Events

Submission Window: May 1st-15th, 2022 Payment: 1 winner each month will win $10 Canadian Theme: A story at exactly 50-words If you’d like to have a 50-word story that you wrote featured on FiftyWordStories.com, first make sure that you understand exactly what a 50-word story is, and then read the submission requirements below closely. Submissions System Each month, submissions will be open between days 1 and 15 of that month. Any stories received on days 16 to 31 of a month will be deleted, but can be resubmitted the following month. You may only submit one story per month. From the stories received in those 15 days, the best stories will be selected to be published that same month. Only enough stories will be selected to publish two stories per weekday. There is no payment associated with stories. However, each month a “Story of the Month” is selected, and receives a prize of $10 Canadian. Stories that were not selected will not be published, will not roll over into the following month, and cannot be resubmitted in following months. Authors will be notified whether their story has been selected or not once all stories from the month’s submissions have been reviewed. How to Submit Please email your submission to [email protected]. Paste the story into the body of the email. Please include a title, your name, and a brief third-person bio. Feel free to include a link to your website! If you are submitting a story related to a specific date or holiday, please include that information in the Subject line of your submission. You can also send your story in using the form at the bottom of this page. Tips and Guides Looking for help with writing microfiction? Check out Bob Thurber’s Anatomy of a Microfiction page. Terms and Conditions Please keep the content of your submissions appropriate for...

Deadline: March 30th, 2022 Payment: $10 and a contributors copy Theme: Different horror stories - from nastysplattergore to comedy. ​We’re looking for original and different horror stories - from nastysplattergore to comedy. Your tale will feature alongside award winners like Keith Gray (Smarties Prize. Angus Book Prize), Anita Sullivan (BBC Radio Drama. Writers' Guild. Race in the Media), Geneve Flynn (Bram Stoker Award. Shirley Jackson Award) and Jan-Andrew Henderson (Royal Mail Award. Doncaster Book Prize). Submission guidelines The deadline for receiving submissions is March 30th, 2022. Submit by email to: [email protected] Length: Anything up to 7,000 words. We'll also accept flash fiction and poems (but those have to be truly excellent). Reprints: We'd prefer previously unpublished work but will accept a few reprints if they're really good. Format: Preferred format is Doc or Docx, double-spaced  and 12 point. Remember to include your name and a couple of paragraphs about you. Please use the anthology title, THAT IS SO WRONG! in the subject heading of your email and send to [email protected] Acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscript will be emailed within 3 business days. Deadline 31st March 2022. Successful authors will receive a contract upon acceptance. Edited by Jan-Andrew Henderson. Our Mission The purpose of this anthology is to combine established authors with talented new voices - so they can reach the widest readership possible. Hard copy and eBook versions will be on sale through Amazon, select bookstores and featured on the City of the Dead Website. (Which has had over 2 million views since inception - that's why it has to be horror!) This is an invitation and open-submission anthology (approx. 30% invitation 70% open-submission) as we are looking to showcase the very best writers. Don't be annoyed if you're not picked. Via: Black Hart Entertainment.

Deadline: March 30th, 2022 Payment: 3 cents per word Theme: Female leadership B Cubed Press is pleased to announce an open call for Madam President.   An anthology about leadership. President of what you say? A country? The universe? The local PTA? A paramilitary group of insurrectionist witches? Your choice. Your vision must look through the lenses of speculative fiction.  Your world can be the one we live in, far away in time and space, or just around the corner. Ask yourself how would life work when Madam President is in charge? Do you want to live there? Or maybe you want to be Madam President. This book will be edited by Bob Brown and Debora Godfrey, the team that brought you the best-selling Alternative Apocalypse. We are looking for good writing, imaginative scenarios, and a good bit of humor in stories, essays or poetry. This book will be part of the best-selling Alternatives series.  We will be accepting stories, poetry, and essays from now through March 30, 2022. Story length for our books average about 2200 words but have ranged from 100 to 7500 words. However, we only use one or two stories over 5,000 words and our advice is to keep it under 5K, unless we communicate in advance. Reprints are accepted, but we hold them to a higher standard and limit them in number. Please let us know about prior publication (reprints) on submission (Moksha has an indicator), not after acceptance (that makes us cranky). Multiple submissions are accepted. Simultaneous submissions are tolerated. Publication date anticipated August 2022. Pays $.03 a word upon publication, plus a share of the profits. As always, a share will go to the  ACLU. Submissions need to include your name, e-mail, wordcount and address on the submission. If in doubt, SFWA guidelines for short...

Deadline: March 30th, 2022 Payment: $.03 a word and royalties Theme: Holidays as seen through the lens of Speculative Fiction. Note: Reprints welcome, though are a hard sell Tell us Holiday stories. Write us Holiday poems. Holidays as seen through the lens of Speculative Fiction. This book will be edited by Bob Brown We are looking for good writing, imaginative and imaginitive scenarios, and a good bit of humor in stories, essays or poetry. This book will be part of the best-selling Alternatives series.  We will be accepting stories, poetry, and essays from now through March 30, 2022. Story length for our books average about 2200 words but have ranged from 100 to 7500 words. However, we only use one or two stories over 5,000 words and our advice is to keep it under 5K, unless we communicate in advance. Reprints are accepted, but we hold them to a higher standard and limit them in number. Please let us know about prior publication (reprints) on submission (Moksha has an indicator), not after acceptance (that makes us cranky). Multiple submissions are accepted. Simultaneous submissions are tolerated. Publication date anticipated August 2022. Pays $.03 a word upon publication, plus a share of the profits. As always, a share will go to the  ACLU. Submissions need to include your name, e-mail, wordcount and address on the submission. If in doubt, SFWA guidelines for short fiction is a great guide: https://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/04/manuscript-format/. It’s always good to make an editor happy. Adherence to guidelines makes Debora happy. Poetry should be formatted as you wish it to appear. EACH POEM SHOULD BE SUBMITTED SEPARATELY. Via: B Cubed Press's Moksha.

Deadline: March 31st, 2022 Payment: £10 per story accepted. Theme: Steampunk adventure featuring lots of cogs, steam and airships Title: Airship Adventures ​Opens: 17th November 2021 Closes: 31st March 2022 Genre: Steampunk Fantasy ​ Reader Age Range: 12+ ​ Word Count: 4000 - 8000 10% wiggle room over. ​ Info: I will be looking for steampunk adventure featuring lots of cogs, steam and airships. Make it fun, make it steampunk and tell a story. ​ Reprints: Not allowed Simultaneous Submissions: Allowed, but please email if accepted elsewhere. Multiple Submissions: Up to 2 accepted per author Author Compensation: £10 per story accepted. Paid via Paypal only Via: Raven And Drake Publishing.

Submission Window: January 1st - March 31st, 2022 Payment: AU5c/word Theme: Weird Western action horror AU5c/word / 2k-10k words  Opens Jan 1st 2022/ Closes March 31st 2022 (in your time zone)  Fantasy, Horror, or Science Fiction  Theme – Weird Western action horror. WHAT WE WANT ACTION-BASED horror, themed within conflict in the wild, wild West. Think Bone Tomahawk, Ravenous, Westworld, Cowboys & Aliens and The Burrowers for films, and Dead in the West by Joe Lansdale, Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry, Skin Medicine by Tim Curran, and The Crossings by Jack Ketchum for writings… anything that can be considered a high-action monster story set within an obviously Western theme. For level of unnatural creature we will give priority to, think Dog Soldiers or Aliens in oldie times. We want lots of monster goodness and lots of action. We will also be looking for soldiers/cavalry, bandit gangs (or bandidos, for south of the border), sheriffs, private security for gold claims. Hell, even a group of bodyguards protecting some arsehole business overlord in his desert property. Just ensure the action is central to the story, from start to finish, and don’t forget monsters! This volume is like the previous volumes squared. All action. We want extreme action, and it really should be in the style of military or paramilitary action, although we definitely see cowboys or a posse or bandit gang or demon hunters as suitable in this theme. And to say it again, full action. Nothing less. Hoo-rah! We actively encourage submissions from all cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and identities. Storytelling is for everyone, and we are richer for it when all voices are heard. SOME GUIDANCE – IF YOU TAKE THIS PLOT PATH, IT BETTER BE DAMNED GOOD: Wendigo tales. These are the most common of things in weird westerns, and just like Highlander, there can be only one! Good cowboys versus bad First Nation People. This is an almost impossible sell....

Deadline: March 31st 2022 Payment: £6.66 Theme: Original, unpublished stories of up to 2022 words (horror/dark/speculative fiction) on any topic, in any style set in 2022. I think we can all agree, a lot of 2021 has been rubbish. But what horrors might 2022 contain? Calling prophets, all soothsayers, all predictors of doom! We're seeking original, unpublished stories of up to 2022 words (horror/dark/speculative fiction) on any topic, in any style. (Word count does not include title.) The one rule, and here's the tricky part...your story should be set in 2022. We don't want one hundred stories all about coronavirus though, so think outside of the box! (Although, if you do have an exceptional story to tell us about the 'vid, please do submit it.) Elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and any other genre are fine, as long as the main theme is horror. We will pay £6.66 for each selected story. An anthology of selected stories will be published in print and as an e-book publication. See our 'Submission Guidelines' section for information on how to submit. Deadline: March 31st 2022 (midnight, last place on earth) or until full. Via: Bag Of Bones Press.

Deadline: March 31st, 21022 Payment: Royalty-based payments for novels, and in some cases, an advance against royalties. Theme: Speculative Fiction NO: Swords & Sorcery Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Young Adult / Middle Grade Submissions for 2024 will open on January 1st, 2022 and close on March 31st, 2022.  We are currently booked through 2023 so we’re temporarily closed for submissions. Please read carefully as we have updated what we will be accepting in our next open submission period. We publish approximately four books per year. The odds of having a book accepted by Meerkat Press are very, very low just based on the number of submissions compared to the number of books we publish. We don’t just encourage, we insist on simultaneous submissions as we would hate for your hard work to be tied up here based on the time it takes us to get through submissions and that most books will be rejected. We are looking for original stories that make our brains engage, our breaths catch and our hearts thud. We want stories that keep us up all night reading and leave us begging for more. Stories we can’t shake long after reading. Give us fresh voices, unique/flawed characters, imaginative story lines, and diversity in characters and settings (and authors!) Our catalog does have a high percentage of speculative fiction and darker themes, but that’s not all we publish, so please read carefully: If you have a completed work that fits the description in one of the categories below, we hope you will submit it for consideration. We do not sign contracts for work that has not yet been written so as much as your pitch for unwritten work may be interesting, it will just clutter our inbox and we don’t respond to pitches that don’t have a completed...

Deadline: March 31st, 2022 Payment: $0.10 USD per word Theme: Fantasy Horror, Espionage/Thriller, Science Fiction WHAT WE WANT We love fiction from diverse, under-represented perspectives and cultures, well-researched and written by fresh and exciting voices. Speculative fiction in the following genres  Fantasy Horror Espionage/Thriller Science Fiction Up to 80,000 words, minimum of 15,000 words (novellas) Submitted to our submission email (submissions AT ravencanticlepress DOT com) Only one submission per quarter, no simultaneous submissions, no submissions of previously rejected material without prior approval. Please wait until the next quarter (January 1st, April 1st,  July 1st, October 1st) before submitting anything again. Please only send RTF, DOC or DOCX files, and must adhere best practices in manuscript formats: https://www.shunn.net/format/classic/ We’re open to previously published fiction in short story collections or other formats. Please provide a detailed list of previous publication (if necessary). WHAT WE OFFER   An advance based on the size of the work, as well as other factors. Ongoing royalties (author friendly) for single author works:  15% net on retail sales, with increases based on copies sold up to 25%. In this case, net means the cost of printing is counted against the profits, but nothing else is (such as editing, layout, etc. which is all carried by Raven Canticle Press.) 50% net price of all ebook and electronic formats. Generally net price is less any payment processing fees or platform fees. Whatever we get here, you get half of. Anthologies or products with multiple authors have different terms (generally a lesser commitment in terms of publishing rights and a one-time fee). WHAT WE DON’T WANT We want horror, dark or gothic themes to carry the stories. If the story doesn’t have those, we likely aren’t the best fit for it. We also don’t want partial, incomplete, or short stories (an exception...

Digital Generated Image Deadline: March 31st, 2022. Payment: $5 USD per 1000 words Theme: Speculative fiction food stories! My grandpa had a drive-in diner in Rupert, Idaho in the 60s called Chuck's In-and-Out. It was well known and all the kids went there. My aunt served the burgers (sans roller-skates—Grandma put a stop to that notion! ) and Grandma made the best french fry sauce in the galaxy. Grandpa taught me that food, from the production to the preparation to the partaking, could be a simple personal pleasure or a means of bringing groups together in a shared meal. This book is dedicated to him. Miss you, Grampsy. Whether you're growing your produce in a magical garden, storing your rations in your lunar bunker, or enjoying a delightful picnic in the outer rings of Saturn, we want your speculative fiction food stories! Submissions deadline: March 31, 2022. NOTE: We are currently only accepting short stories for the anthologies and cannot accept full-length novel manuscripts at this time. ** Please put the anthology you're submitting to in the subject line of the email!** Payment for stories will be $5 USD per 1000 words for all current anthologies (excepting contests). We're looking for speculative fiction across all anthologies (unless otherwise specified). That includes everything from high fantasy to hard scifi and anything in between. We do accept reprints, simultaneous submissions, and multiple submissions, though these will slow down our response time. Story lengths should be anywhere from flash-length to about 15k words, but we have at times made exceptions. We know a story is complete when it's complete, and arbitrary word count requirements are not always helpful. If you have an amazing story that exceeds 15k words, let us know. We may be able to make special accommodations. :) With regard to copyright, we...