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Deadline: June 1st 2014 Payment: 5,000-10,000 words = $50 and a contributor’s copy (paperback), 3,500-4,999 words = $35 and a contributor’s copy (paperback), Under 3,500 words = '$20 and electronic copy' OR paperback copy. Subs Open February 1st and Close June 1st! What we want: Surreal stories. That’s it. There are no rules. I don’t want “bizarro,” I don’t want “horror,” and I don’t want “science fiction.” I don’t want a genre story. I want a surreal story. Which means… We want a surreal story (and that also means tropes can be included). We want beautiful prose. We want experimental prose. Sometimes, I want to have no idea what I’m reading, but if I ask you about it, you could explain why you wrote what you wrote (not that I would). We don’t want a bunch of random things happening. Talking animals have been done to death. So have stories about video games, and virtual reality, and stories that talk about penises over and over and over again. Can you do something different? The first rule of this anthology… THERE ARE NO RULES. Your story can have extremes, and your story can take place inside of a mailbox. (and yes, similes are okay. writers use them) What we’re paying:   5,000-10,000 words ·       $50 and a contributor’s copy (paperback) 3,500-4,999 words ·       $35 and a contributor’s copy (paperback) Under 3,500 words ·       $20 and electronic copy ·       OR paperback copy. (Outside of U.S. pays shipping. Payment via Paypal) Your response: WOW! That’s quite a range of payment options, and the drop-off is significant. Our response: Sure. I encourage you to submit a longer piece. If you don’t want to submit a longer piece, you can still get paid something. Does word count factor into acceptance? Nope. Does my name factor into acceptance? Nope. What if my...

Deadline: June 1st 2014 Payment: 5 cents per word Pain comes in a variety of guises. Physical. Mental. Emotional. Individual. Global. Psychosomatic. We want to read stories where the protagonist challenges pain--and either supersedes it, or collapses as a result of it. Do you write stories of solitary anguish? Or do you write stories of galactic healing? Regardless of which you prefer, make sure that your pain story confronts the concept of pain in a speculative fiction manner. CALL BEGINS APRIL 1, 2014 (no, really. it's not a joke) CALL ENDS JUNE 1, 2014 Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less.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...

Deadline: June 15th, 2014 Payment: $25.00, payable upon acceptance, and 1 trade paperback and electronic copy of the book provided upon publication. The late 19th century saw the invention of film, and almost immediately after, the Horror genre. The earliest examples were depictions of paper or cloth ghosts and haunted locales, but it was only a short time before titles likeDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein made their first appearances. The 20’s gave us Nosferatu and the first Universal Monsters, The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The 30’s, 40’s and early 50’s were dominated by Universal, but Hammer Film Productions jumped in toward the end to help carry the torch for monster films another couple of decades. It was a golden era for the genre and there is not a writer among us that doesn’t count at least a few of these films as major influences and inspirations. RECONSTRUCTING THE MONSTER pays homage to these classic films. We are looking for stories inspired by any Horror film released before 1974. If the work the movie was based upon exists in public domain, give us a continuation of the story, a side story or a reboot. Tell us a story of Dracula living in a modern Manhattan penthouse with Frankenstein’s Monster living in the tunnels beneath the city, or maybe the other way around. Just don’t mention any neck-bolts. Do your homework! If the work is still under copyright, give us a re-imagining of the tale and theme. Instead of discovering a Gill-man in the Amazon, discover a large, ultra-aggressive and poisonous species of jellyfish or Octopus on a scientific expedition in Melanesia. Or tell us a completely original story for which a movie served as inspiration. Each submission should begin with a short paragraph...

Deadline: June 15th, 2014 Payment: 1cent/word What are we looking for? Flash fiction, pure and simple. No genre or content restrictions. 1000 words or less. Possible themed submission windows in the future. Good flash fiction is like a freeze frame—a snapshot of a real story about real characters. The word count is low, so many of the details are left to the reader to fill in, but they’re there. Flash fiction is not the same as a vignette, or a scene; it hints at much more. Give us something real (though not necessarily realistic), unique, and interesting. What is our submission and publication schedule? Open for submissions for Q1. We will publish online quarterly. Schedule subject to change. SUBMISSIONS PUBLICATION Q1: 1 April–15 June 1 July Q2: 1 July–15 September 1 October Q3: 1 October–15 December 1 January Q4: 1 January–15 March 1 April How do you submit? During submission window, please email submissions (as .pdf, .rtf, .doc, or .docx attachments) to [email protected] with the subject “Flash fiction submission”. Please include contact information in the email itself, and withhold it from the manuscript. All submissions must be double-spaced and in a legible font and font size. Feel free to follow Standard Manuscript Format, apart from contact information. Emails should be formatted as follows: Author’s name: Submission title: Simultaneous submission: (y/n) Cover letter / bio: not required, but welcome Will we pay you? Yes, 1 cent/word. How will your work be published? Initially, online, free to read. Future plans exist for an ebook version of an annual anthology of select pieces. How and when should you query? Expected response time will be updated on an on-going basis. As publication occurs three months after submission windows open, we don’t expect this to be a big issue. Please feel free to email [email protected]...

Deadline: June 15, 2014 Payment: $30 and a contributor copy   Motorcycle Themed Anthology: Elektrik Milk Bath Press is seeking stories for a new motorcycle-themed anthology.  What we are looking for: 1. We are looking for unusual, original stories that, in some way, shape, or form involve motorcycles and/or their riders, surroundings, etc.  Perhaps the entire story revolves around a particular motorcycle and/or its rider.  Maybe a motorcycle is important to the setting or the background, maybe it’s just passing through...  While motorcycles or their elements must figure into the piece, the actual degree of involvement in the story… well, we’ll leave that up to you.  If you want an idea of what we like, check out one of our favorite motorcycle-themed stories, Julio Cortazar’s “The Night Face Up.”  2.  The above mentioned stories are just ideas.  We want to see what you come up with, so show us your creative best.  Stories can be dark fantasy, horror, magic realism, literary, etc.  Humor is okay, too.  What we want, more than anything, is a good, solid story—stores that touch us, as readers, in some way.  We love stories that are written from an unusual perspective, contain unusual but believable characters, or show us something we’ve never seen before.   We don’t mind sex or blood—not even a bit—but we are not huge fans of excessive gore.   If it is necessary to the story, no problem at all—we get that.  Gore for gore’s sake... not so much. 3.  A word about word count:  We are accepting stories from 1000—5000 words, with the majority of stories probably falling in 2000-5000 word range.  We are pretty flexible with word count as long as it’s a great story.  Impress us and even if you are a little over or a little under, we...

Deadline: June 30th 2014 Payment: $5 and a Digital copy Submissions Dates: 3/1/14 - 6/30/14   Publication Date: Late 2014 (November-December)   Rejected Overview     We, at Harren Press, are hosting a REJECTED anthology! Any short story that you have written, submitted, and been rejected with; we are interested in seeing it and the rejection letter. We are accepting any genre, so feel free to submit anything you have.     What we ARE looking for: Stories that have been polished by the writer, but for one reason or another were not accepted by the intended publisher.     What we are NOT looking for: Stories that have obvious reasons for rejection. We do not want stories that are filled with several grammatical and spelling errors. We do not want stories that have no ending, have no plot, and have no character building. Your story should be a complete short story.     Within this anthology, there will be a forward that discusses the various reasons that stories, even perfectly written stories, can sometimes hit the rejection pile at different presses, small and large. The foward will be written by Brian Woods. Stories will be selected by Brian Woods, Jesse Duckworth, and the Harren Press staff.   Rights   We purchase First Electronic, First Print, and Anthology Rights. Please remember that you can only sell your various “First” rights once. You will only be able to market your accepted story as a reprint, once we have published it, which may limit where you can submit it to in the future, and how much you may be paid for it. Only you can make this business decision for yourself.   Submission Requirements 1. We are looking for short stories between 2,500-5,500 words.   2. We pay $5 for your story and a...

Deadline: $0.01 a word and an ebook Payment: June 30th, 2014 We want unique, strange, and compelling horror fiction. The writing style should be unusual but mesmerizing. The characters should be believable. Awe us, make us cry, make us laugh, make us sigh. The ideal story should stay with us for a long time after reading. Expectations: We will not accept reprints, multiple submissions, or simultaneous submissions. To clarify, this means that we will not accept a story that has already been published, you can only submit one story, and you cannot have the story you submit to us also submitted to other publications. Response time: We will back to you as soon as possible, but many things factor into our response time. The goal is to have it back to you within four to six weeks from submission date. Length: The best stories are those written in the right amount of words. There is no word minimum, but the ideal maximum is 10,000 words. The preferred range is 2,500–7,500. Compensation: You will be paid $0.01 a word and an ebook for original work and first-printing, world exclusive rights (text and audio) for 12 (twelve) months after the anthology is released. About Us: Volume 1 released Halloween, 2013. It featured thirteen stories that crossed the genres of surreal horror, dark fantasy, and heart pounding dread. The debut horror anthology lived up to the guarantee to twist the reader's perception, and we can't wait to do that again. From the common, comfortable tropes, to the more taboo, the tales should have a literary aspect designed to expand the readers understanding of what true horror can be. If you would like to get an idea of what we are looking for, please check out the wonderful thirteen stories that made it through...

Deadline: June 30th, 2014 Payment: Even split of net profits between Editor, Authors, and Illustrator. Paid quarterly. This will be a very small project. Many of the stories will be solicited from friends of mine, both IRL and online. That doesn't mean they aren't accomplished authors. So, there aren't many open spots. This idea was born as a reaction to an editor's complaint about the volume of cannibal submissions he received through Apex's slush pile. With large markets, themes and tropes tend to come in waves. Apparently that wave includes cannibals right now. So some of his friends, and mine, started joking about starting a cannibal-themed anthology. Well, here we are. What are we looking for? Cannibals, obviously. But we aren't looking for the same tired stories that feature inbred hillbillies capturing college spring-breakers and serving them up for lunch. You see it in film even more than fiction; The Hills Have Eyes, Dying Breed, Wrong Turn etc... Give us something fresh. Sexy cannibals. Philosophic cannibals. Lawyer cannibals. Quiltbag cannibals. Cannibal angels. Cannibal steampunk. Alt. History with cannibals. A cannibal family drama. What we are not looking for. Rapey cannibals. Hillbilly cannibals. Racist cannibals. Tribal cannibals. There's always exceptions to the rules, but if you use any of these things it better be a damned good story. Poetry - Query, you never know. Word Limit: 8,000 - Query for longer. Format: Standard Manuscript Format http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html Response Time: 2 weeks or less, depending on volume. Pay: Even split of net profits between Editor, Authors, and Illustrator. Paid quarterly. Fewer authors = more money. So I'll be favoring longer stories, though won't rule out shorter ones depending on the quality and other factors. Publisher: Self published in Kindle Format and possibly Createspace depending on interest. Please send submissions to [email protected] using "Submission" in...

Deadline: June 30th 2014 Payment: £10 on publication, copy of the paperback and profit share for two years. Darlings! The awesome team of Jen & Jan are doing a Fox Spirit anthology and we are open for submissions! Official blurb type thing - Wicked Women  Edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber Regular readers of Fox Spirit books know that women are pretty bad-ass – be they evil queens, goddesses, super-villains or anti-heroes, warriors, monsters, bad girls, rebels, mavericks or quietly defiant – so with that in mind, we’re looking for stories of women who gleefully write their own rules, women who’ll bend or break the social norms, skate along the edge of the law and generally aim to misbehave. Genres: any variation of fantasy, SF, horror and/or crime. Length: 4000 – 8000 words Format: doc/docx/rtf files – see the Fox Spirit house style guide for formatting requirements Email as an attachment to: [email protected] Please put ‘Submission: Wicked Women/story title’ in the email subject line Deadline: 30th June 2014 Payment: £10 on publication, copy of the paperback and profit share for two years. Odd notes - Yes, we’re accepting stories from men too! Just make sure your lead is a woman. A leading woman can be cisgender or transgender or any person who chooses to self identify or present as a woman in the space of the story. Via: Jenny Barber

Deadline: June 30th, 2014 Payment: An equal percentage royalty split of 50% of sales p.o.d. and e-book. Burnt Offerings Books is planning on publishing a series of anthologies. The theme of the next anthology will be fixed-timeline time-travel. Why fixed-timeline time-travel? Because I love books and films about time travel. And I hate books and films about time travel. I love the idea of time travel but I hate paradoxes. One of the only films I know of that successfully used the concept of fixed-timeline time-travel is 12 Monkeys. With almost every other film that uses time travel as a plot device, the plot holes and paradoxes ruin them for me. The most recent time-travel film I've watched was Looper. If the premise they were using was fixed-timeline time travel, then much of the film would be completely untenable. The plot holes could have been fixed if they had taken the time to work on the screenplay, but they weren't because they didn't. It's things like that which set me to thinking. What is "fixed-timeline time travel"? I think that this infographic explains it fairly well.   What kind of stories are we looking for? A good story trumps genre classification but we are generally looking for stories about time travel. We are going to be very discriminative in our selection process. We are looking for literature.   Not just stories. If you’re going to explore a traditional genre, we expect you to do something new with it. If you send us another textbook genre story, you will receive a polite letter of refusal and suggestions for other markets that may be better suited for your work. What we’re looking for is writing that is evocative and actually effects readers emotionally. If you’re going to go for scary, we want terrifying writing...