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Deadline: August 31st, 2014 Payment: 6¢ per word for fiction Editors: Bart R. Leib, Kay T. Holt and Kelly Jennings Word count: 1000-6000 (FIRM) Multiple submissions: Maximum of two (2) per month (Please submit separately!) No simultaneous submissions No reprints. We do not publish poetry at this time. Submit stories in DOC, DOCX or RTF format. Standard Manuscript Format is strongly preferred. Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial, in 12 pt. (Note: Courier is evil.) Turnaround time for responses is one month following the end of your submission month. (e.g. if you submit during September, we’ll respond no later than October 31.) Turnaround is usually faster than this. If you haven’t received a response by the end of the following month, please query.   PAY RATE & RIGHTS We pay 6¢ per word for fiction. Authors will also receive a gratis print and ebook copy of the anthology in which their story appears. Crossed Genres takes first world ebook and print rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights for CG Magazine’s biannual anthologies. We also take non-exclusive online rights to publish and archive your story on our website.     GENRES/THEMES Each month CG Magazine has a new genre or theme. Short story submissions must combine elements of either Science Fiction and/or Fantasy with the current theme. Do not send submissions to upcoming themes, they will be rejected without consideration! Current theme (August 2014): 24: Destruction (Submissions: August 1-31. Publication: December 2014) Destruction isn’t just the apocalypse. It’s not only falling buildings and fractured ground. And destruction isn’t always an ending. Sometimes, it’s very personal. Sometimes it’s shared. Sometimes it’s an inevitable change. Destruction is really about transformation – it’s far more complicated than good or bad.   Via: Crossed Genres.

Deadline: August 31, 2014 Payment: 40% royalty off the NET payment from all third party vendors for each copy sold will be paid quarterly via Paypal only. Mocha Memoirs Press is pleased to announce that we are accepting horror stories for our Dark Mocha Bites: Death’s Café series. Please read all of the information provided. Submission Guidelines What We Want This series focuses on horror stories. As with most stories, we are not afraid of genre mash-up, but the overall feel of the story must be horrific and fit the theme of Death’s Café. We want beautiful prose and originality wrapped up in the darkest, creepiest story you’ve ever conceived.  What We Don’t Want We don’t want slasher horror or splatterpunk for this collection. We will reject any stories that contain rape, or the abuse of minors. Stories featuring well-worn tropes (vampires, zombies, werewolves) will be an extremely hard sell. Violence is fine, but gratuitous gore isn’t. We love sex if it’s integral to the plot, but we don’t want a adult content-film script. Other than that, use your imagination to make us cringe and tremble. Submissions We prefer to see submissions using something approaching Standard Manuscript Format, which can be found here: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.htmlThe only exception is that italics MUST appear as they will be used—no underlining. We will accept works of 8,500 – 20,000 words. Please query if you wish to submit outside of these guidelines. To submit your work for this line, send a cover letter/email, completed story and synopsis/marketing history along with your name, pen name (if using one), story title with word count, address, website or blog, and any professional publication credits you think might interest us to: mmphorror (at) gmail (dot) com with Submission: story title_last name in the subject line. Remove the spaces, use the @ symbol in place of...

Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Payment: $25.00 and electronic copy of the book upon publication. Your eyelids flutter, balanced upon that narrow divide between awareness and sleep when a crash startles you awake… It was a huge crash – or was it? You strain your ears to listen for anything in the silence, but there is nothing. Climbing out of bed you peer from your room down the hallway and out of the corner of your eye, you see something move. Your heart pounds as you jerk toward the movement…and find nothing. Ghost stories have captured this moment for centuries and spirits have been well represented in literature for as long as there has been such. Tales of sprits range from spooky, vaporous apparitions walking an endless path to violent poltertgeists and demonic possession. From the earliest days of storytelling to the Victorian era to modern cinema, ghosts have haunted and thrilled us. Now, Emby Press takes its first foray into this haunted realm. Give us your most atmospheric, most terrorizing tales about spirits and the havoc they wreak. Give us a classic yarn, a mystery, or a modern day ghost-hunt…the choice is yours. And, for the first time, Emby will accept a limited number of poems for this volume. Hunters are welcome, but not required – just make sure that a spirit of some sort is “here”. Edited by: Miles Boothe Submission Period: 2/1/14 through 9/1/14 Reading Period: 9/2/14 through 10/7/14 Acceptances will be announced 10/7/14 Tentative Publication Date: January 2015 Payment: $25.00 and electronic copy of the book upon publication. Word Limits: 2000 to 8000 words. Please query if longer. Format: Submissions should be .doc (.docx is fine) or .rtf formats. The entire text will be reformatted, so no need to worry about margins, etc. Please use a standard font. Please do not double space after...

Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Payment: Varies (see below) WHAT WE WANT The Literary Hatchet is an Internet journal devoted to dark fiction (short stories) and provocative poetry and prose. We are interested in well-written but easy to read works in the horror genre, but also accept works that are paranormal in nature. We will consider previously published material but prefer original works. We accept short fiction essays, first-person narratives, speculative fiction, short stories, poetry, photography, art, illustrations, and humor pieces. We're interested in new angles on old ideas, or topics that don't get covered frequently. We like to showcase articles that don't just sum up some issue but make us think and make us want to read further. The above is not exhaustive. If you have an idea for an article that doesn't seem to fit into one of these categories, feel free to send us a query at peartreepress (at) mac.com. If you don't have an immediate idea for a piece, but you'd really like to write for us, let us know and be prepared to show us work you've done. We can always think of subjects! WHAT WE DON'T WANT We do not accept erotica, either as articles or images We do not accept articles or images with excessive crude language or outlandish sexual humor We do not accept simultaneous submissions (submitting a piece to more than one journal or site at the same time) We cannot consider partial or incomplete stories or essays We do not accept rewrites of the "Lizzie Borden Took An Axe" doggerel We do not accept Haiku poetry, unless as a part of a collection of five or more GUIDELINES BY TYPE OF SUBMISSION SHORT STORIES: We accept short stories from 500-3,000 words in length. Feel free to contact us with inquiries about...

Reading Period: June 1, 2014 and September 1, 2014 Payment: Royalties are 50% of the sales per eBook and Print book divided between the authors, paid every six months and a contributor’s copy The one thing everyone must face at some point is death. Death is inescapable. Theories abound about what happens after death. Underworlds, other worlds, different planes of existence, purgatory, Heaven, Hell-what happens after death? Charon, the mythical ferryman, pay him your coin and he will transport you across the River Styx, gatekeeper of the underworld. We here at Charon Coin Press strive to bring you the best in stories from the darker side and Charon has yet again inspired a ghoulish anthology-Paying the Ferryman, edited by Margaret Colton. Paying the Ferryman is a collection of stories that start after the main character has died. That’s right the story begins when the main character dies. What happens? Where do they go? What does it feel like? The answers to these questions are found in the imagination. The possibilities are endless. Did Dante have it right about the seven circles of Hell? Maybe the mythology of Charon or Osiris inspires you. Religious theology may even catch your fancy. The possibilities of after death lore are endless creating a multitude of horrific ideas to pull from in order to make a great story. Paying the Ferryman is a horror story anthology so no pearly gates and fluffy clouds for these characters. Maybe the people become ghosts, demons, zombies, end up in purgatory- or someplace hotter, the choice is yours. Whatever you choose the story needs to be terrifying and make your readers think twice about turning off the lights at night. Paying the Ferryman can have any setting of your choosing, even if you are creating a “world” however, your main character must be...

Deadline: September 1, 2014. Payment: Royalties, author share divided equally among the authors Welcome to the First Contact Café, or more properly the Labyrinthe Space Station, home to Ab’nere Ll’byr Wyn’th, last of the full-blooded Labrynthians, a breed of entrepreneurs, misers, and opportunists who take advantage of all twenty-three known species in the galaxy. Their DNA is as flexible as their bookkeeping. But the etiquette of first contact, duly codified and recorded, is not flexible at all. Based upon the short story “First Contact Café” first published in the DAW Books anthology “Space Stations” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers, I propose an anthology of stories centered at the trading station in deep space. Each story should include one new rule for the etiquette book and involve at least one species alien to Earth. The author may invent their own or draw upon the ones mentioned in the original short story. The partial etiquette book will be included as an appendix with all the rules mentioned, plus a few more. The First Contact Cafe Facebook Group can be found HERE. In it, you will find our first story and the etiquette book. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: September 1, 2014. Stories MUST adhere to the guidelines of this shared world anthology. In the SUBJECT LINE of your email put FIRST CONTACT CAFE: and the name of your story Email Submissions Only. RTF only. Simultaneous submissions? No. Standard manuscript format. (Double spaced, contact info including email at the top of manuscript) Stories should be between 2000 and 6500 words. Pay: Royalties, author share divided equally among the authors Email submissions at skywarrior3 AT gmail DOT com Via: Sky Warrior Books.

Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Payment: 5 cents per word November--Aliens You knew it was coming. Whether your aliens are little green men or tall, skinny grey ones , we want to hear about them. First contact or close encounters of the fifth kind--whatever, however, wherever. It's been a while since we've seen a stand-out tale of visitors from outer space. Let's end that streak just in time for the holidays. CALL BEGINS JULY 1, 2014 CALL ENDS SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.) Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable. Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word. We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted to the author. Penumbra has multiple issue calls open at the same time, therefore it is imperative that you include the issue theme in the subject line of your email. Submissions that do not include this information risk getting lost in our queue and not read before the deadline. Penumbra uses Musa Publishing’s house style guide, which relies upon the Chicago Manual of Style. All accepted stories will be edited to reflect Musa house style. If you have never been published before, please tell us. Penumbra likes publishing new authors as much as we like...

Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Payment: Contributor's Copy Dark Corners publishes pulp fiction quarterly. Hardboiled, noir, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror are all desired. If you have something that exists outside these genres or even combines them and you think we'd enjoy it, feel free to submit. Be forewarned, though, that we reserve the right to be picky. If you don't know what pulp fiction is, you might be better off submitting elsewhere. Absolutely no fan fiction. Our readers demand and deserve quality and there is a lot of quality out there so be competitive. Give us your best. Word limit is 2-5,000 words but err on the side of brevity. We want it fast and memorable. Please send only one story per quarter. This is a small operation here and while I appreciate the vote of confidence, we have our limits. Submit to craigtm85 (at) gmail (dot) com. (Please don't type "at" and "dot". I think you know how e-mails look. This is to protect myself from Nigerian princes and people trying to enlarge parts of my body or introduce me to Russian girls. I already live with the best woman possible.) Attach your submission in a Word Document file or Open Office file if you prefer. For the subject of your e-mail, write "Dark Corners Submission -- Your Last Name". If you actually write "Your Last Name", I will respond telling you how funny I think you are but I probably won't read your submission. In the body of your e-mail, send your cover letter. Look up how to do one if you don't know but don't fret about it. As long as you give your best attempt at professionalism, we won't ignore you. Make sure your letter contains a short bio. In the document itself, include your name,...

Deadline: September 1st 2014 Payment: Contributor's Copy Note: This is clearly a market that is looking for science fiction but if you have some with a horror twist... WANTED SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS - short stories We're looking for previously unpublished, original, science fiction short stories for WBP's 2015 Science Fiction Anthology. Those chosen to be in the anthology will receive a copy of the anthology. All proceeds will be donated to a literacy charity that will be chosen in the fall. Requirements: · Story must be classified as science fiction. Word count under 12,000 words · Subject line MUST have ‘The Word Branch 2015 Sci-Fi Anthology’ and sent to [email protected] · Please provide your name e-mail address, mailing address (contract must be signed if your story is chosen.) and phone number on the first page of your story. Entries need to be in .rtf format. Entries not in this format will be excluded. · In addition, please attach a short bio (no more than 300 words) and a jpg photo (at least 300dpi) of yourself or an avatar. Deadline for submissions is September 1st 2014. A Note From the Publisher Picture Last year, author Stacy Bender came to me with an idea. She proposed that Word Branch Publishing sponsor a writing contest for aspiring science fiction writers to be published in an anthology that spotlights their talents. I agreed, as long as she took a leadership position and all of the profits went to a literacy cause. Although the experience had a learning curve, it was a successful venture in the end. We showcased a number of new and emerging SF writers as well as earned money for The North Carolina Literacy Association. After our initial experiment, we have decided to continue the anthology as an annual contest. As was...

Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Payment: An equal percentage royalty split of 50% of sales p.o.d. and e-book. Since the call for the last anthology was so specific, for the next one I wanted to run with an idea that I’ve been carrying around for a while. BLOOD RED WET DREAMS It’s not so much a concrete theme as it is an evocative phrase. A trigger to get your creative juices flowing. The only condition is that the stories must contain at least one of the themes suggested by the title of the anthology. BLOOD: The blood is the life. Feel free to interpret this in any way you choose. From paper-cuts to torrents of arterial spray. We’re not squeamish about gore, and will be particularly unsqueamish about it when considering stories for this anthology, as the mock-up cover will hopefully convey. RED: The color red. Potentially the most evocative color in the visible spectrum. In thematic perception tests and interpretation of art, red is interpreted both as suggestive of love and anger, as in “seeing red”. WET: I shouldn’t have to describe what wet means. A creeping water stain on the ceiling of an old house. A body of water that seems benevolent until it isn’t. There are many ways that an author can incorporate the theme of moisture into their work. DREAMS: Dreams for some, nightmare for others. The mysterious place that the mind is transported to when we close our eyes and give ourselves over to the temporary death of sleep. Since the call for this one is so wide, we want all new stories. Not that we won’t consider reprints of exceptional quality, but we feel that with the parameters for this call being as open as they are that we would like to see some work...