Events

Deadline: July 25th, 2015 Payment: $0.06/word for original short stories and $30 flat rate for original flash fiction. Mothership Zeta is OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS from July 12 – July 25. Submissions received before or after this window will not be read. Submit using Standard Manuscript Format. We accept files in .doc, .docx, .rtf, and .odt format. Word count: up to 6000 words. We will publish one piece of flash fiction (stories up to 1000 words) per issue. No simultaneous or multiple submissions. If your submission is rejected before the submission window closes, you may send a new submission. Payment We pay $0.06/word for original short stories and $30 flat rate for original flash fiction. What We Want Mothership Zeta is looking for science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories that are fun. The robot who fights a dinosaur, not the robot who explores its lack of humanity and deactivates itself. The nagini who goes on an adventure, not the nagini who is tortured and drowns herself. The blonde woman who kills monsters, not the blonde woman who gets ripped apart by monsters. Fun doesn’t necessarily mean “funny,” and stories can have conflict and darker elements, but we want stories that leave the reader satisfied, usually in a positive way. Bittersweet is okay, tragic is not. (Unless you’re Cabin in the Woods. A killer unicorn buys you some credit.) We hope to publish fiction reflecting the full range of settings and tropes found in speculative fiction. We’d particularly like to see more stories set outside America, and stories that feature characters who represent a range of backgrounds and ethnicities. Reprints One of the goals of Mothership Zeta is showcasing our favorite stories from the Escape Artists podcast, so we will be reprinting our favorite stories from the shows, but we will be soliciting...

Deadline: July 26th, 2015 Payment: 0.06 per word on return of counter-signed contract as an advance against royalties, then an evenly divided share of royalties after earnout, plus one print contributor copy and electronic copies in preferred formats. CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5 is the next volume in the anthology series edited by Mike Allen, tentatively scheduled to be published by Mythic Delirium Books of January 2016. It is open to the full range of speculative and fantastic genres. Editor Mike Allen emphasizes, “We are committed to diversity, and are open to and encourage submissions from people of every race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, political affiliation and religious belief.” Allen says CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, like its predecessors, “is a home for stories that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the ways they cross genre boundaries, that aren’t afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques. But experimentation is not a requirement: the stories in the anthology must be more than gimmicks, and should appeal to genuine emotions, suspense, fear, sorrow, delight, wonder. I will value a story that makes me laugh in its quirky way more than a story that tries to dazzle me with a hollow exercise in wordplay. “The stories should contain elements of the fantastic, be it science fiction, fantasy, horror or some combination thereof. A straight psychological horror story is unlikely to make the cut unless it’s truly scary and truly bizarre. The same applies to a straight adventure fantasy or unremarkable space opera — bring something new and genuine to the equation, whether it’s a touch of literary erudition, playful whimsy, extravagant style, or mind-blowing philosophical speculation and insight. Though stories can be set in this world, settings at least a hair or more askew are preferred. I hope to...

Deadline: July 31st Payment: $1, 1% royalties for a year, digital contributor's copy For our first anthology we want horrific stories centralizing around a ‘dark warrior’. The dark warrior can be the protagonist, villain, side character, etc. but it must be integral to the story, without the dark warrior, there wouldn’t be a story. We are flexible about sub-genre, but it should be horror primarily. So send us your tales of modern demon hunters consumed with vengeance so fierce they become worse then the creatures they hunt. Show us undead warriors who possess a loyalty so strong, that not even death itself can prevent them from fighting for their land and country. Terrify us with unholy legions of dark sentinels descending upon the helpless in the name of their diabolical overlords. Whatever you do, make sure the story is so terrifying or the artwork so sinister that we have no choice but to fearfully respect your dark warrior. We are currently accepting short stories for our yearly anthology, flash fiction for our weekly horror blog, and illustrations for an anthology contest. If you wish for us to review one of your published ebooks for promotion on this sight, please refer to the bottom of this page.   Short Stories: To be included in our annual anthology Payment: $1 and 1% royalties for a year Word count: 2,500 – 7,000 (5,000 is preferred) Submission Window: May 1st – July 31st (Anything submitted outside of this window will be deleted without being read) Projected publication date: October Please follow these guidelines when submitting (Failure to comply may result in your story being deleted without being read) Please put your name and email on the first page of the manuscript in the top left with word count on the top right. Standard manuscript formatting (example). Courier or...

Deadline: July 31, 2015. Payment: $50 and 10 contributor's copies Reprints: Yes WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR 13 fiction stories about ghosts or haunted objects. (As long as your story contains one or the other, we want to read it!) We’re open to any genre of fiction. Your story doesn’t have to be horror. It can be a paranormal romance, literary, humor. (Although, we’re not going to lie. We love horror. But we’re looking for the very best stories about ghosts and/or haunted objects that we can find.) It must, however, involve either a ghost or a haunted object. (We can’t reiterate this enough.) Word limit: 5,000 THE TWIST Our anthology is going to be a little different. We want readers to participate by trying to figure out if your tale of a ghost/shadow person or haunted object is based on a true story or not. The print version will have a section at the back detailing whether the author based their tale on a true story…or if they culled it purely from their imagination. The ebook version will have a link back to our site with the answer. Your story does not have to be based on a true story. If it is based on a true story, we’ll need you to supply the details. (You don’t have to send it with your submission, though. We can get this info later if your story is accepted. We want to try and guess whether it’s based on a true story or not. We’re not gonna lie. We’ll cheat if you supply it ahead of time.) PAYMENT Authors will receive $50 upon acceptance for Non-Exclusive Rights, plus 10 print copies upon publication. DEADLINE Submissions accepted until July 31, 2015. HOW TO SUBMIT Use the Submission Form below. (It follows the FAQs.) Please...

Deadline: July 31st, 2015 Payment: $5 and digital contributor's copy Horror stories dealing with some form of technology or machinery. This can range from ghost trains to possessed cars to haunted space ship computers and anything in between. We’re not looking for stories about fear of change or advancement, or anything too strongly suggesting the technology or science is evil. We prefer stories where the technology in question is ordinary or commonplace to the characters but something is different or goes wrong. COMPENSATION: $5 (paid via PayPal), an electronic copy of the anthology, and a code to buy copies of the anthology from Create Space at a deep discount (when available). LENGTH: Stories under 10k words preferred. Flash fiction is acceptable, though will only be accepted if multiple flash submissions are good enough to make the cut. They would then be used to separate the longer stories. RIGHTS: For original stories, we take first rights and exclusivity for six months from the publication date. Reprints will be considered, though they we will likely be more harsh in selecting them so the anthology is not filled by them. DEADLINE: July 31st, 2015 Send all submissions to machine (at) DarkFuturesFiction.net. Include your name, the title of your story, and approximate word count in the subject line. Via: Dark Futures.

Deadline: July 31st, 2015 Payment: $5 per author and a contributor's copy Note: At this time Clouded Tower Press is a digital only market. If that changes they will also provide physical copies down the line. Erotic Horror Anthology Clouded Tower Press Anthology Title: Captive Hearts Ed: Katrina Rose Submission Deadline: July 31st Accepting 6-8 authors depending on the quality of the entries Paying $5 per author (via PayPal ONLY) + a Contributor’s Copy Short erotic horror - 2,500 wds max Possession theme ~ How do YOU define possession? Vampire lovers? Evil spirits? The only limit is your imagination… just make sure it’s scary and sexy. Must answer the following question in your submission email: How does your story fit the theme? Also accepting LIMITED erotic horror poetry in the same theme. Poetry submissions are UNPAID. Submit all entries to [email protected] All entries MUST BE UNPUBLISHED and entirely original, no reprints will be accepted Via: Clouded Tower Press.

Deadline: July 31st, 2015 Payment: 6 cents per word Diabolical Plots has been a publisher of non-fiction on the subject of speculative fiction since 2008. In 2013, Diabolical Plots launched the writer’s tool The Submission Grinder. In 2015,Diabolical Plots began publishing original fiction, one story per month.  In the last submission window, we bought a year’s worth, enough to last through February 2016.  This time we intend fill in stories for at least the six months after that–it might be more, depending on the length of the stories I like and whether more donations come in during the window to support more stories. David Steffen is the editor.  He will be reading all submissions himself, no slushreader.  Be sure you read all the guidelines and pay close attention to the requirements around anonymity–since there is a staff of one, the requirements for anonymity are extra important to avoid disqualifying your submission.   FICTION OVERVIEW Genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have speculative element, even horror).  W Word count: 2000 words or less. This is a firm limit. If you submit a longer story, it will be rejected unread and that will be your only chance this submission window. Do not query to ask permission either–the answer will be no. Pay rate: 6 cents per word (the professional rate as deemed by SFWA) Multiple submissions: No. And only one story per author in the submission window.   No exceptions, do not query about this. Simultaneous submissions: No. Reprint submissions: No. That means you should not submit anything that has been published in any format, blog, e-zine, print, podcast, anything.  Sharing stories with other authors in login-protected critique sites like Baen’s Bar or Critters is fine. Resubmits: No.  Do not send a story you’ve submitted to us before, whether it’s been revised or not....

Deadline: July 31st, 2015 Payment: 3000–4999 words: NZ$30 + paperback copy of the anthology; 5000+ words: NZ$50 + paperback copy of the anthology Edited by Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray An anthology of stories about the edge of civilisation, the fringe of reason, the border of reality, by writers from the edge of the Earth. What we’re looking for Original science fiction, fantasy and horror from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. No reprints, please. The editors especially enjoy dark, twisted stories; however, they are not looking for stories with gratuitous gore and/or explicit sexual content. Stories with some connection to Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific are preferred, as are stories which celebrate diversity and inclusiveness. Payment Remuneration is via two fixed rates based on story length: 3000–4999 words: NZ$30 + paperback copy of the anthology; 5000+ words: NZ$50 + paperback copy of the anthology While there is no upper word limit for submissions, NZ$50 and a gratis copy of the book is the maximum remuneration, and stories over 10,000 words are unlikely to make the cut. For stories over 10,000 words, please consider submitting to the SHORTCUTS novella ebook series. Payment is for worldwide first publishing rights, digital and print, exclusive for one year from date of publication. Submissions Submissions open 1 April 2015. All submissions should be made through Submittable.com. The final deadline is 31 July 2015, NZT. Please do not submit any work that is under consideration for publication elsewhere. Multiple submissions are OK, however please be aware the editors are unlikely to accept more than two stories from any one author.   Via: Paper Road Press.

Deadline: August 1st, 2015 Payment: a percentage of the final product based on how many stories are in the collection. he Project:  In October we’ll be releasing a collection of stories under the wide umbrella genre of ‘Horror.’ It will be released as one large volume, with a chance to also be included in our End of the Year Collection – 2015. What genre are you looking for?: This isn’t for a specific sub genre, but more of a call for anything that fits under the larger umbrella of “Horror.” Stories about haunted houses, killer dolls, classic gore, or various other topics will fit right in. How will this work? We’re looking for 13 stories and they will be released in one large collection in October, in place of our regular 1 story block at the beginning of the month. Your story might also get the chance to be in the End of the Year Collection – 2015 as well, but it won’t be true for every single story that is included in the collection. What’s the length? Because it’s a collection stories from this category can range anywhere from 0-20,000 words. So, no minimum limit. What we pay: Our standard collection rate is a percentage of the final product based on how many stories are in the collection. What’s the deadline: Because the collection comes out in October, no stories will be considered if they come in after August 1st. We need time to read through stories and decide if we want to include them. This isn’t a moveable deadline. This is literally the final deadline that we will take submissions for the collection so please, be aware. First Print and Electronic Publishing Rights: It must be stated that when your story is published for the first time that publisher has taken your stories First Print Rights. What...

Deadline: August 1st, 2015 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction and a contributor's copy We love the fact that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually two to three weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories must be written with the first line provided. The line cannot be altered in any way, unless otherwise noted by the editors. The story should be between 300 and 5,000 words (this is more like a guideline and not a hard-and-fast rule; going over or under the word count won't get your story tossed from the slush pile). The sentences can be found on the home page of The First Line's Web site, as well as in the prior issue....