Events

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue Theme: Any genre, short story Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful. Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars? Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that. What does the timeline look like? Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout. Where do I send submissions? [email protected] What are the rules for submitting? 1. No Fees 2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form 3. Any genre 4. 6- 10,000 words. Yes, just 6 words, like Hemingway's famous 6-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." 5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute. 6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers. 7. Only the winner will be published and rights will only transfer for the winning story. What do I get for subscribing? One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting. What if I can’t pay right now? That’s ok! If you publish a blurb about this site on your website, blog, or social media, I will send you one full story of your choosing. Best of all, it is...

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction 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 do accept 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 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept 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. We're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: Short Stories: 1 cent per word, Poetry: 5 cents per line, Comics: $5 a page Theme: Horror comics, poems, and short stories with the theme of pulp horror Submissions for our 3rd issue are open from April 15th to May 31st, 2023! ​ At Reader Beware, we want to see pulp horror of all kinds – think Friday the Thirteenth, Psycho Goreman, and Glorious. Think Junji Ito, Grady Hendrix, and Eric LaRocca. We want your creepy gorefests!  Don't be afraid to get explicit with it, just don't send us anything too mean-spirited. Gore is great, peril and torment are great–continuing the horror tradition of fetishistically brutalizing women is not. Stories We accept short stories of up to 5000 words at a rate of one cent per word. Poetry We accept up to three pages of poetry per author at a rate of five cents per line. Comics We accept up to ten pages of comics at a rate of five dollars per page. Send Us Your Work Send us your story/poem/comic as a file attachment (.docx for stories and poems, png/pdf for comics) to [email protected]. In the body of the email, write the name you wish to be credited as and any content warnings you deem necessary. Via: Reader Beware.

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: Contributors copy and $30 for short stories and $10 for poetry Theme: Speculative fiction that explores the body and our relationship to it Note: For authors originally from, or living permanently in, Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand What is a body? In the modern world, the body is an object, separate from the self. The body is an inconvenience whose needs are a barrier to overcome in pursuit of productivity. The body is a collection of features. The body is an asset in which we invest to increase value. The body is sanitised, with illness and death hidden from public view. The body is effortless; evidence of exertion is edited out, except perhaps a single drop of sweat for aesthetic emphasis. BODY OF WORK rejects this dislocation of the body from self. The body belongs to us in all its glory. The 2023 CSFG anthology seeks speculative fiction that explores the body and our relationship to it – how we live in it, how we die in it, and how we transform it – from the good to the bad to the just plain weird. We invite authors to consider the following themes: Bodily autonomy Transformation and metamorphosis Adaptation and mutation Curses Shapeshifting Gender and sexuality Illness and wellness Disability and accessibility Beauty standards Body modification Birth, aging, and death Life cycles Survival Cyborgs, hybrids, and monsters Medicine, medical history, and public health Writing We are seeking submissions from authors who are: Over 18 Originally from, or living permanently in, Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand Made out of meat (no AI-generated stories, please) Submissions may take the form of poetry (max 40 lines) prose (max 5,000 words) All entries must be the author’s original work. CSFG is not accepting reprints at this time. Stories will be selected...

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: Short Fiction: .05 per word (up to .08 if stretch goal is met) Poetry: $1 per line up to 50 lines (up to $2 if stretch goal is met) Theme: Horror telling a tale of music Submissions for Playlist of the Damned, the 2023 Kickstarter anthology from Weird Little Worlds Press will open on May 1st, 2023. This anthology is the third Kickstarter anthology from WLW Press, and features authors such as Gemma Files, Philip Fracassi, Lisa Morton, Eric LaRocca, Hailey Piper, Premee Mohamed, Craig L. Gidney, and more. The press will take 9 additional stories and poems from its open submissions period, with a potential to take more, depending on the Kickstarter’s funding. Weird Little Worlds Press has become one of the strongest publishers of short horror fiction, with Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology (2021) and Mother: Tales of Love and Terror (2022) both being recognized on the Bram Stoker Award® Preliminary Ballots. Stories from the press’s anthologies have also appeared on the yearly Pseudopod fiction highlight roundup as well as Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year anthologies. The 2022 Mother is also on the final Stoker ballot for Excellence in an Anthology, and the co-editors of this year’s Playlist, Jessica Landry and Willow Dawn Becker, are both Stoker-nominated editors (Landry, There Is No Death, There Are No Dead; Crystal Lake Publishing, 2021)(Becker, Mother: Tales of Love and Terror; WLW Press, 2022). The Authors Playlist of the Damned looks to meet the same level of excellence as the press’s previous anthologies and includes brand new fiction from award-winning authors including: Gemma Files Philip Fracassi Premee Mohamed Castro Richard Chizmar Hailey Piper Lisa Morton Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito Craig L. Gidney Maxwell I. Gold Mercedes M. Yardley Sofia Ajram Tim Waggoner Linda Addison P. Miskowski Eric LaRocca The Pitch In December 2020, hiker Jeremy Schall finds a cassette tape in an abandoned mine reading DO NOT PLAY....

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: 3 cents per word for the winner, 2 cents per word for second place, and 1 cent per word for third place Theme: Red The theme for next month's flash contest is... "RED! The colour of blood, and love, and danger. Flashing lights, glowing eyes, cooking flesh; the blinding hue of rage, the windswept locks of a Celtic warrior princess. Give us something red – serve us something raw and dripping, a fresh cut that only you can deliver." This theme is courtesy of last month's winner, Matthew R. Davis, who will also read all the submissions and pick the finalists. Before we get to the submission guidelines, please know that only the top 15 to 20 stories will be posted on our Patreon page for our patrons to vote on. The winner will receive $0.03 per word, publication, and an Author Spotlight on our newsletter and Patreon page. The second place winner will receive $0.02 a word, and the third place winner $0.01 per word. The winner will also have the option of hosting the following month’s contest for an extra payment and a profit share from any new patrons joining our Patreon during that month. Submission guidelines: -Max 1,500 words -Submit your entry in the body of an email to [email protected] (no attachments) – please notice the new submissions email (no longer our main email account) -The email subject line should be the story’s title and your author name / pseudonym -The deadline is midnight at the end of May, wherever in the world you may reside. -No multiple submissions (only your best story) -Reprints are allowed if they naturally fit the theme. -Put your bio below your story (max 500 words). Please take note… You do not need to be a Crystal...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: USD $0.08 per word for original fiction. USD $100 per story for reprint fiction. Theme: Science Fiction Note: Reprints Welcome Escape Pod is a science fiction market. We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (superheroes! steampunk! space opera! time travel!) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things impact individuals and society. Escape Pod leans in the direction of escapism, hopepunk and optimism rather than grimdark and gloom. We love to see funny stories, which can include dark humor that doesn’t punch down, and satire that isn’t painfully bleak. Remember that the failure mode of irony is sincerity, so if you’re mocking something, be sure you’re hitting the right target. We’re not interested in stories that contain sexual assault, rape, child abuse, animal cruelty, gore, or horror. We also do not want to see stories that treat the hardships of marginalized people or groups as thought experiments. While we may have published stories with that type of content in the past, they are not currently a good fit for Escape Pod. Our primary audience is adult listeners and readers. Strong language and sexual situations are fine, but we are not an erotica market. We publish our stories in text and audio, but audio is our primary format. Because our audience cannot easily reread or skim, we prefer stories of high clarity and tight pacing. Complex syntax, elaborate structures and typographic novelties (e.g. footnotes) are difficult for us to publish. When in doubt, query us! Please visit PseudoPod for horror, Cast of Wonders for young adult, and PodCastle for fantasy fiction. Wordcount: Short stories – original fiction: 1,500-6,000 words (sweet spot: 2000-4000) Short stories – reprints ONLY: 1,500-7,500 words (sweet spot: any)...

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 Payment: 50$ payment and contributors copy Theme: Stories based on the work of Gemma Files and her Classic novel, Experimental Film From some of the writers and editors who helped to bring you A Walk in A Darker Wood and the recently published A Walk in a City of Shadows comes a new terrifying collection based on the work of one of Horror’s greatest living authors, Gemma Files! This is the second collection titled Experimental Files is being brought to you by Alien Sun Press and we are super excited about it! With the incredible John Langan set to write the foreword, this anthology is a tribute to not only to the work of Gemma Files but is in particular based off of her classic work, Experimental film. This collection will have illustrations from Sarah Walker and others as well as a cover done by the incomparable Dan Sauer. So here are the particulars…. What we want: - Stories based on the themes set out in Gemma Files’ classic work, Experimental Film. What does that mean? Well, firstly make sure you have read her work first and then send us something that is… -Unique and clever Horror stories involving cursed or dangerous film. These tales can be from the point of view of anyone involved in cinema from the visual artists all the way to the directors, to the actors or even the audience. Play around, try something new! -Stories with a strong Gemma Files feel about them- characters that are complex and encompass sometimes contradictory character traits- ‘evil’ that is done for good, etc. Use of myth, use of evocative scenery and a general spooky haunted vibe. -Weird Fiction style tales! -Poetic language with a dark bent -Creative takes on folklore -Well written leaning into...

Submission Window: April 1st, 2023 to June 1st, 2023 Payment: $0.01 per word Theme: Short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format—meaning, stories written as letters, journal entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts, newspaper clippings, text messages, etc. Edited by Jacob Steven Mohr   From Jacob Steven Mohr and Crystal Lake Publishing comes Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror, a new anthology set to debut (tentatively) February of 2024.   As the name betrays, we’re looking for short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format—meaning, stories written as letters, journal entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts, newspaper clippings, text messages, etc.   Furthermore, each story should include some mention of how its manuscript was “discovered.” A letter found in a historian’s archive, for example. Or emails saved as part of a missing persons investigation. Or an audio file recovered from a dead podcaster’s PC. Push boundaries and play with the format—and above all, be scary!   Some comparable titles: Dracula, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Carrie, House of Leaves, and World War Z.   We will be accepting approximately 10-15 stories from this open call. Accepted tales will appear alongside original yarns from invited authors, who include Gemma Files, Ai Jiang, Red Lagoe, J.A.W. McCarthy, Scott J. Moses, and Gordon B. White. Submissions Open: April 1, 2023   Submissions Close: June 1, 2023   Length: 2,500 – 7,000 words   Payment: $0.01 per word   Format: Stories should be formatted in 12 pt. Times New Roman, double spaced.   Rights: Exclusive First Worldwide Publication, Print and Electronic Rights for 1 year (from date of publication), and non-exclusive rights thereafter.   Contributor Copies: 1 paperback and 1 eBook copy.   Simultaneous Submissions: Allowed. But please promptly withdraw your story if it is accepted elsewhere....

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine...