Events

Deadline: November 1, 2015 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction Winter: George pressed the call button and said, "Mrs. Whitfield, you have a visitor." We love the fact that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually two to three weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories must be written with the first line provided. The line cannot be altered in any way, unless otherwise noted by the editors. The story should be between 300 and 5,000 words (this is more like a guideline and not a hard-and-fast rule; going over or under the word count won't get your story tossed from the slush pile). The sentences can be found on the home page of The First...

Deadline: November 1st 2015 Payment: .25 cents per hundred words The term Cheapjack originated as the name for a traveling peddler or tinker. The insinuation was that he was carrying inferior goods. This was moot because he served a poor clientele and did them the service of bringing the goods to them. It was all that some of them had sometimes. In the spirit of the penny dreadful, the pulp magazines of the industrial age, and the traveling tinkers of old....We proudly present to you CHEAPJACK PULP. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE MARCH 2015 ISSUE ARE OPEN FOR ALL DEPARTMENTS PLEASE EMAIL SENIOR EDITOR USING BUTTON ON SUBMISSION PAGE AND INCLUDE THE DEPARTMENT YOU WOULD LIKE CONSIDERATION FOR IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE ALL SUBMISSIONS AS AN ATTACHMENT (.doc or .rtf) For all art work please send queries. Submission Schedule: March issue submission deadline: February 1st (2015 only deadline extended to 2/15/15) June issue submission deadline: May 1st September issue submission deadline: August 1st December issue submission deadline: November 1st CheapJack Pulp is a quarterly pulp webzine which is archived in ebook format. We are free each month to the public. Our back issues are free immediately following archival of the current issue through Kindle Direct Publishing as an e-book. Stories and artwork relating to the pulp themes can be submitted to senior editor in the format the department editor specifies on submission page as they wish to receive it for review.The individual editors will list their contact info as they see fit for individual submission. Stories or articles should be no more than 8000 words long. Longer submissions are accepted by invitation and query only. CHEAPJACK PULP is currently a profit-making webzine (not much mind you!), we will be offering payment, we pay at a rate of .25 cents per...

Deadline: November 1st, 2015 Payment: 25 cents per hundred words Note: Yes, this is an EXTREMELY low paying market for one that doesn't take reprints. The term Cheapjack originated as the name for a traveling peddler or tinker. The insinuation was that he was carrying inferior goods. This was moot because he served a poor clientele and did them the service of bringing the goods to them. It was all that some of them had sometimes. In the spirit of the penny dreadful, the pulp magazines of the industrial age, and the traveling tinkers of old....We proudly present to you CHEAPJACK PULP. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE MARCH 2015 ISSUE ARE OPEN FOR ALL DEPARTMENTS PLEASE EMAIL SENIOR EDITOR USING BUTTON ON SUBMISSION PAGE AND INCLUDE THE DEPARTMENT YOU WOULD LIKE CONSIDERATION FOR IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE ALL SUBMISSIONS AS AN ATTACHMENT (.doc or .rtf) For all art work please send queries. Submission Schedule: March issue submission deadline: February 1st  (2015 only deadline extended to 2/15/15) June issue submission deadline: May 1st September issue submission deadline: August 1st December issue submission deadline: November 1st CheapJack Pulp is a quarterly pulp webzine which is archived in ebook format. We are free each month to the public. Our back issues are free immediately following archival of the current issue through Kindle Direct Publishing as an e-book.  Stories and artwork relating to the pulp themes can be submitted to senior editor in the format the department editor specifies on submission page as they wish to receive it for review.The individual editors will list their contact info as they see fit for individual submission. Stories or articles should be no more than 8000 words long. Longer submissions are accepted by invitation and query only.   CHEAPJACK PULP is currently a profit-making webzine (not much...

Deadline: November 2nd, 2015 Payment: 5 cents/word (CAD) and a contributor's copy Note: Canadians Only! Edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay The Exile Book of Anthology Series Number Twelve The stories surrounding monsters, creatures, and myths play an integral role in the formation of a cultural and individual identity. For our forthcoming anthology, Those Who Make Us, we will gather together a unique body of speculative fiction with a focus on creatures, myths, and monsters set in a real or imagined Canada that highlight these diverse identities. We welcome stories about classic Canadian monsters, but Those Who Make Us will also explore how monsters from other cultures affect and are affected by Canadian landscapes. The cultural stories that shape our understandings of ourselves and our place in Canada are dynamic and Those Who Make Us will reflect the complexities of these interactions. The stories submitted to Those Who Make Us may have their foundation in traditional forms of fairy tales, folktales, mythology, legends, and fables – but we will look for contemporary storytelling that goes beyond their foundations so that they represent personal or group identities, social commentary, evolving cultural norms, and history/future history. Those Who Make Us will challenge the idea of the Canadian identity. What Are Canadian Monsters, Creatures, and Myths? Some classic examples are Ogopogo, Wendigos, shapeshifters, selkies, etc. These can be taken from urban myth, rural folktales, tribal/ancestral stories, cultural tradition, and heritage or completely original creations. We do not want direct retellings of traditional stories, but rather speculative storytelling (personal, imagined, historical in reference, myth-based to one’s culture, contemporary) that embody a distinct Canadian past/present/contemporary/future psyche and place. Make them your own. Or even make up your own. There is a great deal to engage with in today’s world, as well. We are loosely defining...

Deadline: November 15th, 2015 Payment: 50% of the net profit will be paid through sales of the stand-alone ebook-exclusive novella; 4% of the net profit will be paid though sales of the omnibus anthology in both print and digital editions. The Master Detective may have passed away, once, when he fell over the falls. The Master Detective may have passed away, twice, seemingly forever when his creator’s pen fell silent. But the Master Detective is an old familiar, all too willing to rematerialize at the merest provocation. We ask you to summon up Sherlock Holmes once more. We ask you to take the canonical Holmes, just as Doyle left him, and work him into your style and into your fictional universe. We ask you to create the finest mysteries and adventures. The Science of Detection is a twelve-part novella series; one will be released each month in 2016, climaxing with a Christmas 2016 release of The Science of Detection: Twelve Cases of Sherlock Holmes, an anthology containing all twelve of the stand-alone novellas as well as bonus features. We eagerly await your stories… What we want: We want the author’s voice and narrative style to shine through. Unless you choose to write in a flawless imitation of Doyle’s style, you are encouraged to write in your own words. If you have a series character you feel would be appropriate for a team-up or shared-universe story, you are all the more encouraged to utilize them. We want your story to be focused (think of your novella as a long short story rather than a short novel), and we want every word to count. We want the Master Detective to matter. He can’t be an unimportant side-subject; he must directly pertain to the story at hand. (However, it is entirely possible to...

Deadline: November 15, 2015 Payment: $10 and contributor's copy Anthologist: Rhonda Parrish Fourth title in Rhonda Parrish's Magical Menageries anthology series from World Weaver Press featuring Fae, Corvidae, and Scarecrow. Greek mythology describes the Sirens as being charismatic monsters; part bird, part woman, with enchanting voices whose songs either lure men to, or foretell, their deaths. In Roman mythology they play a similar role but shift their domain to the sea and take the form of mermaid-like creatures. Mythological Sirens such as these come with a capital ess; there are only a small number of them, they have names, Godly parents and occupations. Those Sirens are welcome within the pages of this anthology, but so are their lower-case sisters. In Sirens, we will honor and share stories of historical Sirens, but we’ve equal room for modern re-imaginings and will be giving matching space to both avian and aquatic varieties. Whether from the sea or sky, sirens are beautiful, dangerous and musical, and we’re open to works that exemplify as well as those which defy those expectations.Sirens will be a book full of tales that evoke a vast spectrum of emotions toward these maidens, empathy, disdain, sorrow, awe and anger. I want stories of wretched and cursed sirens who fight against the roles imposed upon them and tales of those who revel in them. I’m hoping for pieces re-telling or playing upon the traditional myths and others which create their own mythologies, and all the little niches in between. We are looking for speculative stories up to 7,500 words long. Rights and compensation: Payment: $10 and a paperback copy of the anthology from World Weaver Press. We are looking for previously unpublished works in English. Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after...

Deadline: November 16th, 2015 Payment: 6 cents per word and 3 Apex books For the past few years we’ve asked you to stretch your massive writing muscles by creating some the tiniest stories for our annual flash fiction contest. The response has always been outstanding, and it is almost time for you amazing writers to do it again! Get out of the way! Run for cover! Because it is time for Apex’s Christmas Invasion! That’s right. This year our flash fiction contest is all about Christmas invasions. Whether your invaders are robots, aliens, or sentient Christmas ornaments is completely up to you, but if you want to win, you must write us a story no longer than 250 words that deals with an invasion and Christmas. From all of the submissions, we will select three winners. The winning stories will be featured in the December issue of Apex Magazine, and the authors will be paid 6 cents per word. In addition to being published in Apex Magazine, they will also win 3 Apex books of their choice. Want something more? Everyone who enters will receive a free issue of Apex Magazine! All you need to do is let us know which issue you would like to receive and we will send you a download link. The nitty, gritty: Submissions open on 12:01am EST, October 15th and close at 11:59pm EST, November 16th. Stories must be 250 words or less. If a story is longer than that, it will be deleted unread. You may submit up to 3 times, but please submit each entry in a separate email. Submissions should include a brief cover letter, including which issue of Apex Magazine you’d like to receive, as well as the story. Stories should be in the body of the email. Do NOT...

Deadline: November 21, 2015 Payment: Contributors copy and royalties to be paid quarterly: 50% of the proceeds divided evenly between all authors FTB Press proudly presents our second call for submissions. We are asking new, emerging and established writers to create something from nothing and the FILL THE BLANK page with wonderful words. We hope you can take a simple idea and turn it into a captivating and engaging story for the reader. The simple idea we are offering is ODD- ISMs. The question is... what exactly is an ODD-ISM? –ISM can be an action noun, a way of thinking, belief or ideology. Maybe your character has seen every Bill Murray movie and has adopted a way of life called Murrayism, this is the type of oddness we are looking for. What we are not looking for is Feudalism, Institutionalism or Barbarism. What might work is Fantasticism, Idiotism or Barbarellaism. Take any random word and add –ism to the end, it might work. The stranger, the more outlandish the -ISM, the better. A panel of editors using a specific set of criteria will read all stories selected for publication. What we are looking for in submissions: 1. 4000 words or less. 2. MS Word file submitted with author’s last name, title, and word count at the top of the page (not a header). 3. We are not picky with font style as long as it is easy to read. 4. Please do not double space. 5. Please title submitted files as lastname.titleofstory.oddism 6. Author’s full name and mailing address in the email with a brief 50-word bio. 7. Multiple submissions are ok, although we will only publish one per author and they must be submitted separately. 8. Simultaneous submissions are ok. We only ask you inform us if your story...

Deadline: November 25th Payment: $3 Simply put this is a creative writing site that puts the adage, "a picture paints a thousand words" to the test. The premise is that, each month, an image will be given as a visual prompt and you will have up to one thousand words to tell the story that you are inspired to write ... using your imagination as the canvas and language as your brush. We are open to submissions of artwork to inspire stories and stories inspired by the artwork - how very Ouroboros of us! Please make sure to read ALL the instructions on this page (especially the sections on 'Copyright' and 'Compensation' before submitting a piece of writing or artwork. We take a submission to With Painted Words as your permission for us to publish your work and do not send out other formal contracts. Thank you. Piece of Writing We accept works of fiction - and poetry - of up to one thousand (1000) words, at most, in length. This is the maximum amount - if you can tell a compelling story in as little as fifty words, for example, then you are more than welcome to do so. All submissions must be inspired by the current section Key to fiction types: Flash Fiction 501-1000 words Micro Fiction up to 501 words Poetry   Please make sure to include your full name/s, e-mail address, and bio (including a link to your personal site/blog) with your submission and, if you so choose, the thought process behind your story. Please send your submissions by the deadline stated in the current section .  Pieces received after the deadline cannot be considered for publication. 'With Painted Words' reserve the right to reject any submission without explanation. Deadline:- This will usually be the 25th...

Deadline: November 30th 2015 Payment: 1 cent per word PROMPTS: We want to see the prompt inspire your writing. To bleed through every letter. If our quarterly is about Apollo, give us stories about the galaxies, about the sun, about archery. Give us stories that breathe Apollo. If the prompt is Artemis, give us forests, give us beasts, give us epic hunts. This does not mean we want stories ABOUT Apollo, or Artemis. VERY IMPORTANT: Please include a note as to how your story is inspired or relates to the theme/prompt you are submitting to. If you do not do this, we cannot guarantee your story will be read. A single sentence is sufficient. This is not necessary for our annual, genre specific anthologies (Gaia and Typhon). Below are our OPEN prompts:   HESTIA (# 9) – Publication Date: WINTER 2016 Greek goddess of the hearth and home, eldest daughter of the titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister of Zeus. She is a sworn virgin, known for her kindness.The opposite of Aphrodite. Symbolized by the hearth, she is the first to receive any sacrifice to the gods, and oversees the burning of sacrifices on Olympus. Send us your household stories–your domestic noir, haunted houses, tales of forgotten homes, distant homes, missing homes. Tell us your hearth-side fairy tales and old legends. Contemporary stories of the sacrifices we make in our homes every day. “Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song.” Submissions open May 1st 2015 and close November 30st 2015. NOTE: Please read the entire page before emailing questions. Make sure your submissions are up to the...