Events

Deadline: September 16th, 2023 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Fame If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. (Vol 97) Fame: deadline 16th September 2023 SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If this form isn’t working, please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. Title your email with the following syntax: “SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT”  (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) Submission Guidelines • Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) • Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you are confirming that you are the original creator of the story • We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when your story has been used elsewhere on the document • You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this at the end of your document, underneath the log line • Payment per accepted story is 15GBP • 2x entries per theme permitted   When will I hear if my story has been accepted or not? We carefully review every single submission that comes through our door. If you’ve...

Submission Window: September 2nd - 16th, 2023 Payment: 1.5¢ per word (one and one-half cent), with a $25 (U.S.) minimum and 2 contributor's copies Theme: Horror and weird fiction Weird Horror has 2, two-week, reading periods each year: March 2 - 16, and September 2 - 16. FICTION GUIDELINES OPENS: Sept. 2, 2023 CLOSES: Sept. 16, 2023 We are seeking horror and weird fiction from 500 to 6,000 words, firm. Stories over or under the word count will not be read. (Please respect our word counts.) We are a home for the strange, the macabre, the eerie, the esoteric, the fabulist, and the gothic. The darkly numinous. The odd. We are not interested in extreme horror. Do not send science fiction or fantasy. We are very supportive of emerging writers, and have twice published first-time authors. Please send 1 story only per reading period. NOTE - We are not considering stories written, co-written, created, or assisted by AI and machine-learning languages such as ChatGPT. Please do not send them. We are seeking first English-language publication rights. Fiction must be in English, and previously unpublished in English anywhere, in any format (including audio), on any platform, including your blog, website, newsletter, Patreon, etc. Please do not query about reprints. We will consider works translated to English, as long as you are offering first English-language publication rights. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please inform us if your story is accepted elsewhere. No multiple submissions. Please send 1 story only per reading period. The magazine is free to read online here: Read Weird Horror We encourage you to read some of the stories to familiarize yourself with our aesthetic. We receive about 1,000 manuscripts each period, and accept less than 2% of submissions. Do not be discouraged by a form rejection. Payment is (U.S.)...

Deadline: September 17th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Short pulp sword and sorcery stories Submissions: OPEN (Issue 8) • Submission deadline: Sunday, September 17th, 2023, 11:59p. • Editorial decisions: Sunday, October 15th. E-mailed at the end of the work day. • Publication of Issue 8: Friday, December 15th, 2023. Published digitally at the end of the work day. Length: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets. Style: We prefer "dialog light, action heavy" fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. Please eschew typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre). Questions? Join our Discord, the Whetstone Tavern and ask questions to the Whetstone channel there. Publication, payment, and rights: Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for...

Submission Window: August 17th - September 18th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. WHAT WE LOOK FOR: We are most interested in dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. We want stories that grab us by the throat and ask questions about what it means to be human. Make us feel something long after we are done reading. The Editor is particularly fond of stories in the vein of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Creep Show. When it comes to literary inspiration, think of Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Mary Shelley. The Editor also enjoys almost anything produced by A24. Think of Pyre as a bonfire — a place of storytelling and sacrifice. Take a seat near the fire and listen or spin a yarn of your own. Here at Pyre, we worship at the altar of storytelling done well. We love genre work that tells us something about the human condition. Pyre is personally funded and maintained by the Editor. he asks you are patient with him as he gets back to submissions. PYRE WILL CONSIDER MATERIAL BY ANY WRITER AND ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN AMPLIFYING UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES. FICTION GUIDELINES:  Submissions of fiction should be no longer than 3,500 words Please submit only one piece per submission period. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: fiction submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages,...

Deadline: September 22nd, 2023 Payment: 10 cents/word, 2 cents/word reprints, $50/page of poetry, $50 minimum per piece of artwork. Theme: All of the current social issues that are happening We’re very excited to announce, for the forthcoming Reckoning 8, editors Knar Gavin and Waverly SM! Read on for their issue-specific submission call. Reckoning is a journal of creative writing on environmental justice; we’re looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, poetry and art. For Reckoning 8, we want thinking, writing and art about … this. All of this, right now. We want to hear about active resistance to the patriarchofascist, corporate-captured extractive state. Show us what it means that in order to build Cop City*, a massive facility intended to train a new generation of lethal enforcers into an institution directly descended from slave patrols, the state of Georgia and its actors must first level a forest and label protestors “domestic terrorists” as a precursor to murdering them. Help us understand how strategies of repression and control all over the world concentrate agency in the hands of the few at the expense of all other life. We are looking for work in opposition to a broad, insidious fascism that treats water, trees, and bodies as exploitable, expendable resources rather than sacred, essential components of our global, infinitely interconnected and interdependent web of life. As always, we’re seeking work from people of all genders or none, all sexualities or none, of all neurotypes, all levels of physical ability, from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, in all parts of the world. We’d love to add all languages to that, though we publish in English and are currently limited to reading submissions for potential translation in Spanish, French and Swedish. Payment is 10 cents/word, $50/page of poetry, $50 minimum per piece of artwork. We don’t charge submission...

Deadline: September 24th, 2023 Payment: 3 cents per word Theme: Speculative fiction stories that include crabs Our submission window for Issue 1 will run from 23rd August to 24th September. You can expect a response within 6 weeks of the submission closing date. Guidelines Crab Tales is a speculative fiction magazine. If your story includes crabs and has an element of the fantastic in it, we want it. We accept micro fiction pieces of up to 250 words. If there are no crabs in your story, we will reject it. If your story is over 250 words, we will reject it. We pay 3 cents per word. Crab Tales is an online venue, although we hope to move to print editions as well as online editions in the future.   Submit Please send your submissions to submissions crabtalesmagazine.com Please submit only one story. We do not currently accept translations, although we hope to in the future. We are not currently accepting artwork, but we will open for art submissions soon. We do not accept AI generated or AI assisted work. Include your name and the title of your story in the subject line of your email. Please attach your story as a word file (.doc, docx). If you cannot save your story in the above format, please send your story within the body of the email instead. You’re very welcome to include a short 100 word bio along with your submission. We look forward to reading your work! Via: Crab Tales Magazine.

Deadline: September 25th, 2023 Payment: $0.01 per word after edits are made, $50 for accepted images. Theme: Horror for the spooky season of Halloween Fall...a time for cozy sweaters, apple picking, and pumpkin spice lattes... ​ No... ​ Scratch that... ​ It's a time for brittle leaves crunching when you walk, haunting winds that leave forlorn resonance in in their wakes, and jack-o-lanterns ushering in the most magnificent season of the year. ​ Give us your sacrifices to the spooky season! What makes fall magical yet horrific for you? What does the change in seasons in conjure? What monsters wake up when the frost begins to settle? What could possibly go wrong when you're doing a little pumpkin patch fun? The possibilities are endless when it's fall! ​ This theme is a little broader than our usual—have some fun with it! Please submit your unique, unpublished, horror or dark fantasy—horror elements must be prevalent within dark fantasy—stories or images related to the fall season—fall activities, the change in weather, and Halloween   Details​ All stories and images should involve the fall season or Halloween as major components. Simply adding a fall setting to a story with an entirely different focus will not be accepted. All stories should be between 2000 and 6000 words in length. There will be no wiggle room this time. Images can be a cover image without text, a figure, or a scene.  All stories and images should be emailed to [email protected].  Stories and images will be accepted until the anthology is full or until Sept 25, 2023, whichever comes first, so it will be to your benefit to submit as early as possible.  You may submit more than one story or image if you choose; however, only one will be selected for possible publication.  Simultaneous submissions are not...

Deadline: September 25th, 2023 Payment: All rated in CAD, $100 per interview, $200 per essay, $100 per review, $150 per work of fiction, $35 per poem (or page, capped at $120 for poems running four pages or more), $50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece Theme: Any genre, though best to see previously published work for a feel for the magazine. A premier Canadian literary magazine, publishing the best in new writing. We award the annual Austin Clarke Prizes in fiction and poetry. The Ex-Puritan seeks submissions all year round, from anywhere in the world. Feel encouraged to push boundaries, play with form, and explore genre elements. Consider reading the fiction in our last few issues to familiarize yourself with work we've published. Please do not submit stories over 10,000 words, flash fiction (under 1,000 words), or novel excerpts. Please only send one story at a time. Note that all submissions must be previously unpublished and that we will not publish the same author more than once per year.We are especially interested in work by LGBTQ2S+ writers, BIPOC writers, and writing from other marginalized folks. Rates | Fall 2022 $100 per interview $200 per essay $100 per review $150 per work of fiction $35 per poem (or page, capped at $120 for poems running four pages or more) $50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece Check back with the magazine regularly; The Ex-Puritan is working ever assiduously to increase these figures. Please note that we can ONLY issue payments using e-transfer, PayPal or a cheque in the mail. We also pay in CAD. If you cannot accept payment via e-transfer, PayPal or cheque from a Canadian bank, we cannot accept your submission....

Deadline: September 29th, 2023 Payment: 8 cents a word for stories up to 1,875 words, 1 cent per word for reprints Theme: All forms of fiction Note: Reprints Welcome SUBMISSIONS TO OUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARE CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH. Why submit to us? - WE PAY PROFESSIONAL RATES. It’s hard work writing good stories, and you deserve to get paid fairly for it. Or maybe you don’t, and you’re just duping us? Regardless, we pay 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,000 words (well, 1,875, to be exact). Stories longer than this are capped at $150 payment. - NO SUBMISSION FEES. We’re not saying the other guys are getting rich off $3 per submission, but there’s something about the idea that we, as writers, have you pay you, the publisher, just for the privilege of rejecting our work with a form letter, bothers us. (Costs of running an E-zine aside) We’re going to go ahead and coin a phrase right here and now - ‘Write privilege’, get it? Of course, you do. - GET YOUR WORK IN FRONT OF A LARGE AND GROWING AUDIENCE. Our aim is fixed on telling good stories, period, and because of that we have built a massive readership from all over the globe. Want to get your stories out to more than just dear old nana? Then you've come to the right place. - REASONABLE TURN-AROUND TIME. If you haven't heard from us within 90 days, then your story was rejected. Rejections stink - we get it - but its better than forever waiting and wondering. - WORKABILITY. Is that the right term? Well, we're going with it. Unlike large publishers who view you as just a number, we actually work with you to help present the story in its best possible light, while never infringing...

Deadline: September 29th, 2023 Payment: $1 per drabble, up to 10 drabbles. Theme: 100-word Christmas horror stories with exactly a 2 word title. BLACK HARE PRESS is—and has always been—an inclusive publisher. LGBTQ+ characters always welcome. All our calls are for dark speculative fiction or weird/horror. No co-authored projects, please, unless the call specifically says they are allowed. 2 word title 100 word story (excluding title and pen name). A bio of no more than 15 words, plus one link << this is really important. Don’t include links to retailers (ie Amazon) as the books get rejected when they have retailer links. If you want to include one, we suggest you set up something like linktr.ee (here’s ours: linktr.ee/blackharepress) or bio.site (here’s ours:  bio.site/blackharepress) $1 USD per acceptance. Up to 10 acceptances per pen name. Want more? Easy—use another pen name. First three to 10 get a $10 Amazon voucher. First to 10 also gets a paperback copy of the final product. One email, one drabble. We won’t look at submissions with more than one drabble, as we don’t have time to extrapolate them into the read process. Blind submissions for the actual manuscript, please. Reprints are OK, but we’ll have no space for “First Published” acknowledgements, so please check your obligations with previous publishers first (if your first publisher is BHP, then you automatically have permission, as long as it wasn’t published in the last 12 months). No simultaneous submissions, please. Theme: December, holidays around December (Immaculate Conception, St Nicholas Day, Christmas, Bodhi Day, Feast Day of Our Lady Guadalupe, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Zarathosht Diso, and anything else you can think of), myths and legends, etc. Genre: Must be dark, but any genre, including (not an exhaustive list): horror, science fiction, LGBTQ+, romance/ steamy/erotic horror, cosmic, speculative, fantasy. Submit to: [email protected]. Will...