Events

Submission Window: March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Literary cannibalism stories We are looking for literary cannibalism stories to fill out our charity anthology, which is raising money for Philabundance. Philabundance distributes food throughout nine counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Learn more about their work here. Submission window March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Wordcount 500 – 5,000 words Preferred word count is in the 2-4k range, but we’ll be considering longer stories and flash fiction if you can sell us on the piece. Payment As this is a charity anthology, we are looking for writers willing to donate their words to support a good cause. Payment will be our eternal gratitude and a contributors copy (softcover and ebook). The Cause Tasteful is being created in the hopes of raising funds and awareness for local food shelters. While we’ll be running promotions to support various local food banks, the profits we make from sales will all be donated to Philabundance. You can read more about their good work here. What we’re seeking Curators Cassandra Daucus, Iseult Murphy, and Cat Voleur are looking for literary tales of cannibalism. We seek stories that have a focus on beautiful prose, unsettling metaphors, and transcendent themes. If you can make us question our morals or keep us up at night craving flesh, we’re interested in your work. Finally, we want stories that “punch up”, not ones that “punch down.” While we appreciate both gore and sex, we are not interested in extremes for the sake of shock value. Please don’t send We will reject any offensive materials such as those containing racism, sexism, or...

Submission Window: February 1st, 2024 - March 31st, 2024 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Stories that explore "Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea" We are seeking stories for an anthology to be titled Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea. We are looking for stories with long titles (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words), concise narratives (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words) and copious footnotes, endnotes, marginalia, indices and glossaries (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words). Authors are welcome to shift word counts between these three parts of their submission, but they must stay within a range of 1500 words for the total submission (ex. a 500 word title, a 600 word narrative, and 400 words of footnotes.). Stories are welcome to be submitted in any genre. If you have questions we encourage you to email us or DM us on Twitter or Mastodon. Authors may explore any genre with their stories (yes poetry too!) and we encourage a wide variety of ideas and interpretations. Submission Dates Submissions open: February 1st, 2024 Submissions close: March 31st, 2024 Reading/Review begins: April 1, 2024 Reading/Review ends: May 31st, 2024 All authors will be contacted by: June 15, 2024 Download the complete OC submission PDF here. General Submission Information We like to seek out new authors and book ideas ourselves rather than be contacted directly because we are a small, self-funded press, and only publish 4-5 books a year. We usually offer open call submissions on anthologies we decide to do, or we contact authors directly if we have particular needs. We pay $0.08/word for the stories we publish. Most of our books are limited editions of between 100 and 200 copies and we prefer to print physical books over creating ebooks. The Air and Nothingness Press is interested...

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: Original stories: $25.00, Reprinted stories: $7.00, Original poems: $5.00, Cover illustration: $25.00, Original illustrations: $6.00 per illustration. Theme: Tales from the graveyard. Horror fiction written in the third person stands the best chance for acceptance. Potter’s Field 8 An anthology of tales from unmarked graves ​ Writers and Artists Guidelines Open to submission as of 1 January 2024 until 31 March 2024. Hiraeth Publishing is looking for stories and illustrations for Potter’s Field 8, a print anthology of tales from the graveyard. This volume will be the eighth in the Potter’s Field series. This anthology is scheduled to be published in trade paperback format with a color cover, and black and white interior illustrations. Potter’s Field 8 is edited by Christina Sng. Please note that horror fiction written in the third person stands the best chance for acceptance. “They” say that there are no new plots or stories anywhere. “They” may be right, but you are the only you there is, so send us a story as only you can tell it, one that’s atmospheric and highly entertaining, has fascinating characters, one that takes place in a unique location or time period. A potter’s field is the burial place for the indigent and the unidentified. Just about every city has one. Obviously, we’re looking for works that are themed to graveyards in some way. However, it does not have to be a conventional graveyard. Let me give you one example: back during the days of the Black Death, bodies were crammed–yes, literally crammed–into mass graves underneath churches. Even today, in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, you can take a walking tour deep under the church and see walls of skeletons and dirt. Such a place would also qualify as a graveyard for the indigent. We do not want gore, blood,...

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $150 and a contributors copy Theme: Stories featuring Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Psychic Doctor’ Silence: An Anthology of new stories featuring Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Psychic Doctor’ Edited by Dave Brzeski PLEASE NOTE: For this project, it is essential that you read or have already read all six of Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence stories from 1908. Five of these were published in John Silence, Physician Extraordinary, and are available to read or download free through Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222. A sixth story from 1914, ‘A Victim of Higher Space’, is included in the Algernon Blackwood collection, Day and Night Stories, which is also available to read or download free through Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45964. All of them can be found in Dover’s The Complete John Silence, edited by S.T. Joshi (this is the recommended option) and in various other collections — do try to avoid the assorted sub-standard POD, or Kindle versions that can be be found on Amazon, as they tend to be somewhat typo-ridden THE CHARACTER Dr John Silence did not consider himself, or describe himself as, an occult detective. He was a ‘psychic doctor’, seeking to alleviate distress, and to free people from unusual and traumatic situations. He operated as an independent consultant, charging no fees, and was helped by various assistants at different times, usually someone who had at least a basic sensitivity to psychic phenomena. Two of these men are mentioned in the original stories, the earliest one — Hubbard — being a sort of ‘Watson’ to his ‘Holmes’. His outlook and his abilities are frequently described by Blackwood, sometimes with specific mentions of his own extensive psychic training (without details), his unusual awareness and abilities, and his view on ‘Higher Planes’, the nature of Good and Evil, and the condition of human soul. Unlike Holmes,...

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: ($10) for the first 1,000 words, then a half (1/5) cent per word up to 6,000 words, plus a contributor’s copy. Theme: Short stories and flash fiction with a focus on horror in the American southwest Denver Horror Collective is seeking short stories and flash fiction for its new anthology with a focus on horror in the American southwest, Frontiers of Fright: A Southwestern Horror Anthology. Whether people found themselves in ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, or mines, the American Southwest was a harsh wilderness—a desolate and isolating landscape of deserts and mountains. We want these same people and places with a horror heartbeat, spotlighting the creepy, chilling, and unnerving aspects of when the west was young. For this anthology, we are considering the southwest as places such as Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, western Texas, southern Nevada, California, and northern Mexico. Authors will be paid ten dollars ($10) for the first 1,000 words, then a half (1/5) cent per word up to 6,000 words, plus a contributor’s copy. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. Submission guidelines Min 1,000 words | Max 6,000 words Deadline to submit is March 31, 2024 Submit to [email protected] Submit stories as a Word Doc – .doc or .docx or .rtf Partial blind submission: Please do not put any identifying information (name, pseudonym, address, email, etc.) on the actual document. This information is okay in the email and subject line. Subject line should be written as: – Submit in Modern Manuscript Format – see here for format details. We accept simultaneous submissions, just let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere. Please, no reprints. Via: Denver Horror Collective.

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $20 or Royalties Theme: An form of horror Behind the Shadows II– This is horror. Humor and mystery beats are welcome. Express yourself as the theme moves you. There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Speculative Fiction, including Sci-Fi or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024 Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no simultaneous submissions, no reprints; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 7,000 words Submission Guidelines: Anonymous submission with no author name in document; 12 pt Times or Arial; .Doc or .Docx; double-space; first line indent; no tabs used. Genres: Horror Anticipated Pay: Option: Royalty share of D2D sales, or $20.00 If D2D royalty share selected, then each story will receive a share, as will the editor and publisher, from the sales on the D2D platform. This does not include: Kickstarter funds unless detailed in the Stretch goals; wholesale to authors; or non-D2D retail outlets. Links will be available to direct your customers to D2D outlets. Timeline Projections: Submissions close: 3/31/24 Review: April 2024 Acceptance / Rejection: April/May 2024 Edits: June 2024 Production: June 2024 Kickstarter: July 2024 Published: August/September 2024 Upon acceptance, the author is expected to work with the editor on at least one round of revisions in MSWord. Our publication goal will be the summer of 2024; however, the extensive time needed to review and edit submissions may vary depending upon the submitted works and author’s response times. Inkd Publishing LLC will hold first publication rights for four months after publication and the continuing non-exclusive...

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: Fiction: $25.00 for original stories, $7.00 for reprints, $6.00 for each poem, $20.00 for original articles, $6.00 for reprints. $7.00 for reviews and interviews. Theme: Paranormal - this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores. Submissions are accepted Feb 1 – Mar 31, Jun 1 – Jul 31, Oct 1 – Nov 30. Anything submitted outside those periods will be deleted unread. We no longer accept simultaneous or multiple submissions. ​ No matter how far we move forward as humans, we are still bound by the instincts and ancestral memories of our animalistic past. None of these are so strong as the fight or flight response. However, there are times when we seem to be perfectly safe, completely at ease and comfortable, when that urge to run from something sneaks up on us. What causes these sensations? Is there something lurking in the darkness? Why is that man giving you the creeps, he’s not even looking at you? And yet, there is something odd. Something instinctual, something you know without fully understanding. We may have moved on, we may have forgotten and left behind those old stories and legends of beasts, voracious monsters, and dark spirits... But they have not forgotten or left us... What We Want The subject matter of parABnormal Magazine is, yes, the paranormal. For us, this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores. PLEASE NOTE: CREATURES LIKE VAMPIRES, GHOULS, WEREWOLVES, AND ZOMBIES ARE NOT PARANORMAL. Shapeshifters, for the purpose of this magazine, refer to the spiritual shift, not the physical. Think Native American shaman. Paranormal activity centers around the human, not the creature. We do not want stories that involve excessive...

Submission Window: March 1st–31st, 2024 Payment: 1¢ per word for accepted stories (with a minimum of $20 regardless of length). Theme: Speculative fiction that explores connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world. Reading periods/When to send Submissions will be open as follows: March 1st–31st (closing at 10pm PST on the 31st), for a June release September 1st–30th (closing at 10pm PST on the 30th), for a December release What to send Hearth Stories publishes speculative fiction slice-of-life stories with a focus on connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world. We accept works from 1,000 words up to 10,000. However, the ideal length may be something in the 1,500-3,500 word range. We do not currently accept poetry, non-fiction, or non-speculative work (there needs to be a fantasy or science fiction element present in the work). Some things we like: Cozy, sweet, cute, kind, hopeful stories Caregiving, parenting, friendship, relationship, and partnership stories Rural/pastoral life and less technologically advanced settings Works that take place in nature Stories involving food and cooking (we are vegan; stories that feature animal products will result in a pass or a request for removal of the animal products) Stories involving hermits, issolated places, or wandering in the woods Bonus points for stories backed by vegan, anarchist, eco-conscious, and anti-capitalist themes (while still fitting the above) You may notice that none of those things have anything to do with science fiction or fantasy. We would like speculative stories with the above themes and settings. We are very into slice of life stories, the ruralism of Richard Jefferies (ruralism in general, extending to so-called “cottagecore”), and stories in general that take place in wooded places. We like witches and magic, new world stories (usually terraformed planets), alien worlds, and the small adventures of daily life. We accept simultaneous submissions (but we do not accept multiple...

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 3,000 words, AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words, AU$15.00 between 8,000 and 11,000 words, AU$20.00 for extended pieces between 11,000 and 20,000 words Theme: All forms of speculative fiction. Yabblins is our theme and genre-free collection. This is where you can submit works of any kind, including extended pieces with lengths up to 20,000 words. Consider those pieces that you have sitting on a hard drive somewhere, the ones that have been previously hard to place... Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: Yabblins - Story Title. Word count: 1,000 - 20,000 words Deadline: March 31 2024 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 3,000 words AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words AU$15.00 between 8,000 and 11,000 words AU$20.00 for extended pieces between 11,000 and 20,000 words Submission Guidelines: Please no extreme erotica or stories that feature excessive violence or vulgarity (unless otherwise specified). We are all dog lovers here, so violence against animals is the quickest way to get your story rejected. All stories should be formatted appropriately. Please see here for more details. Ensure that your name, address, and email contact and word count are at the top of your manuscript. Double check your spelling and grammar before sending your work. Please submit all stories in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats. International submissions are accepted. No simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are encouraged. Where possible, we will provide feedback on request. No reprints. Please send all submissions to [email protected] Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.

Submission Window: March 1st - 31st, 2024 Payment: 8 cent per word for fiction, $20 for poetry, 8 cent per word for non-fiction, $125 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction Note: This call is for authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups It's our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone. Guidelines for Fiction We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we have historically accepted a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. We pay 8¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We have also accepted a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx. We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished....