Events

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: $0.01/per word Perpetual Motion Machine presents a new anthology of horror transmissions titled Lost Signals, edited by Max Booth III and Lori Michelle, including a cover design by Matthew Revert. In the darkness, sound is your best friend and your worst nightmare. Radios are the conductors of noise. They are the radiation of electromagnetic signals. Their waves are invisible, yet they consume us. Forget about what’s hiding in the shadows, and start worrying about what’s hiding in the dead air. We are looking for short stories to publish in Lost Signals. That’s where you, the writer, come in. Send us your best horror fiction about radiotelegraphy. We want to be disturbed. Stories should somehow involve radios, radio stations, radars, cell phones, military broadcasts, distress signals, walkie talkies, podcasts, or anything similar. We aren’t necessaryonly after straightforward prose. It’s okay to get experimental on this project. Don’t just think outside the box on this one. Burn the box and eat the ashes.2 — Guidelines for Submissions: Deadline: October 31, 2015 Payment: $0.01/per word Word count: 1,000 – 20,000 Acceptable file types: doc. and docx. Simultaneous/multiple submissions: Yes Reprints: No - All submissions should be formatted 12 pt, any font. Please use your word processing software’s auto-indent for paragraphs, and do not insert a space between paragraphs. In your cover letter, include your contact information and a brief author bio. We are asking for six months exclusive rights for all accepted stories. All authors included in the anthology will receive two contributor copies. We may send out rejections/acceptances before the deadline, but please do not query about your story’s status until November 15, 2015. All submissions must be sent through our Submittable page. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at [email protected]....

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: $5 and digital copy “Happily ever after” is for children. This book prefers to evoke the grim warnings of our oldest fables. We are seeking frightening fairytales, fables, and folklore. We want to feature your own new tales or new takes on old classics. Stories of seelie and unseelie alike. Are the things that go bump in the night there to help or harm us? Submitted stories should deal with fairies or fairy tale settings, and must also be considered horror, evoking a classic fear and dread reminiscent of the fables of old. If you are submitting a new take on a classic fairy tale, the original story and characters must be in the public domain. The setting can be our world in the past, present, or future, or a fictional setting, or the exploration of both. Stories must be Gothic, Horror, Steampunk, Gaslamp Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Horror Romance, or have a horror element of some kind. Manuscripts Format: Font either Courier or Times New Roman. Double spaced, font size 11 or 12 point. Your manuscript must be in either DOC or RTF format. 1st page header to state: author name, mailing address, email address, and word count. Following pages header to state: author name, story name, and page number. In the body of the email, give us: 100 words or less bio about you. One sentence explaining the story attached. Your elevator pitch. In the subject of the email state: ONCE UPON A SCREAM/Author Name/Story Title Send to: [email protected] No previously printed work and no simultaneous submissions. Deadline: October 31st, 2015, 11:59pm PST Length: 2,000-8,000 words, ideal length 5,000 Payment:$5.00 USD + digital contributor copy Return time: Final decisions will not be made until AFTER the submission close date (10/31/15). You should expect a return...

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: 5% Net Profit Urban legends are unavoidable. From college campus to unlit road, they cling to our lives. Did you hear about the librarian who died, right here, and now haunts the halls at night?             Satanists haunt these woods. Never stop for anyone. Not on this highway.             If you’re very quiet here, and listen to the wind, you’ll hear her scream “MY BABY” Running though these small-town myths are a shot of the horrible: ghouls, ghosts, cryptids, revenants, secret societies, and occult knowledge. But are such cases true, or the work of humans looking to disguise their own murders? Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to combine urban legends and murder mysteries. All The Petty Myths is a mystery anthology edited by crime writer M.H. Norris. Consider it a revival of Golden Age Detection, where the emphasis is placed on clues and the mastery of the mind (“little grey cells” as Poirot would remind us), rather than the bones and gristle of the victim. The eight relevant “Commandments” of Golden Age Detection have been amended to the back of this document as inspiration and guidance. The urban legends used must have a real world counterpart, though you’re free to mix and match similar legends to form the backbone of your tale. Virtually anything loosely termed an urban legend is open for your exploitation, be it crypids (Bigfoot, Mothman), killers and killer ghosts (Bunny Man, Teke Teke), classic urban legends (Bloody Mary, the Vanishing Hitchhiker), modern folklore (One Man Hide and Seek), public domain fauxlore (Slenderman), locations (Tayopa, Theorosa’s Bridge), fiction which mutated into a form of urban legend (the monkey’s paw), or the simply weird (Spring-Heeled Jack, Polybius). Urban legends can, over the course of your story, be shown to...

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: Charity anthology, 1 cent per word and a contributor's copy Stories are powerful—they can open our perspectives to allow us to see things in ways we haven’t before and can be used to provide a voice to those who otherwise would remain silent. With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that I am now taking submissions for the upcoming horror/dark fiction anthology, Silent Screams. The focus of this anthology will be to give a voice to and point public attention toward those who are vulnerable who have no means to speak for themselves—from victims of human trafficking and the sex industry, to the aborted unborn, to third-world sweat shop workers. As writers (and perhaps particularly as writers of dark fiction), we have the opportunity to do some good by shining a light on the uncomfortable truths that our society often prefers to ignore. WHAT I WANT I’m looking for unpublished stories (no reprints) ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 words (soft) that EITHER focus of the plight of specific silent victims of our modern world OR that play with the idea of silence in general. (Think of Harlan Ellison’s classic “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream,” or the famous tag-line from Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.”) What does it mean to be a voiceless victim, and what could be done to alleviate that kind of suffering? I want horror stories of pretty much every subgenre, including dark science fiction. My tastes for this sort of thing lean more toward the surreal and uncanny than to the realistic, and most of what I enjoy would fall under the “Dark Fantasy” sub-heading (think the type of stuff written by guys like Robert Bloch and Jeff VanderMeer). I love stories that don’t...

Deadline: October 31, 2015 Payment: $30 and contributor's copy Note: This one is for the ladies! I don't see as many horror stories from women as from men in anthologies. I don't know if it's because they don't submit or if they're rejected. I do know one thing. Women write horror well and I hope this anthology will show the reader the truth of the statement. Women, since the time of Mary Shelley, have written great horror works. If you'd like to submit, this editor will be pleased to read the story. I want horror the way only great women can write it. There is no theme because I like the idea of giving you leeway in subject matter. Try for at least 3000 words up to 10,000 words. Submission date: August 2015-October 31, 2015. (Or when anthology is full. Please don't delay to submit until deadline). Distribution will be through Amazon and possibly other online markets. Stories needed can be either supernatural horror or realistic horror. Naturally if you write about a serial killer it better be a new take and unique to the genre since this type of killer is overdone. Likewise, vampires, werewolves, and the walking dead are pretty much played out so if you use these, make them new and refreshing (in an evil sort of way). No simultaneous submissions and don't send more than one story, thanks. No gore for gore's sake. Creepy scary horror is the ticket. While this is an R-rated anthology, please no stories involving graphic rape, child molestation, or animal torture. No gratuitous sex—if you include sexual content, make sure it is germane to the plot of your story. Use profanity strategically and sparingly. An unedited story with many errors will, of course, have less chance of inclusion as one that...

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: 1 cent per word Note: Reprints Allowed! WHAT DO YOU ACCEPT? We accept fantasy, science fiction, and horror. WHAT DO YOU PREFER? We are seeking original, thought-provoking weird fiction. WHAT DO YOU PAY? Contributors receive 1¢ a word.    IS THERE A READING FEE? No, we do not charge a reading fee.   IS THERE A WORD LIMIT? Yes, we ask that contributors limit their submissions to 10,000 words. With that said, we prefer longer, more complex works to flash fiction. WHEN DO YOU ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS? We accept submissions year round. Those received from May 1 to October 31 will be published in the fall issue. Those received from November 1 to April 30 will be published in the spring. DO YOU ACCEPT MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS? Yes, you may submit multiple works. Receiving multiple rejections, however, can be devastating for a writer, so we recommend that you submit your works one at a time.    DO YOU ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS? Certainly, we encourage you to submit your work to multiple publishers. However, please inform us if your submission is accepted elsewhere. DO YOU ACCEPT REPRINTS? Yes, we do accept reprints. We prefer, however, to publish original work. HOW SHOULD SUBMISSIONS BE FORMATTED? We prefer Microsoft Word files (either .doc or .docx). Also, we ask that you include your name and email address on your submission. Decisions concerning font, margins, and style are left to you.    DO YOU ACCEPT POETRY OR NONFICTION? No, we do not accept poetry, essays, or reviews. DO YOU ACCEPT ART OR PHOTOGRAPHY? No, we do not accept art or photography.   DO YOU COMMENT ON SUBMISSIONS? No, we choose not to comment on submissions because we believe the best writers have followed their own instincts. Those that cater to a specific publisher tend to produce work that is dull, formulaic, and devoid of subtlety. On rare occasions, however, we do feel moved to comment...

Deadline: October 31th, 2015 Payment: 6 cents per word (and possibly more). Royalties on additional sales beyond the Kickstarter will be 25% of ebook cover price and 10% of trade paperback cover price, both split evenly between the authors The ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE- anthology kickstarter has made its goal! This means that we can now open up submissions for the remaining slots in the anthology. If you have a story idea that fits one of the anthology themes, write it up, revise it, polish it, and send it in for consideration. I've posted the guidelines below. Please note that the pay rate INCREASES as we reach higher stretch goals in the kickstarter, so please (http://tiny.cc/bfah1x) spread the word about the kickstarter so that we can not only add in additional authors to the anthology, but pay those authors as much as possible. Also, a special thanks to everyone who has already backed the project and gotten us funded! Without you, we wouldn't be funded with over three weeks left in the kickstarter to reach those stretch goals! And now, the submission guidelines: ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE- Submission Guidelines Zombies Need Brains LLC is accepting submissions to its two science fiction and fantasy anthologies ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE-. Stories must be submitted in electronic form as an attachment with the title of the story as the file name in .doc or .docx format. The header of the email should include the name of the anthology the submission is for along with the title of the submission (for example: WERE-: WereJellyfish Gone Wild!). The content of the email should also include which anthology the manuscript is intended for. Please send multiple manuscripts in separate emails. Manuscripts should be in manuscript format, meaning double-spaced, 12pt font, standard margins on top, bottom and...

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: $15 USD and 3 contributor's copies Submissions for the 2015 World Unknown Review (Volume II!) are now OPEN! This is an exciting new literary review with a strong focus on independent authors, though anyone is welcome. If you are interested, please consider the following regulations before submitting. We look forward to seeing what wonderful, inspired pieces start flooding in for consideration! Applicants selected to be featured in the Review will be awarded three (3)copies of the publication as well as $15 (USD) via check or PayPal or $30 (USD) for the novella competition. There is no entry fee, and applicants may submit as many stories as they would like. All we ask is that these simple rules be followed: 1. Entries must be submitted via email to [email protected]. Please send entries with the subject “World Unknown Review Submission.” Please send submissions as an ATTACHMENT in .doc, .docx, or .rft formats. Please,no PDFs. 2. All entries must be submitted before the deadline, October 31st, 2015. Responses will follow a few weeks after the deadline. 3. For short stories and poetry, there is no limit on word limit, though moderately sized stories stand a better chance. Novella entries must be 17,5000 words or more, broken up into several chapters. 4. Final decisions are purely on the opinion of the editor of the collection, L.S. Engler. 5. Please include a small blurb about yourself for the eventual publication. 6. Spread the word! Okay, technically, this is not a rule, but please spread the news around that World Unknown Review is looking for submissions. It’s a great opportunity to be a part of something new and exciting. 7. Work that has been previously published in forums or on your own personal blogs or websites will be accepted, but, please,...

Submission Window: October 1-31, 2015 Payment: $5USD advance followed by 35% - split between the contributors It's baaaaaaaaaaaaack! Our annual collection of funny paranormal stories. Story must be funny and have supernatural/paranormal elements. Previous published stories include a farting contest with the Boogeyman, a Shriner who becomes a weregoat, and a hoarding intervention at the home of a wizard. Story length should be 2000-6000 words. If you sub something longer than that, it'd better be really funny or you need to be Stephen King. Our submission window is October 1-31, 2015. Please do not sub sooner because there's a 90% chance it won't get read till October anyway and could get buried under other emails. Publication of SF3 should be in spring 2016 (note the use of 'should' here). Go to our Submissions page to find out what's open and what's not. Please send all submissions (short stories or novels) to [email protected] . To avoid confusion on our part, please put the name of the anthology you are submitting to in the subject line, or "Novel submission: (Your Title)". Mystery and Horror is a market that welcomes LBGTQ, multiethnic, multinational, nontraditional, and unusual fiction. We are concerned with well-written stories involving well-developed characters. PLEASE FOLLOW THE FORMATTING GUIDELINES BELOW: We only accept e-submissions - nothing in print. Our formatting requests are below. Note that 5 and 6 are extra important. 1) Your submission should be an attachment to your email in RTF or DOC format, .JPG for artwork (black and white only, except for book covers). 2) Submission text should be black in color and only use one font and one size print - preferably 12-point Times New Roman. 3) The text should be single spaced. 4) An extra line should only be inserted between scenes - not individual paragraphs....

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: $15 and contest winners for the top 3 selections For 2015’s Story Quest Competition we want to look at the unlikely, the neglected, the untried. We are looking for either: – unlikely partnerships between characters, species, the smashing together of worlds, cultures, ideas – unlikely genre partnerships, those we don’t see often or at all For combination number two, at the mag we don’t often see fairytale crossovers (we’d love some more diverse voices), steampunk, true romantic horror, Western crossovers, mysteries. Whatever you can think of, we’ll read. Just make it a story that makes the judges eyes bug. Submission Period Opens 1 September 2015 and closes 31 October 2015. Short listed stories and winners will be announced mid to late November 2015. It is free to enter. All submissions must be entered online using the Submittable System.Click here to submit. Please note that this is a third party system that will store submitted short stories on their database.   Awards Five or six stories will be short-listed, all of which will be published in SQ Mag in early 2016 – contract conditions for unsolicited entries strictly apply. Within the short list, 1st place will also be awarded US$100.00, 2nd place: US$50.00, 3rd place: US$25.00. All published short-listed stories will receive the standard US$15.00 SQ Mag payment. Authors who submit to the contest must have or nominate a PayPal account to receive their payments. Submission Requirements Shunn rules for presentation apply. Exceptions: Actual italics to be used and fonts can include Times New Roman, Times, Garamond. 1000 to 3000 words only. No exceptions. In line with SQ Mag being an original fiction market, no reprints will be accepted. Authors are encouraged to submit their manuscripts in the form of English that they wish (for example, US English, UK English, Australian English). Short listed...

Deadline: October 31st 2015 Payment: 1 cent per word for the first 4,000 words, and 1 cent per two words after that point, with a minimum total payment of $10, Free ezine subscription Cyclopean is an upcoming online speculative fiction e-zine. We're open to submissions from September 6th to October 31st. Length: Up to 7,500 words. Pay: 1 cent per word for the first 4,000 words, and 1 cent per two words after that point, with a minimum total payment of $10. Additionally, our authors will recieve a free subscription to the e-zine for you and one friend upon release, lasting for the life of the e-zine. Payment will be distributed during the weeks prior to publication. NEW 9/8/15 Language: English only. Rights: We claim electronic rights, (text and audio,) first serial rights, and non-exclusive rights indefinitely, to sell the e-zine in which it is initially published, and place the story in future anthologies, magazines, e-zines, or simply to reference or iterate the work as we see fit. If we do use the full text of your story again in the future, (not including if we use the audio,) we will pay you at least the amount you received on the initial publication, including a contributor copy, if it appears in print. (We will send contracts out, commencing in mid-October.) Response Time: We try and send a confirmation email within a day, and answer all submissions with a "yes" or "no" within 2 weeks. If you have not received a confirmation email within a couple days, or if it takes longer than 3 weeks to receive a reply, please send a query. Submissions: No reprints. You may submit one short story or two short poems and/or flash fiction stories per week. We accept simultaneous submissions, so long as you inform us in the body of the email of the original submission that...

Deadline: October 31st, 2015 Payment: 6c per word for original content, max $200. 2c per word for reprints published in the magazine, maximum $100. 1c per word for web only reprints, max $50. Reprints Allowed but unlikely See the Elephant is a new semi-pro e-zine published by Metaphysical CircusPress. To learn about the kind of fiction we publish, please see MCP Style & What We’re Seeking. Our open submissions period for the 2016 issues will be Sept 1-Oct 31, 2015 through our Submittable Account (see link below). If you were personally invited to submit, please include a note that mentions which editor invited you. You must be signed up for our mailing list in order to be considered for publication, unless you were personally invited to submit by one of our editors (even then, we hope you will). This is because we are building a community of writers. We need your support to make this a success. Length: 500-6000 words. Longer may be considered if it is suitable for serialization. We are interested in original work only. Pay: 6c per word for original content, max $200. 2c per word for reprints published in the magazine, maximum $100. 1c per word for web only reprints, max $50. Simultaneous Submissions: This year we prefer that you not submit elsewhere at the same time. We will try to reply to all work within one month of submission with a decline or notice that the work has moved to the next round of selection. Multiple Submissions: No, unless the submission is flash fiction (under 1000 words) in which case you may send up to three. Reprints:  Yes, provided the story is not currently available for free elsewhere on the web. Don’t let those great stories languish! If you have a new book out, having reprints on the web...

Deadline: November 1st, 2015 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction (all U.S. dollars). We also send you a copy of the issue in which your piece appears. You'll receive your money and issue at the same time. Winter: George pressed the call button and said, "Mrs. Whitfield, you have a visitor." 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...

Deadline: November 1, 2015 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction Winter: George pressed the call button and said, "Mrs. Whitfield, you have a visitor." 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...

Deadline: November 1st 2015 Payment: .25 cents per hundred words The term Cheapjack originated as the name for a traveling peddler or tinker. The insinuation was that he was carrying inferior goods. This was moot because he served a poor clientele and did them the service of bringing the goods to them. It was all that some of them had sometimes. In the spirit of the penny dreadful, the pulp magazines of the industrial age, and the traveling tinkers of old....We proudly present to you CHEAPJACK PULP. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE MARCH 2015 ISSUE ARE OPEN FOR ALL DEPARTMENTS PLEASE EMAIL SENIOR EDITOR USING BUTTON ON SUBMISSION PAGE AND INCLUDE THE DEPARTMENT YOU WOULD LIKE CONSIDERATION FOR IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE ALL SUBMISSIONS AS AN ATTACHMENT (.doc or .rtf) For all art work please send queries. Submission Schedule: March issue submission deadline: February 1st (2015 only deadline extended to 2/15/15) June issue submission deadline: May 1st September issue submission deadline: August 1st December issue submission deadline: November 1st CheapJack Pulp is a quarterly pulp webzine which is archived in ebook format. We are free each month to the public. Our back issues are free immediately following archival of the current issue through Kindle Direct Publishing as an e-book. Stories and artwork relating to the pulp themes can be submitted to senior editor in the format the department editor specifies on submission page as they wish to receive it for review.The individual editors will list their contact info as they see fit for individual submission. Stories or articles should be no more than 8000 words long. Longer submissions are accepted by invitation and query only. CHEAPJACK PULP is currently a profit-making webzine (not much mind you!), we will be offering payment, we pay at a rate of .25 cents per...

Deadline: November 1st, 2015 Payment: 25 cents per hundred words Note: Yes, this is an EXTREMELY low paying market for one that doesn't take reprints. The term Cheapjack originated as the name for a traveling peddler or tinker. The insinuation was that he was carrying inferior goods. This was moot because he served a poor clientele and did them the service of bringing the goods to them. It was all that some of them had sometimes. In the spirit of the penny dreadful, the pulp magazines of the industrial age, and the traveling tinkers of old....We proudly present to you CHEAPJACK PULP. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE MARCH 2015 ISSUE ARE OPEN FOR ALL DEPARTMENTS PLEASE EMAIL SENIOR EDITOR USING BUTTON ON SUBMISSION PAGE AND INCLUDE THE DEPARTMENT YOU WOULD LIKE CONSIDERATION FOR IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE ALL SUBMISSIONS AS AN ATTACHMENT (.doc or .rtf) For all art work please send queries. Submission Schedule: March issue submission deadline: February 1st  (2015 only deadline extended to 2/15/15) June issue submission deadline: May 1st September issue submission deadline: August 1st December issue submission deadline: November 1st CheapJack Pulp is a quarterly pulp webzine which is archived in ebook format. We are free each month to the public. Our back issues are free immediately following archival of the current issue through Kindle Direct Publishing as an e-book.  Stories and artwork relating to the pulp themes can be submitted to senior editor in the format the department editor specifies on submission page as they wish to receive it for review.The individual editors will list their contact info as they see fit for individual submission. Stories or articles should be no more than 8000 words long. Longer submissions are accepted by invitation and query only.   CHEAPJACK PULP is currently a profit-making webzine (not much...

Deadline: November 2nd, 2015 Payment: 5 cents/word (CAD) and a contributor's copy Note: Canadians Only! Edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay The Exile Book of Anthology Series Number Twelve The stories surrounding monsters, creatures, and myths play an integral role in the formation of a cultural and individual identity. For our forthcoming anthology, Those Who Make Us, we will gather together a unique body of speculative fiction with a focus on creatures, myths, and monsters set in a real or imagined Canada that highlight these diverse identities. We welcome stories about classic Canadian monsters, but Those Who Make Us will also explore how monsters from other cultures affect and are affected by Canadian landscapes. The cultural stories that shape our understandings of ourselves and our place in Canada are dynamic and Those Who Make Us will reflect the complexities of these interactions. The stories submitted to Those Who Make Us may have their foundation in traditional forms of fairy tales, folktales, mythology, legends, and fables – but we will look for contemporary storytelling that goes beyond their foundations so that they represent personal or group identities, social commentary, evolving cultural norms, and history/future history. Those Who Make Us will challenge the idea of the Canadian identity. What Are Canadian Monsters, Creatures, and Myths? Some classic examples are Ogopogo, Wendigos, shapeshifters, selkies, etc. These can be taken from urban myth, rural folktales, tribal/ancestral stories, cultural tradition, and heritage or completely original creations. We do not want direct retellings of traditional stories, but rather speculative storytelling (personal, imagined, historical in reference, myth-based to one’s culture, contemporary) that embody a distinct Canadian past/present/contemporary/future psyche and place. Make them your own. Or even make up your own. There is a great deal to engage with in today’s world, as well. We are loosely defining...

Deadline: November 15th, 2015 Payment: 50% of the net profit will be paid through sales of the stand-alone ebook-exclusive novella; 4% of the net profit will be paid though sales of the omnibus anthology in both print and digital editions. The Master Detective may have passed away, once, when he fell over the falls. The Master Detective may have passed away, twice, seemingly forever when his creator’s pen fell silent. But the Master Detective is an old familiar, all too willing to rematerialize at the merest provocation. We ask you to summon up Sherlock Holmes once more. We ask you to take the canonical Holmes, just as Doyle left him, and work him into your style and into your fictional universe. We ask you to create the finest mysteries and adventures. The Science of Detection is a twelve-part novella series; one will be released each month in 2016, climaxing with a Christmas 2016 release of The Science of Detection: Twelve Cases of Sherlock Holmes, an anthology containing all twelve of the stand-alone novellas as well as bonus features. We eagerly await your stories… What we want: We want the author’s voice and narrative style to shine through. Unless you choose to write in a flawless imitation of Doyle’s style, you are encouraged to write in your own words. If you have a series character you feel would be appropriate for a team-up or shared-universe story, you are all the more encouraged to utilize them. We want your story to be focused (think of your novella as a long short story rather than a short novel), and we want every word to count. We want the Master Detective to matter. He can’t be an unimportant side-subject; he must directly pertain to the story at hand. (However, it is entirely possible to...

Deadline: November 15, 2015 Payment: $10 and contributor's copy Anthologist: Rhonda Parrish Fourth title in Rhonda Parrish's Magical Menageries anthology series from World Weaver Press featuring Fae, Corvidae, and Scarecrow. Greek mythology describes the Sirens as being charismatic monsters; part bird, part woman, with enchanting voices whose songs either lure men to, or foretell, their deaths. In Roman mythology they play a similar role but shift their domain to the sea and take the form of mermaid-like creatures. Mythological Sirens such as these come with a capital ess; there are only a small number of them, they have names, Godly parents and occupations. Those Sirens are welcome within the pages of this anthology, but so are their lower-case sisters. In Sirens, we will honor and share stories of historical Sirens, but we’ve equal room for modern re-imaginings and will be giving matching space to both avian and aquatic varieties. Whether from the sea or sky, sirens are beautiful, dangerous and musical, and we’re open to works that exemplify as well as those which defy those expectations.Sirens will be a book full of tales that evoke a vast spectrum of emotions toward these maidens, empathy, disdain, sorrow, awe and anger. I want stories of wretched and cursed sirens who fight against the roles imposed upon them and tales of those who revel in them. I’m hoping for pieces re-telling or playing upon the traditional myths and others which create their own mythologies, and all the little niches in between. We are looking for speculative stories up to 7,500 words long. Rights and compensation: Payment: $10 and a paperback copy of the anthology from World Weaver Press. We are looking for previously unpublished works in English. Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after...

Deadline: November 16th, 2015 Payment: 6 cents per word and 3 Apex books For the past few years we’ve asked you to stretch your massive writing muscles by creating some the tiniest stories for our annual flash fiction contest. The response has always been outstanding, and it is almost time for you amazing writers to do it again! Get out of the way! Run for cover! Because it is time for Apex’s Christmas Invasion! That’s right. This year our flash fiction contest is all about Christmas invasions. Whether your invaders are robots, aliens, or sentient Christmas ornaments is completely up to you, but if you want to win, you must write us a story no longer than 250 words that deals with an invasion and Christmas. From all of the submissions, we will select three winners. The winning stories will be featured in the December issue of Apex Magazine, and the authors will be paid 6 cents per word. In addition to being published in Apex Magazine, they will also win 3 Apex books of their choice. Want something more? Everyone who enters will receive a free issue of Apex Magazine! All you need to do is let us know which issue you would like to receive and we will send you a download link. The nitty, gritty: Submissions open on 12:01am EST, October 15th and close at 11:59pm EST, November 16th. Stories must be 250 words or less. If a story is longer than that, it will be deleted unread. You may submit up to 3 times, but please submit each entry in a separate email. Submissions should include a brief cover letter, including which issue of Apex Magazine you’d like to receive, as well as the story. Stories should be in the body of the email. Do NOT...

Deadline: November 21, 2015 Payment: Contributors copy and royalties to be paid quarterly: 50% of the proceeds divided evenly between all authors FTB Press proudly presents our second call for submissions. We are asking new, emerging and established writers to create something from nothing and the FILL THE BLANK page with wonderful words. We hope you can take a simple idea and turn it into a captivating and engaging story for the reader. The simple idea we are offering is ODD- ISMs. The question is... what exactly is an ODD-ISM? –ISM can be an action noun, a way of thinking, belief or ideology. Maybe your character has seen every Bill Murray movie and has adopted a way of life called Murrayism, this is the type of oddness we are looking for. What we are not looking for is Feudalism, Institutionalism or Barbarism. What might work is Fantasticism, Idiotism or Barbarellaism. Take any random word and add –ism to the end, it might work. The stranger, the more outlandish the -ISM, the better. A panel of editors using a specific set of criteria will read all stories selected for publication. What we are looking for in submissions: 1. 4000 words or less. 2. MS Word file submitted with author’s last name, title, and word count at the top of the page (not a header). 3. We are not picky with font style as long as it is easy to read. 4. Please do not double space. 5. Please title submitted files as lastname.titleofstory.oddism 6. Author’s full name and mailing address in the email with a brief 50-word bio. 7. Multiple submissions are ok, although we will only publish one per author and they must be submitted separately. 8. Simultaneous submissions are ok. We only ask you inform us if your story...

Deadline: November 25th Payment: $3 Simply put this is a creative writing site that puts the adage, "a picture paints a thousand words" to the test. The premise is that, each month, an image will be given as a visual prompt and you will have up to one thousand words to tell the story that you are inspired to write ... using your imagination as the canvas and language as your brush. We are open to submissions of artwork to inspire stories and stories inspired by the artwork - how very Ouroboros of us! Please make sure to read ALL the instructions on this page (especially the sections on 'Copyright' and 'Compensation' before submitting a piece of writing or artwork. We take a submission to With Painted Words as your permission for us to publish your work and do not send out other formal contracts. Thank you. Piece of Writing We accept works of fiction - and poetry - of up to one thousand (1000) words, at most, in length. This is the maximum amount - if you can tell a compelling story in as little as fifty words, for example, then you are more than welcome to do so. All submissions must be inspired by the current section Key to fiction types: Flash Fiction 501-1000 words Micro Fiction up to 501 words Poetry   Please make sure to include your full name/s, e-mail address, and bio (including a link to your personal site/blog) with your submission and, if you so choose, the thought process behind your story. Please send your submissions by the deadline stated in the current section .  Pieces received after the deadline cannot be considered for publication. 'With Painted Words' reserve the right to reject any submission without explanation. Deadline:- This will usually be the 25th...

Deadline: November 30th 2015 Payment: 1 cent per word PROMPTS: We want to see the prompt inspire your writing. To bleed through every letter. If our quarterly is about Apollo, give us stories about the galaxies, about the sun, about archery. Give us stories that breathe Apollo. If the prompt is Artemis, give us forests, give us beasts, give us epic hunts. This does not mean we want stories ABOUT Apollo, or Artemis. VERY IMPORTANT: Please include a note as to how your story is inspired or relates to the theme/prompt you are submitting to. If you do not do this, we cannot guarantee your story will be read. A single sentence is sufficient. This is not necessary for our annual, genre specific anthologies (Gaia and Typhon). Below are our OPEN prompts:   HESTIA (# 9) – Publication Date: WINTER 2016 Greek goddess of the hearth and home, eldest daughter of the titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister of Zeus. She is a sworn virgin, known for her kindness.The opposite of Aphrodite. Symbolized by the hearth, she is the first to receive any sacrifice to the gods, and oversees the burning of sacrifices on Olympus. Send us your household stories–your domestic noir, haunted houses, tales of forgotten homes, distant homes, missing homes. Tell us your hearth-side fairy tales and old legends. Contemporary stories of the sacrifices we make in our homes every day. “Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song.” Submissions open May 1st 2015 and close November 30st 2015. NOTE: Please read the entire page before emailing questions. Make sure your submissions are up to the...

Deadline: November 30th, 2015 Payment: AUD4c/word and contributor's copy Anacondas, piranha, giant crocodiles/alligators/lizards, mutated bears near nuclear power stations, prehistoric sharks. These are a few of my favourite things. All of these featured heavily in books and films of the 70s and 80s, when bio-horror was at its modern peak. For this anthology of military-bio-horror stories, we are looking for you to take us back to those days. Think Greg McLean’s Rogue, Lake Placid, Eight-legged Freaks, Anaconda, Meg, Prophecy, Deep Blue Sea, and other modern films/books where people (in this case soldiers) are fighting against mutated or ultra-dangerous animals. Stories must include a strong military-combat aspect. We STRONGLY suggest you read some of the earlier SNAFUs to see what it is we like. SNAFU – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNXHLJG SNAFU: Heroes – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MSVEY2Y SNAFU: Wolves at the Door – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQ56AUG SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y3X86OC ~ Edited by Geoff Brown and Amanda J Spedding ~ Payment: AUD4c/word and one contributor copy in each format released ~ Wordcount range: 2,000 – 10,000 words (query for shorter or longer) ~ Submissions open September 1, 2015. Closing date is November 30th, 2015 (anything submitted before or after this time will be deleted without being read or replied to). No selections will be made until after the period closes. Projected publication date: August 2016 Please follow these guidelines when submitting to us: 1. Please put your full contact details on the first page of the manuscript top left, with word count top right. 2. Standard submission format, with minimal document formatting. 3. Courier or Times New Roman set at 12pt. Italics as they will appear. No underlining. 4. Double spaced. 5. Please don’t use TAB or space bar to indent lines. Use ‘styles’ only. If unsure or using a program that has no styles, do...

Deadline: $13 plus a contributor’s copy Payment: November 30, 2015 Witches have long captivated mankind throughout recorded history, and remain influential as one of the most iconic of folkloric images. Nosetouch Press wants your very best witch stories, featuring magical, powerful women who use witchcraft for good or evil, in classic as well as new takes on witches–we welcome vintage witches, good witches, wicked witches, futuristic witches, high fantasy witches, techno-witches, boundary-breaking witches–bring them all! Wax & Wane is an anthology of 13 fantastic witch stories to entrance and enchant readers and fans of witches everywhere. Submissions are open from October 1 through November 30, 2015. Please email Nosetouch Press at submissions nosetouchpress.com and include all submissions as an attachment (.doc or .rtf). Please list the anthology title in your subject line. No simultaneous or multiple submissions, please. Submission Schedule Submissions Accepted: October 1 through November 30, 2015 Length: 2,000 to 10,000 words Payment: $13 plus a contributor’s copy Release: May, 2016 Via: Nose Touch Press.

Deadline: November 30, 2015 Payment: $20 and a digital copy Do you love to write fantasy stories? Do you dream of princesses and dragons? Do the dragons sometimes win? Come write for me! I’m putting together my first anthology, called Swords of Darkness. Selected stories will be fantasy tales featuring a sword, though what you do beyond that is up to you. Previously published authors and newbies are both welcome to submit. What I’m looking for: Fantasy stories featuring a sword of some kind. Ideal length is 3,000-6,000 words, but stories up to 10,000 words will be considered. I’m more concerned that you tell a story to completion, rather than write to a specific word count. If you’re worried about length, just email me. I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible. Previously published works are fine, but please let me know at the time of submission. I’ll be selecting 10 stories for publication. Pay: I’ll be buying one-time digital publication rights. Pay is $20 per story + a digital copy when the book is completed. (You can do whatever you want with your story, including self-publish it or submit it to other publishers. You retain all of your rights.) Submission deadline: November 30, 2015 Publication date: January 1st, 2016 Edited by: L.C. Mortimer, author of The Dead of Night. When I’m not busy penning zombie novels, I’m a full-time non-fiction writer and editor. Where to Submit: Email submissions to [email protected]. Please don’t stress or worry about formatting. I will be reformatting everything once I select the stories, so don’t waste your time worrying. As long as I can open the story in Word, I’m happy. You will hear back from me with a yay or nay by December 15th. What to Send: Email me your story as an attachment. Please include a brief author bio. If you have social media...

Deadline: November 30th, 2015 Payment: 1% royalties for a year and a digital copy. For our Fantasy issue we are looking for serious fantasy. If you want to write about elves for instance, we are more likely to accept a story about the kind you’d find in middle earth rather than the north pole. Dark fantasy will have an easier time being accepted, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be horror to be dark, there is a difference between grim and gruesome. Also, don’t misinterpret serious to say we aren’t interested in humor, but the jokes and quips need to be ‘part’ of the story and not the ‘point’ of the story. We are flexible about sub-genre, but it should be fantasy primarily. Some examples of the type of fantasy we like are found in the works of Terry Brooks, J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and Jonathen Moeller, among many others. Overall we like quality fiction that tells a good story and takes us to amazing and mystical worlds. If in doubt, go ahead and send it to us. At worst we’ll reject your story and at best we’ll accept it. We are currently accepting short stories for our yearly anthology 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% royalties for a year and a digital copy. Word count: 2,500 – 7,000 (5,000 is preferred) Submission Window: October 1 – Nov. 30th Projected publication date: January Please follow these guidelines when submitting (Failure to comply may result in your story being deleted without being read) Standard Manuscript Formatting We do accept multiple submissions, but...

Deadline: December 1st, 2015 Payment: Royalty split and contributor's copy Technology gone wrong. Madmen playing with science beyond their control. Alien creatures with malign intent. Welcome to Dark Horizons, where the future is lost. Open to submissions until Dec 1st for stories around 5,000 words. Seeking print and digital rights. Pay is a 50/50 split with the editor and 1 copy. Books will be distributed through IPG and available to brick and mortar stores. Send stories to [email protected] Via: Elder Signs Press.

Deadline: December 1st, 2015 Payment: An equal share between contributors of 20% royalties and contributor's copies (1 physical and digital With the blessing of Black Bed Sheet Books, I've been given the opportunity to compile, design, and edit an anthology that will be published under the BBS name.  This isn't just an announcement, this is an open call to all horror writers.  Below are the submission guidelines.  If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact me. First, a little about BBS:  Black Bed Sheet Books was founded in 2008 by one, Nicholas Grabowsky.  Nicholas has been a published author since the 1980s, including the novelization ofHalloween IV.  His Wikipedia entry is extensive and worth checking out, giving some very interesting information.  His work has received positive acknowledgements from both Clive Barker and Wes Craven. To learn more about BBS check them out here, where you can also find their brand new 2015/2016 catalog. Also, do note, the picture to the left is not the working cover of the book.  It's a tentative mockup. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES for "Bumps in the Road" How long can my story be?  Between 1,000 and 7,000 words. What's the theme?  Road trips.  Long stretches of road with an exciting destination ahead of you, whether alone or with a group of friends and/or family, can be a great time.  We don't want to hear about those good times.  We want to hear about the regrettable ones.  The unfortunate things that happened along the way.  Whatever it is, you must include a road trip of some sort; be it car, bicycle, motorcycle, hitchhiking, one of those sweet custom 70s vans. You get the idea.  This should leave you with a wide avenue (see what I did there?) to work with.  I'm not even going to give...

Deadline: December 1st, 2015 Payment: 5 cents per word Note: While paranormal might not apply this would be a good place for some of your suspense work if it involves crime Next year, Broken River Books will be releasing its first anthology, titled The Broken River Review. It will be a collection of short fiction, poetry, and essays, all centered around crime and crime fiction. Here are the guidelines: 3,000 words or fewer Reprints okay Deadline of December 1st, 2015 Payment is 5 cents per word Submissions go to [email protected] Other than that, have fun with it! As with the novel submissions, please familiarize yourself with the Broken River catalog, so that you might tailor your submission to our particular aesthetic. We like fiction that plays with and subverts tropes in interesting way. Special preference goes to crime fiction, or at least work that leans in that direction. Via: The Broken River Review.