Events

Submission Window: June 15th - September 15th, 2024 Payment: $10 Theme: Stories that constitutes the ever-moving edge of its kind, as a place between light and dark, consciousness and un, today and tomorrow; work exhibiting the strange, the bizarre, that which is not of the world we know, but more of a twilight realm or even altogether alien place. I would love to see submissions representing not only multiple cultures but subcultures, exploring issues of race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, and many things I haven't thought of. Does this mean you have to represent everybody and everything in 1000 words? Of course not. But be aware that we are creating a magazine that overall reaches and represents the true diversity of the world we live in. In terms of genre, I am looking for work that constitutes the ever-moving edge of its kind, as a place between light and dark, consciousness and un, today and tomorrow; work exhibiting the strange, the bizarre, that which is not of the world we know, but more of a twilight realm or even altogether alien place. Not necessarily science fiction, not necessarily fantasy, not necessarily horror, and not necessarily not these things. In short, ideally edgy. Maybe even idealistically edgy. I am NOT looking for porn. Penumbric generally accepts submissions in the following categories: fiction, poetry, illustration, graphic narrative, animation, music, or combinations of these (e.g., a spoken-word version of a poem). If you have something that fits some other category that can be displayed to advantage on the web, try me; I'll take a look. All works must be the creation of the author(s) submitting them, and must not infringe upon any right of any other person or entity. We buy non-exclusive worldwide periodical rights to publish your work in Penumbric, and will accept reprints...

Deadline: September 15th, 2024 Payment: $15, 5 contributors copies Theme: Valentine's themed horror stories “Eat Your Heart Out, Volume 1” Submissions  June 10, 2024-September 15, 2024 ‘Love is patient’, lurking behind a pristine row of bushes; keeping vigilant watch, being certain to narrow the timing down to the exact second the living room lamp shuts off and the shades pulled. Love turns a copy of the house key around and around in a gloved hand. ‘Love is kind’ of expensive sometimes— when all is said and done, often the price is grief, security, emotions, possessions, or even our very lives… Campfire Publishing is excited to announce that we are currently accepting submissions for, “Eat Your Heart Out, Volume 1”, the first in our collection of Valentine’s themed horror stories! Please read below to ensure that your story will be a good fit, and feel free to reach out to us–via the form located on our main page or by sending an email to [email protected]–if you have any questions. “Eat Your Heart Out, Volume 1” is the first volume in a horror collection dedicated to Valentine’s- themed horror stories. Campfire Publishing aspires to publish multiple volumes in the “Eat Your Heart Out” collection, along with collections specific to a variety of themes in the horror genre. What are we looking for? We are looking for WELL-EDITED stories close to 10,000 words that offer a horrific, bloody, or unique lens to view the subject of love, lust, or that looks to the idea of Valentine’s Day—corporate greed, the illusion of social influencers, lust, scorn, or just whatever journey your creativity offers up to you! Campfire Publishing is keeping its eye out for a wide range of chilling voices from seasoned to novice that offer unique perspectives into the often frightening world of...

Deadline: September 15th, 2024 Payment: 2 cents per word, lore from these stories will also be featured in the upcoming Starspawn videogame which is cool for bragging rights but you won't be paid extra for it which is an honest sticking point for many Theme: Stories set in a variation of the Lovecraft universe which is listed below Note: Be sure to read the legal at the bottom, it is very straightforward as this is for a videogame, but might be news to some Ancient horrors… secret countermeasures… a cosmic cold war, turning hot… This is the world of Starspawn: A Miskatonic Mystery, an indie video game in development by our team of two. We will be doing a Kickstarter later this year, and we would like to offer an original short story anthology as a reward; portions of the stories will also be included in the game, with the full text available as bonus achievements. These stories will flesh out the lore of the game’s universe, and should be based on the prompts listed below. We are offering $0.02 per word (to a maximum of $100), and looking for stories in the 2,500 - 7,500 word range. Submissions are open now, and close on September 15, 2024. We will evaluate all submissions after the closing date. Requirements & Instructions Stories must be set in the game universe, which is a variation of the Lovecraft universe, and described below. Horror, please. Action/horror, comedy/horror, etc. are all fine, but horror, please. Cosmic horror, please; not just a creature feature. Tentacles dripping with eyeballs are great imagery, but there’s more to it. Stories must be based on one of the provided prompts. (You may send us a message if you would like to pitch a new one before you write it; info-at-the...

Deadline: September 29th, 2024 Payment: 8 cents per word up to $400 Theme: No restrictions on genre (seeking all types of stories; fiction and creative nonfiction) Note: Must be subscribed (free) to the magazine in order to submit, no submission fee.) SUBMISSIONS TO OUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARE CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH, READ THE GUIDELINES BELOW CAREFULLY - FAILURE TO ADHERE TO OUR RULES MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION, AND WHO WANTS THAT? Please note that we have additional perks and leeway for MEMBERS, highlighted in GREEN. Your membership not only gives you a leg up in the submission process, but helps keep the lights on (and pay our talented writers). Why submit to us? - WE PAY WRITERS FAIRLY. It’s hard work writing good stories, and you deserve to get paid. Or maybe you don’t and you’re just duping us? Regardless, we pay 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,500 words. Stories longer than this are capped at $200 payment ($400 for MEMBERS). - 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....

Deadline: September 30th, 2024 Payment: $5 Theme: Horror taking place in the suburbs Owning your own home is a dream come true for so many people. But.. What if your HOA just happens to be comprised of Satan's minions? What if your next door neighbor is batshit, tits-out loony tunes? What if the amazing house in that idyllic, leafy subdivision you just bought was actually built on an ancient Indian burial ground? All hell breaks loose. Literally. HellBound Books wants your most horrific stories of HOAs from Hell, horrific neighbors, terrifying properties, and everything else that goes along with the wonderfully human experience of owning your own home. PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * 4K-10K word count * Write 'SUBURBAN' along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. To submit, email your polished story to [email protected] - Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: 30 September 2024 NO REPRINTS - ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY Payment - $5.00 for first rights. Capped at 100K words in total. Via: Hellbound Books Publishing.

Deadline: September 30th, 2024 Payment: $5 Theme: Tales of blood, gore, and sloppy bits - the bloodier and more viscera-strewn the better! It seems that HellBound readers just can't get enough of Splatterpunk! So, without further ado, here's our second outing in this fabulously grotesque sub-genre! Gross our editors out with tales of blood, gore, and sloppy bits - the bloodier and more viscera-strewn the better! PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * 0.3" hard paragraph indents (NOT spacebar hits, please!) * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * 2.5K-8K word count (although we are incredibly flexible for awesome stories!) * Write 'SPLATTERPUNK2' along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. To submit, email your polished story to [email protected] - Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: 30 September 2024 Payment - $5.00 for first rights. Capped at 100K words in total. Via: Hellbound Books.

Deadline: September 30th, 2024 Payment: $25 Theme: Very dark Christmas horror stories Inspired by a suggestion from legendary book reviewer, author and multi-term Short Mystery Fiction Society President Kevin R. Tipple, here’s the holiday anthology that’s definitely NOT going to fill you with Christmas cheer. It will, however, be sure to entertain the darker side of your imagination. Christmas time is a season full of stress. Cooking, decorations, trying to find the perfect gift for people you barely know. It’s enough to make anyone snap. Now, imagine you’re Santa Claus and you’ve got the entire world to take care of. Yeah, cookies and milk isn’t going to make that kind of pressure go down any easier. Add in reindeer, elves who slack and Mrs. Claus nagging that you never spend enough time with her during the holidays and it’s enough to make your Kris wanna Kringle, if you know what we mean. Welcome to Santa Rage: 12 Tales of Murder and Mayhem in which Santa Claus finally snaps and gets his just desserts…and we’re not talking gingerbread. This anthology is based on the idea that one night, while out making deliveries, Santa snaps thanks to the holiday stress and goes on a killing spree. Bonus points awarded for story elements involving meth or drug dealing, strippers, and the best dose of karma Santa ever dealt that did not involve coal. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 1. In case it isn’t readily obvious, we’re looking for dark, dark, dark fiction here. Violence welcome. Cursing welcome. This is NOT an anthology for kids. If you think you’ve gone over the top, you may not have gone far enough for our tastes. Look at the stuff Chuck Tingle gets away with and everyone loves him. 2. With the above being said, there are still some limits here. Absolutely no misogyny or violence against...

Deadline: September 30th, 2024 Payment: $125 - $200 Theme: Weird tales set in the Victorian period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror. LEVIATHAN: Submission Brief Sentinel Creatives has opened up for submissions for “LEVIATHAN: An Anthology of Industrial Horror.” Deadline for Submissions: 30 September 2024 Wordcount: 3,000 - 6,000 Remuneration: $125 - $200 Simultaneous Submissions: Yes WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR We’re looking for original weird tales set in the Victorian period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror. Some clarifications: Victorian: There is a tendency to view the Victorian Age as beginning and ending with the reign of British monarch Queen Victoria (1837-1901), but this is so strict as to be crude. Rather, the period will be what is referred to as The Long Nineteenth Century (1789-1914), which begins with the French Revolution and ends just short of World War I. This expanded timeframe serves to foreground the transformations that took place within British society and brings those changes into stark relief. This period usually takes England as its geographical norm, and often a particular city: London. But for the purposes of this anthology, the region will also include Scotland, Ireland, Wales, as well as India and the furthest reaches of the British Empire. There is considerable scope here, and the period is rich in conflict and upheaval, which any excellent story cannot do without. Show us primitive science, at once enlightened and profane, the obscure craft of learned mutilators who frighten all, even the dead. Or the Resurrection men, who do their bidding by midnight, and fear more moonlight than the noose. Give us tales of strife and privation, loss and alienation; rural homesteads replaced by hypnotic topographies of stone and glass, cloaked in smog; of choking workhouses and tumbledown tenements. Show us who built this world, mixing mortar with bone,...

Deadline: September 30th, 2024 Payment: 40% royalties for both eBook and paperback. If a hardcover book is produced, authors will receive 35% royalties due to the higher cost of production Theme: Queer horror novels and novellas We love the fresh smell of dead things, so our submission window is currently open for 2025/206! Please carefully read below for specific guidelines, including what we‘re currently looking for. The submissions are so easy a brainless zombie could do it (between meals). What we need in the email The subject line: SURNAME—TITLE—SUBMISSION TYPE (e.g., novel, novella)—WORD COUNT In the body of your email: please let us know if this is an original submission or a resubmission. If you are resubmitting an updated manuscript, please indicate the revised sections to help us assess your manuscript ​​ What we need attached A synopsis approx. 300 words, detailing the key themes, plot, characters, and twists Your brief author bio, including any previous publications The first 30 pages of your manuscript ​ Submission email: [email protected]. ​ Formatting Manuscripts should be presented in TNR, size 12, justified, 1.5 line spacing, as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or.docx. Any other file type won’t be read). Please, for the love of all that is unholy, do not use tabs for new paragraphs. Any variant of English will be accepted. What we want We are a horror press. Any horror sub-genre is welcome, but the manuscript must have clear elements of horror. Preferred length: approx. 30K—100K. Manuscripts outside this are more than welcome, but we are more likely to consider manuscripts in the suggested length Preferred horror sub-genres: slashers, psychological, creature feature/monster (vampires, werewolves, demons etc.), YA, extreme, body, supernatural, cosmic, horrormance, gothic, grief. We don’t shy away from gore Forms: novels, novellas ​​ What we don’t want Fantasy* Poetry Screenplays Erotica Series Short story collections...

Deadline: October 1st, 2024 Payment: $50 and royalties Theme: Original, previously unpublished, science fiction stories that are, first and foremost, drag Science Fiction Is a Drag! is a drag anthology. We’re looking for original, previously unpublished, science fiction stories that are, first and foremost, drag.  This is an anthology where those of us in the drag community can gather and tell the stories that we’d never be able to publish anywhere else.  Stories up to 10,000 words will be considered. Publication date is sometime in 2025. Submission Deadline: October 1, 2024 What we don’t want: • Stories by straight people who think drag performers are cute, funny, scary, etc. and have no real connection to the drag community or drag rhetoric. (We, of course, are cute, funny, scary, etc., but there’s an ineffable deeper element that those of us who are drag get and others don’t.) • Stories by LGBT+ people who think drag performers are cute, funny, scary, etc. and have no real connection to the drag community or drag rhetoric. (Or, if you think of people who do drag as “them” and not “us,” I’d prefer if you let “us” have a room of our own.) • Stories by members of the drag community that were written for the straights and have nothing drag about them at all.  You may certainly send us your drag stories that were written for the straights or your stories that are written for us in the drag community.  But they must be drag stories not just by someone who does drag. • Look, I don’t have the money to take on Disney, Paramount, Warner, the Frank Herbert estate. If it’s set in someone else’s intellectual property, I can’t use it.  The day I have the money to get the proper permissions to do Star Wars Episode 69:...