blasphemous gardener, and a dreadful shaggy dog story set in Whittier, CA that leads up to a groan-worthy pun. In other words, the concept of "humorous story" is flexible. Aim for PG-13. Language, sex, and violence aren't really associated with Whittier - R rated is okay, but it's likely to affect final decisions. Word count is flexible. I prefer 2k to 7k range, but it's not a deal breaker to be under or over. Standard formatting rules apply. Submit stories to [email protected] with "Wittier" in the subject line. This is a charitable anthology with all proceeds benefiting the Whittier Birthplace Museum. Previous anthologies have attracted contributions from award-winning authors. Payment is a copy of the...

Deadline: May 15, 2018 Payment: Short poetry is $20.00. Payment for short stories is prorated as follows: $50 for stories up to 1,500 words, rising to a maximum of $150 for stories up to 5,000 words Alchemy and Artifacts (Tesseracts Twenty-Two) is an anthology of short fiction which examines the magic behind the history, the myths arising from the artifacts, the mysteries missed (or dismissed), but which lie at the root of world events. The editors want tales that explore laws magical as well as physical, the manipulation of reality in the past, resulting in the present. History, sorcery, alchemy, mystery. All with the sense of 'what if?' For example: What if a curse unleased by Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales? What if Egyptian hieroglyphics were incantations that moved pharaohs into the future instead of an afterlife? What if the terracotta army from the Qin Shi Huang dynasty were golem soldiers, waiting to be animated through magic What if Picasso's Guernica was a magical attempt to fight Franco during the Spanish Civil War? What if Paul Revere's silversmithing was a spell enacted to fight England during the American Revolution? What if Elizabeth I was a witch, employing Drake to find a forgotten, powerful artifact to grant her godhead? What if Haida totems animated and walked the coast? These are only a sampling of the sorts of story ideas the editors are looking for. Alternate histories will be considered, but we are inclined to choose work that considers actual world events and characters, and how some form of magic has manipulated history in a subtle way. SUBMISSION Guidelines (See details below):   Alchemy and Artifacts will reflect as broad a spectrum of stories as possible, highlighting unique styles and manners. The greater the magic or magical event and the subtler (yet dramatic) effect it has on history,...

Deadline: May 15th, 2018 Payment: $100 for new fiction, $50 for reprints. Note: Reprints Allowed Edited by Catherine Lundoff Who doesn’t love a good pirate story? We’re looking for stories about pirates who sailed the Caribbean under the Jolly Roger, Barbary Corsairs, pirates in the China Sea, pirates in the Irish Sea, pirates in the ancient Mediterranean, pirates in outer space, pirates in fantastical settings, you name it. We’d like to have a diverse range of stories in terms of locale, time period and protagonists. We’re big fans of women pirates, queer pirates and pirates from diverse and interesting backgrounds, but if you’ve got an original spin on Sir Henry Morgan, Blackbeard or a equivalent historical figure, send them our way. We’re not looking for erotica for this anthology and would prefer adventure to romance but romantic subplots are fine. Protagonists of all sexual orientations and/or gender identities welcome. The Details: We’re looking primarily for stories in the 5000-6000 word range; no stories over 7500 words or less than 4000 words, please. Reprints will be considered as long as their most recent publication date is a year or more in the past before submission date and you have full rights to them. Payment: $100 for new fiction, $50 for reprints. We’re asking for first North American print/ebook rights for the new fiction. This book is scheduled for a December 2018 release. Timeline: Submissions are due May 15th, 2018. Stories should be submitted in standard manuscript format as .doc or .docx email attachments to [email protected]. Please include “Pirate Anthology” and the title of your submission in the subject line. Want to query about ideas or just ask questions? Please do! You can reach us at this email address for those too. Thanks and we look forward to reading your work! Via: Queen...

Deadline: May 15th, 2018 Payment: Royalties Submission Details: Submissions must be in English and written to the highest quality you are capable. Maximum Word Count is 10,000. This is a paid market anthology, with a royalty cut for each author. Each author retains all rights to their story after a 6-month run in Kindle Unlimited All submissions will be edited and sent to the author for final approval before publication. Open internationally, but submission must be in American English. There is no fee to submit. Please, no reprints or simultaneous submissions. Limit of two submissions per author. Any genre is fine. However, we are not looking for nonfiction at this time. Adult language and sexual situations are permitted. Formatting your Submission: Standard submission format is accepted. Alternately please send in a doc, docx, or rtf file formatted with; 12pt Times New Roman with 1.5-line spacing; left justified indents on the first line of each paragraph (Do NOT use TAB); no extra spacing between paragraphs; and no headers/footers/page numbers; one space at the end of a sentence, not two. To submit, please use the form below. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. If you have any questions, please submit your question through the contact page. Submit Your Story Here Via: Fighting Monkey Press.

Deadline: May 15th, 2018 Payment: Minimum of .01 a word and royalties I’m collecting stories for Timeshift, a reprint anthology. The theme of the anthology is time and time travel. All stories must involve characters who are affected by time and time travel in some way. So far in the project process I have stories from several big names in science fiction such as Cat Rambo, Robert Silverberg, Kevin J. Anderson, Ken Liu, Alan Baxter and Alex Shvartsman, among others. The details to the project are as follows: The story must have sold at semi pro rates of .03 or higher. The rights must belong to the author (meaning the submission does not violate any exclusivity period the previous publisher asked for with buying first time rights). I’m asking for non-exclusive reprint rights. Rights sufficient to reprint your story in a digital anthology. There will be a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a professional cover, ebook formatting, and a cents per word advance for all contributors to the project. The minimum advance for all stories will be .01 a word or the project will not publish. Royalties from the anthology will be split between editor and authors, as outlined in the contract, with contributors receiving equal percentages with one another. All contributors will receive digital copies of the finished product. The stories must be of a length of 1,000 words or less. Submissions must be in standard manuscript format, per Shunn guidelines. Stories must have time or time travel as a chief element in the story. Submissions must be sent to [email protected] and must include the completed, edited manuscript, and in the body of the email should include a short bio of the author as well as the place of previous publication for the work. I intend to read...