Events

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: 50/50 split of profits Submissions open September 1 and close September 30, 2019. ​ Imagine your local movie rental store back in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Rewind or Die is a series of books I’d like produce with each title being between 25,000 and 50,000 words in length. The contracts will be similar to other Unnerving titles: 50/50 split of profits (from the first book sold, nothing held back in production), original stories (reprints okay in the case of short-printed stories), unlimited discounted copies, and five-year terms. ​ Submit to: [email protected] only! What I hope to read: Slashers Gaudy displays Stupid jocks Sullen nerds Outrageous reveals Huge wounds Creative kills Big monsters Toxic waste-related oddities Raunchy jokes Satanic Panic Alien invasions Swamp monsters B-sensibilities Evil governments Mind-controlling experiments Think Friday the 13th, The Brain, The Lost Boys, Creepshow, Prom Night, Sleepaway Camp, The Leprechaun, Critters, Graveyard Shift, Prophecy, Night of the Demons, Evil Dead, Pumpkinhead, C.H.U.D., The Stuff, Brain Damage, Society, Night of the Lepus, Squirm, The Night Flier, Curtains, Urban Legend, Tourist Trap, The Sentinel, Chopping Mall, The Howling… ​ Note: stories don't have to relate at all to videos or video stores and can be set in any time. ​ ​ Preferred Query Letter Style Submit to: [email protected] Subject line: Title/Name/Word Count Example: Carrie/Stephen King/67,000 Words Email: <Salutation> Brief synopsis of pertinent information of story submitted. Example: Carrie White is a chubby loser with no friends, a religious-obsessive and abusive mother, and the gift of telekinesis—skills which she hones in quiet loneliness. A cool couple feels guilty for a prior transgression and attempt to integrate Carrie into high school society,...

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: $0.06 cents (CAD) per word for short fiction (1000+ words), and a flat fee of $60.00 per flash fiction piece (Under 1000 words). $40.00 CAD per poem WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? (Although we always love surprises) We’re looking for dream-touched realism, slipstream, fabulism, magical realism (note: educate yourself before you claim this term) and, for lack of a better descriptor, “literary” speculative fiction. Our perfect submission defies categorization—pieces that could be “too speculative” for CanLit magazines or “not speculative enough” for speculative magazines. That said, we’re no strangers to rich realism, high fantasy, and science fiction, so if you think you match our tone, give us a try. We recommend checking out our preview issue, free online, or grabbing an issue, to see what we’ve published before. Please don’t send us: gross-out or gratuitously violent pieces, horror that uses neurodivergence or mental health as the horror element, comedy that punches down, stories that are “speculative” because a non-marginalized group suddenly experiences what it’s like to be a marginalized group (e.g. a man “has to live with sexism”, a white woman is suddenly “treated like a woman of colour”), anything that minimizes sexual trauma/any trauma as a plot device (eg. A woman is assaulted in order to motivate a man, without dealing with her story or experience), casual or blatant misogyny/bigotry/racism/etc., or otherwise insensitive pieces. We accept multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions. Our goal is to respond to all submissions within eight weeks. If you submit and do not receive a verification email, please resubmit and send us an email letting us know what happened. Our submissions system should send you a verification email within 24 hours. All text submissions must be formatted in standard manuscript format and submitted in .doc format. We strongly prefer pieces be set in...

Deadline: September 30th, 2019. Payment: 1 cent per word (1 dollar total.) The contest ends September 30, 2019. The Great Lake Drabble Contest #15 The Contest Theme: Treasure Hunt We are looking for non-traditional treasures, a search that finds something unanticipated, of value. For example, in “Skylark of Space,” the civilization values salt above gold, and the people are not above melting down humans to recover the salt in their bodies. The Contest Theme “Treasure Hunt” Publishing Details Drabble Contests are edited by  Terrie Leigh Relf The contest ends September 30, 2019. Its format is perfect-bound trade paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, color cover and b&w interior. How to Submit Submit your work to [email protected] In the subject line of the e-mail, put Drabble Submission plus your last name and the title of the work submitted. SUBMISSION EXAMPLE “Drabble Submission: Asimov Nightfall – Contest #15” Please make sure to put the Drabble Contest number in the subject line to make it easier to sort submissions. Submit your drabble in the email body, please, and NOT as an attachment. Next, make sure your contact information is in the email along with the approximate word count. CONTACT INFORMATION EXAMPLE Edgar Montrose 1101 Kaboom Street Mushroom, NY 12117 [email protected] paypal : [email protected] If your submission does not include your contact information, Alban Lake Publishing reserves the right to delete your submission unread and without notifying you. Pay for drabbles is 1 cent a word, which means one dollar per drabble. The first and second place winners will each receive one of our publications. Winners will be announced in the View from the Lake once the contest is ended and the submissions are all read. We will publish the 20-25 best submissions. Each contributor will receive payment and a contributor’s copy, with the option to buy additional copies...

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Prize: 0.04 USD per word via Paypal SEPTEMBER 2019 SUBMISSIONS THEME : Horror. Theme is 12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS (choose one day) This theme will be open for submissions from 1st September 2019 and will close midnight 30th September 2019 (last place on Earth).  Submissions received outside of this timeframe will not be read. You must include the theme in your email subject (as shown above). Reading will start once the submission period has closed. The BEST 12 drabbles will be chosen for publication in DECEMBER 2019. Word count : EXACTLY 100 words, excluding title Author eligibility : Open only to authors who have already been successfully accepted into one of our anthologies Reprints : Not allowed Simultaneous Submissions : Not allowed Multiple Submissions : One per author, per month << IF YOU SEND MORE THAN ONE, WE WILL REJECT THEM ALL, UNREAD Publication : Online in Dark Moments.  May be included in a single anthology in print and digital formats at a later date (but within one year of initial publication) Author compensation : 0.04 USD per word via Paypal How to submit : See our submission guidelines for formatting. Send your story as either a Word format attachment to [email protected]. Your document name must include your pen name and story title. Your email title should be “ – – ” Please include a 50 word bio and ONE link Via: Black Hare Press

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: 2 Contributor's copies We are open till September 30 for submissions to the latest in our series of short story anthologies, featuring the best new writing from around the world. You can find examples of what we like in our back issues and also in our Story of the Month features, as well as in the periodicals listed under Links. We're generally looking for literary fiction not genre stories. The only payment we can offer at this time is two copies of the book when it is published.  Full details are set out in the submission form area below. "Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 11" will be published simultaneously in the US and UK in early 2020 and will be available from the main online booksellers by print on demand. We can also do print runs on favourable terms when bulk orders are requested. See our New Short Stories blog and The Willesden Herald for updates and features that may be of interest. What You Need to Know We're seeking literary fiction. Please see our back issues for examples of what we like. Click Anthologies Language: English. Previously unpublished. Entirely your own original work. Word range: 1500 to 7000. Only one submission at a time please. Please do not include quotes for which copyright permission would have to be obtained, e.g. song lyrics or other excerpts, including epigraphs, unless the quoted text is in the public domain. Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced is good but it's not the be all and end all. Document formats accepted: .doc, .docx, or .RTF. Unfortunately we cannot accept PDF format. If you don't know what any of that means, don't worry. It's the file you upload, and it should be fine. Consideration: Two copies of the book will be awarded to the writer of each short...

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: web issues will receive $50 (paid via PayPal). Print issue contributor payment is $5 per printed page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and 1 year subscription. Note: While they do have pay to submit options, there are free-to-submit options through the end of the month at the bottom of the listing. Split Lip Magazine* is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. We publish online monthly and in print annually. We accept fiction (flash and short stories), memoir, and poetry. Please read our guidelines and submit accordingly. We appreciate you taking time to check us out and look forward to reading your work. WE ARE NOW A PAYING MARKET! As of May 2018, contributors to web issues will receive $50 (paid via PayPal). Print issue contributor payment is $5 per printed page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and 1 year subscription. *Split Lip Magazine is an independently-run offshoot of Split Lip Press, If you have a question about Split Lip Press, please visit their website for contact information. Other important details:  We're open for FREE submissions during the months of December, February, April, June, August, and October. We are open for TIP JAR submissions only during the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November. We offer an EXPEDITED submission option, which puts your submission to the top of our reading pile. You can expect a response within two weeks (usually sooner). It does not guarantee acceptance. Occasionally we may shut FREE subs early due to an overwhelming response (e.g., our free sub cap with Submittable maxes out). If the fees are a burden, please get in touch, and we'll see what we can do. Please submit in one genre only (choose your best and let us do the rest) at a time. Should you receive a rejection, please wait one month before submitting...

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: Royalties At Not a Pipe Publishing, we believe we must fight fascism with our voices while we still can. We can’t wait around to speak out against the horrors of the Trump administration after more lives have been lost. We need to be screaming right now! After some brainstorming with writer Isaac Dye and our publisher, author Benjamin Gorman, and reflecting on the success of our anthology of stories by women writers, Strongly Worded Women, and our success raising money for The Alzheimer’s Association through our project as part of their The Longest Day fundraiser, we’ve decided to curate a collection of short stories around the theme of resistance to the disastrous and corrupt presidency of Donald Trump. As writers know, a novel can often take years, even decades, to craft and polish. While a short story is no less a product of careful skill and craft, we hope this anthology can be amalgamated on a much shorter timeframe and give writers an opportunity to use their gifts to speak truth to power through fiction (not “alternative facts” or “fake news” but the deeper truth that only fiction can provide). If you are a fiction writer, we would love to include your story. Genre fiction is our brand, so if you want to try your hand at dystopian sci-fi and imagine a world where the horrors of a Trump presidency are allowed to metastasise, go for it! If you write fantasy and want to write an allegory for Trump in a world of monsters and magic, cast that spell. If you write paranormal and want to populate Trump’s America with ghosts and vampires and werewolves, we’d love it. For this anthology, we’ll accept stories that are more explicitly horror than we normally look for because,...

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy WILD WEST PRESS IS OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS FOR AN ANTHOLOGY CALLED THE DARK FRONTIER. The Dark Frontier is a grim wasteland dangling on the edge of an apocalypse. Teetering on the precipice of civilization breakdown, the inhabitants of this bleak wilderness must do whatever is necessary to survive the sinister forces surrounding them. We are looking for short stories to fit this narrative. The tales are to be western with horror, sci-fi, and/or fantasy incorporated into them. Black magic, demonic entities, and technology gone wrong are the kind of elements we are seeking. However, they are not limited to these conflicts. Whatever wicked forces you can devise to devastate the world is welcome. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 1) Email submissions to [email protected] 2) In the subject line, write THE DARK FRONTIER, the title of your story, and your name. 3) Minimum word count: 2000; maximum: 10,000 4) Attach story in word or docx files only. Anything else will be ignored. 5) DO NOT paste the story in the body of the email. It will not be read. 6) Simultaneous submissions are okay, just please tell us if your story is accepted elsewhere. 7) Previously published stories are acceptable as long as you own the publishing rights. 8) Multiple submissions are okay. 9) Deadline is October 1st. 10) If accepted, you will receive $25 and a paperback contributor’s copy. We will not be responding until after the deadline has passed. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. We look forward to reading your submissions. Via: Wild West Press's Facebook.

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Prizes: First prize is $3000, 2nd prize is $2000, and 3rd prize is $1000 Writers are invited to create and submit a short story consisting of 50 paragraphs. The contest provides the 1st and 20th paragraphs, and the short story writer crafts the rest. First prize is $3000, 2nd prize is $2000, and 3rd prize is $1000 with the winning short stories published in a short story anthology, as well as an invitation to give a public reading at Inkberry Books in Niwot, CO. The twenty-four (24) Finalists will also have their short stories included in this anthology. ABOUT THE CONTEST  Owl Canyon Press provides paragraphs #1 and  #20, and the writer creates the other 48 paragraphs (i.e., paragraphs 2-19 and 21-50) to complete the story. CONTEST DETAILS There’s no cost to enter Anyone can submit, including outside the USA, but the stories must be in English 50 Paragraphs total – including the 1st and 20th provided in the submission form No maximum word count, but each paragraph needs to be at least 40 words – this isn’t flash fiction so feel free to use as many words as you need to tell the story Dialog is fine as long as it’s in a paragraph of at least 40 words Authors retain all rights to their short stories Winning authors agree to permit Owl Canyon Press to publish their stories in an Anthology Winners receive up to $3000 in cash awards, publication in a short story anthology, and an invitation to give a public reading at Inkberry Books in Niwot, CO Winners will be notified in December 2019 Failure to comply with any contest guidelines may result in disqualification For additional information check the Owl Canyon Press Hackathon FAQ  Via: Owl Canyon Press's Submittable.

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: 1 cent per word The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we're interested in stories by writers who write about what they don't know, take us places we couldn't possibly go, and don't try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, "What is irrealism?") pages on this web site. We accept unsolicited fiction up to 2,000 words in length. Translations are welcome. There is no minimum length. We accept only electronic submissions via e-mail at [email protected]. We cannot, due to the various computer viruses and worms, accept attachments anymore, so please paste your story into the body of the e-mail. Also include your name, address, e-mail address, and a short bio in the text of the submission; please put the word "submission" in the subject heading of the e-mail to ensure that your submission doesn't get lost among all the spam. We pay an honorarium of one cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) to buy first-time internet rights (the story will then be archived). Payment is made upon publication. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DON'T ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and are only interested in reprints in unusual cases (e.g., the story has appeared in print but not on the internet). Therefore, if the story or translation has been published before,...