Events

Deadline: July 30th, 2018. Payment: $5 for stories up to 1000 words, and $10 for any story 1001-2000 words. Note: Reprints allowed The 80s represented a time of commercial indulgence and general cultural insanity. It is the decade in which weird and gross became mainstream. Excess was the hallmark of Hollywood. Blockbusters, shoot-em-ups, futuristic dystopian wastelands, mutants and beastmen and cyborgs, and everything was covered in slime from gumball machines. It was a great time to be alive. It was an even greater time to be a kid. 80s in Blood aims destroy conventional nostalgia and publish fiction that takes the 80s beyond the 80s. We seek the 80s version of the 80s: how characters in an exaggerated 80s movie might have envisioned an idealized 80s. If you have seen The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Brain Damage, Steel Dawn, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Terror Vision, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Repo Man, Miami Connection, Howard the Duck, Big Trouble in Little China, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and you thought, “These movies just weren’t ridiculous enough for me,” that’s what 80s in Blood is looking for. Stories that examine the day-glo New Wave experience, or the Satanic Panic heyday of Heavy Metal, or the robotic grooves of Electro, or universes built around idolizing Madonna and Prince. The Cold War. WWF Wrestling. The Drug War. Monster Trucks. Break Dancing. Saturday Morning Cartoons. Lawn Darts. Jelly Bracelets. Mr. T. Cabbage Patch Kids. Video Arcades. Skate Boarding. Anything 80s is totally fair game for these absurd, weird, and gonzo spoof-homages. DEADLINE: July 30, 2018. SUBMISSION Guidelines: We are seeking only the finest FLASH FICTION, PROSE-POEMS, or ABSURD ARTICLES 2000 words or less. If we receive a submission that is over 2000 words, we will not only delete the submission unread, we will also delete the author...

Deadline: July 30th, 2018 Payment: $5.00 Jersey Pines Ink is pleased to announce our first anthology, Crypt-Gnats: Horror you’ve been itching to read. It will be published as both a print and an e-book. Stories must be fiction and totally of your own creation. Stories should/could involve cemeteries or other forms of deceased placements including graveyards, mausoleums, cremations, mysterious disappearances, etc. Your imagination is the limit. Please heed these guidelines: Stories can be no longer than 3,000 words.  Flash is acceptable. Minimal graphic violence… very little gore… prefers suggested blood and guts to detailed.  No detailed rape scenes, or abuse to children. Standard manuscript format. We do not accept multiple, simultaneous or unsolicited reprint submissions. Submit doc, docx, and rtf only. Your name and contact information must be at the top of the first page of the story. Name, title, and page numbers should be in the top header on following pages. Manuscripts not following the guidelines will be deleted unread. Payment: $5.00 (PayPal). Submission window June 1 to July 30, 2018 Return time: Three months after the anthology closes, (October 31) Submit to: [email protected] This email address will become inactive July 31, 2018 Any changes or news will be listed at https://www.jerseypinesink.com Via: Jersey Pines Ink.

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: $1,000 for fiction or nonfiction. $250 for a poem, a group of short poems, or (the rare) short short. What We Publish LITMAG PRINT Fiction Short stories, novellas Nonfiction Creative nonfiction; essays on literature, art, culture, and music; biography, memoir Poetry No restrictions on style or form LITMAG ONLINE Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry Up to 4,000 words. LITMAG CONTESTS LitMag‘s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction  First Prize: $3,500, publication, and agency review by Sobel Weber Associates (clients include: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Richard Russo, Laura Lee Smith). The contest is now closed. Winner and finalists will be announce on March 31, 2018.  Full contest guidelines will again be available again on Submittable when the next contest period opens. Full guidelines are also available on our blog. What We Look For  Work that moves and amazes us. We are drawn to big minds, large hearts, sharp pens Word Count Limits Print: 15,000 words Online: 4,000 words What to Send One story or essay at a time, up to five poems. Please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again. Previously Unpublished We do not consider work that has previously been published either in print or online (including personal blogs etc.) What We Pay LitMag Print: Upon acceptance, we pay $1,000 for fiction or nonfiction; $250 for a poem, a group of short poems, or (the rare) short short LitMag Online: Upon acceptance, we pay $250 What We Acquire LitMag acquires First English-language print and electronic rights. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication. When to Submit Regular submissions: Fiction is open: 10/1/17 to 11/30/17; 2/1/18 to 7/31/18* Poetry is open:  9/1/17 to 11/30/17; 3/1/18 to 7/31/18 Nonfiction is open: 8/1/17 to 11/30/17; 1/1/18 to 5/31/18 LitMag Online is open: 9/1/17 to 11/30/17; 2/1/18 to 6/30/18 *There is a submission fee for fiction only. There will be a window of...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: .03CAD per word and a contributor's copy There are folks for whom the question of whether Cthulhu has two eyes or six is a vitally important one. Individuals that believe, somehow, that a dinner of tinned spaghetti and ice cream with a reanimated H. P. Lovecraft would be the height of both culinary and intellectual pleasure. Scholars who feel that The Horror at Red Hook is a timely warning about, well, you know… those other people. Esteemed biographers of weird fiction luminaries who reveal their foaming insecurity at the changing of the guard, or the form of a literary award. Entities who dissolve with glee at the slapping of some tentacles on a meme, thus rendering it “Lovecraftian”. Yes, they’re out there, in their seeming thousands, trolling social media, fawning over the dead, podcasting their paranoia. Yes, they are slouching roughly towards Arkham and Providence and fabled Y’ha-nthlei, to dwell in fossilized canon and geeky glory, forever.   INNSMOUTHBREATHERS.   Martian Migraine Press announces an open call for submissions to our latest anthology project, INNSMOUTHBREATHERS: Cautionary Fables of Mythos Fandom! We are looking for humourous stories of a certain kind of Cthulhu Mythos fan: the rabid Lovecraft worshipper, the defender of the outmoded and outclassed, the pulp reader for whom Weird Fiction peaked somewhere in the middle of the last century. (The 20th, for those keeping track of such things!) We’re looking for tales that pit Innsmouthbreathers against all manner of real and imagined horrors: shoggoths with Social Justice agendas, politically active Deep Ones, enlightened Mi-Go, and Nick Mamatas*. Make them lovable, make them loathsome, make us feel their triumphs and defeats! Put us in their basements, their garrets, their comic shops and conventions and pop-culture covens, and put us in their Cthulhu parody t-shirts while you’re at it. Mmm, is that a...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: $150.00 and 2 contributor's copies Life After All — an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/pastoral apocalyptic LGBTQIA+ anthology — The end of the world is a dark, bleak place. Life is full of grit, misery, and barely scraping by. But if humans excel at anything, it’s making the best of a bad situation, and the end of the world would be no different. Less Than Three Press invites you to submit stories about life after the end of the world being far from bleak and hopeless. We want to see stories of hardened apocalypse survivors building new lives and homes with their found families; gentle robots terraforming the ruined remains of the Earth; your post-Earth space settlers slice-of-life. THE DETAILS: Deadline is July 31, 2018. Put SUBMISSIONS: TITLE (where TITLE is your title) in the subject line. Stories should be at least 8000 words and should not exceed approx 15000 words in length. Stories must be about a post-apocalyptic society. Stories must have a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) end. Any sub-genre is gladly accepted: sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, steampunk, etc. LT3 always welcomes representation of all genders and nonbinary or agender characters. All usual LT3 submission guidelines apply. Life After All is a general release anthology, which means authors will receive a flat payment of $150.00 once LT3 has a signed contract. Examples: Enchanted Soles, To the Victor. Authors will receive one copy each of the ebook formats LT3 produces and two copies of the paperback compilation. Stories should be complete before submitting, and as edited as possible—do not submit a first draft. They can be submitted in any format (doc, docx, rtf, odt, etc) preferably single spaced in an easy to read font (Times, Calibri, Arial) with no special formatting (no elaborate section separation,...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Winner: $100 and the coveted Bloody Axe Award Note: This only has 1 winner which we usually wouldn't fit but these guys do a GREAT show. The submission window for Deathscribe 2018, the 11th Annual Festival of Horror Radio Plays, is NOW OPEN. Submissions are accepted through our online submission form until July 31st. Every year we seek 10-minute audio drama scripts that are genuinely scary, imaginative, chilling, intelligent, suspenseful, horrific or downright grotesque. Writers may submit up to two audio drama scripts to Deathscribe in any given year. Five scripts will be selected from all submissions. These five pieces will be performed on stage in front of a live audience. The writer of the winning piece, chosen by a celebrity panel of judges, will receive the coveted Bloody Axe Award, as well as a $100 cash prize. Click here to SUBMIT Guidelines: PDF format is strongly preferred. If PDF is not possible, then only MS Word please. All scripts must have a title page with all contact information, but NO identifying information should appear anywhere else in the document. Scripts must be no more than TEN MINUTES in length, and should follow audio drama format. An example of proper audio drama format can be found here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/bbcradioscene.pdf The Deathscribe experience includes performing the pieces on stage with Foley artists and a band creating the sound effects and music live. Therefore, scripts must be ready to produce, including direction for sound and music cues. Sorry, but submissions cannot include usage of copyrighted music. Writers may submit up to two (2) scripts for Deathscribeconsideration in any year. NO SCREENPLAYS. SCREENPLAYS WILL BE DISCARDED. WE KNOW THEM WHEN WE SEE THEM. (Nothing against screenplays. But this is a radio play festival.) DO NOT submit full-length plays for consideration in Deathscribe. They will be discarded. If you wish to submit a full-length horror...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: $25 Left Hand Publishers announces their new call for submissions for Mindscapes Unimagined and Mysteries Unimagined. Submissions open in early June, and close at the end of July. Do not submit before the submission date stated in the call (see below). Mindscapes Unimagined will focus on the supernatural, horror, fantasy, urban fantasy, and any speculative fiction. Mysteries Unimagined is much as it seems: spotlighting mysteries, thrillers, crime drama, and unanswered questions. All short stories submitted MUST have a twist toward the end that catches the reader off guard and surprises them with more than a touch of irony or shock. No simultaneous submissions, please. We ask that you do not submit a story to us and to another market at the same time. This has come up a number of times. It wastes your time and ours if we read, edit, review, and possibly accept your short story only to have it be accepted somewhere else at the same time. In order for our titles to be unique and original, we insist that all submissions be previously unpublished works and properly formatted. Please read and adhere to ALL the guidelines. Mindscapes & Mysteries Unimagined In our Call for Submissions for our anthologies we accept only short stories. Novels, novellas, and short story collections (as an entire book) should be submitted to https://lefthandpublishers.com/open-call-for-submissions/. We will review your submission and contact you on the viability of Left Hand Publishers accepting it to be published. Please use this form to submit your manuscript. If you do not receive a receipt of your submission within 72 hours, please email us at [email protected] to confirm that we have received your document. WIN A FREE AUTHOR WEBSITE Submitting your story automatically registers you in our Register To Win contest where you could win a FREE author website (some restrictions apply). It does NOT register you in our Win A Free Kindle contest. In...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: 1.5 cents/word with a minimum payment of $30 Submission Guidelines:  New Myths will no longer consider submissions of fiction, nonfiction and poetry outside of specific reading periods. These periods run from June 1-July 31 and from January 1-February 28. Artwork, requests for book reviews, and other correspondence can still be submitted at any time.   No Multiple Fiction Submissions Please do not send more than one fiction submission at a time. Wait until you receive an answer before sending a second story. No more than three fiction submissions total from any one author will be considered during a given reading period.    Poetry is different. See below. Contact information:   Please send fiction, nonfiction and poetry to [email protected].   Please send queries for book reviews to [email protected]   All other correspondence, including art submissions, to [email protected] NewMyths.com publishes speculative fiction of every stripe except graphic horror. We like each issue to have an eclectic variety of stories:  funny, frightening, hard and soft sci-fi, adventure, thoughtful, etc. Every issue includes at least one nonfiction piece dealing with some aspect of science, myth, folklore, or literature as it relates to speculative fiction, usually of the well-researched essay variety rather than opinion or editorial. Speculative poetry is welcome. We tend to receive a lot of free verse and not enough "form" poetry. We also buy one piece of artwork per issue, and occasionally commission one. We publish book reviews of recent releases about every two weeks. If you have written a review, or have a book coming out soon, please contact us. Reading an issue is the best way to know if your submission is a fit for NewMyths.com or not. Responses take 60-90 days on average. Feel free to send a follow-up query after that point. Submissions...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: 6 cents per word for original work and 3 cents per word for reprints. Note: Reprints allowed We are looking for speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology, and for artwork for this site. Fiction Guidelines Technical details Stories can be up to 8000 9000 words (thanks, Patreon supporters!). This is a hard limit--our submission system will enforce it. We pay 6 cents/word for original stories (or original translations of stories that have not previously appeared in English), and 3 cents/word for reprints. Authors are paid once we've agreed on edits and signed a contract, prior to earliest publication (generally on our Patreon page). We are seeking 6 months' exclusive worldwide publication rights for original works (with exceptions for established Best of the Year anthologies), and non-exclusive worldwide print and electronic rights thereafter for both original works and reprints. We want to publish your story online in our webzine and keep it there indefinitely. We're also acquiring the right to offer ebook versions of the stories we publish, as Patreon rewards or for purchase; and to publish a print and ebook anthology of all the stories that appeared in the webzine over a given 1- or 2-year period. For original fiction, we want to be the only place publishing it for the first 6 months; after that, you're welcome to publish it anywhere else in any format you like. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Don't resubmit a story we've rejected unless we request revisions. However, if we rejected a story of yours for the Mysterion anthology, you can send it to us again, once, if we held your story for further consideration, or we rejected it with specific critiques of the story and you revised the story to address those critiques. (But if we've already rejected your story twice, it's probably not worth sending it to...

Deadline: July 31st, 2018 Payment: 8 cents per word NOTE: During past submission window there were some problems with email notifications getting through to users.  If you think of it when submitting, write down the tracking number shown in your browser; you can use that to check the status at any time.(normally that would also be emailed in an auto-notification).  If you didn’t write that down, you can query, preferably by just letting us know your submitting email address. David Steffen is the editor, who you may also know from using the Submission Grinder writing tool or reading the Long List Anthology series.   Last year Diabolical Plots became a SFWA-qualifying market, so if you have a personal goal to join SFWA, making a sale here would help you toward that goal.   FICTION OVERVIEW Genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have speculative element, even horror). Word count: 3500 words or less. This is a firm limit.  If you submit a longer story, it will be rejected unread and that will count as a submission. Do not query to ask permission to submit something longer–the answer will be no. Pay rate: 8 cents per word (more than the minimum professional rate as deemed by SFWA) Multiple submissions: A total of TWO submissions per author during this submission window.  You don’t have to wait for one response to send the second one–you can just send both whenever you want during the window.  We’re aiming to publish a couple stories of complementary length per month–one very short with one longer or two middling length ones–so I suggest that it would be a good idea to submit a short and long yourself if you have them available. Simultaneous submissions: No.  We understand we are tying up your story while you wait, and so we strive to respond as quickly as possible.  While each...

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: $5 for flash fiction and $10 to $20 (depending on length) for short stories Issue #11: A is for Aliens, Apocalypse and Armageddon  (Fall/Winter 2018) Alien abduction, human experimentation and assault by anal probe. Deadly deep space. Invasive artificial intelligence. Invaders from Mars, extraterrestrial beings and big-eyed, naked Greys. It's the end the world as we know it, and we do not feel fine. ​          A note from the editors: we're looking for boundary-trampling, genre-splicing stories here. Skip the standard brain-eaters and ho-hum zombies. Give us something different, something much, much worse. Submission deadline: 8/01/2018 We are not afraid." Body Parts Magazine is an online literary magazine of horror, erotica, speculative fiction, essays and art. Each themed issue honors Eros and Thanatos, the Greek gods of libido and mortido—life and death. We celebrate the vast and various expressions of dreams and darkness, our primitive desires and urges, and seek to encounter—and embrace—those shadowy monsters who dwell in the dimly lit corners of human experience.  Upcoming Themes Submissions for each issue are accepted through the last day of each reading period (if specified). You are welcome to submit material for any issue, simply indicate which issue you would like your work to be considered for. Be advised: we generally begin reading submissions for ​a particular issue after the close of its submission deadline, so don't panic if you haven't heard back before then. Body Parts accepts well-written, thoughtfully structured horror, erotic horror, speculative fiction, dark fantasy (including fairy tales and mythology), exceptional stories about ghosts, ghouls, monsters and wretched creatures, Gothic fiction, and all combinations of the above. Our boundaries are few and far between. Before you submit, please note that: We no longer accept reprints. Emails with attachments and stories submitted after the deadline will be deleted unread.  Fiction Flash Fiction: 1,000 words or fewer. Short Stories: up to 8,000 words. Serialized or Longer...

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Fall: The window was open just enough to let in the cool night air. Due date: August 1, 2018 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. (Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines.) 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...

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: £10 per 1,000 words for prose, and £10 per poem. Note: Reprints Allowed Blood Bath Litzine is open for submissions of short fiction and poetry on the theme of BODIES Bodies are sites of terror and desire; they can be politicised, policed and possessed, becoming either a haven of pleasure or a hellish prison of flesh. We want to read your weirdest, most innovative stories on BODIES. THIS COULD BE: Body horror; Gory existential dread. We want to feel uncomfortable inside; give us stories that leave a dark, greasy mark on your soul. The body politic; oppressive control over bodies. Ideas surrounding body autonomy, dystopian regimes, AI and robotics, all welcome. The creepier the better. Changing bodies; Violent possessions, Weird transformations. If it involves dentata or an unexpected hunger for flesh, send it our way. Body snatchers, visceral displays, personal hauntings; we’re into it. Just to be clear these are not chapters or subheadings, just some ideas to get you going. We’re open to any and all types of horror, dark fantasy, speculative or science fiction, so don’t hold back. WE LOVE: Experimental poetry or prose; we’ll do our best to print your original language or innovative typography. Socially aware fiction. Stories that have something to say (or scream) about the modern world. Stories told through a feminist lens are always going to make us happy. We particularly encourage submissions from people of colour, trans people, nonbinary people, women, femmes and other members of the LGBTQ community. Genre fiction; though it has to contain an element of horror. We are interested in fantasy, science-fiction, erotica…as long as it has a dark edge. For a more visual representation of what we love, check out our Instagram page, @bloodbathlitzine. WE DON’T LOVE: Exploitative or otherwise offensive portrayals of harmful...

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: $50 Old Sins, a (very) small publishing cooperative, is soliciting for the following mixed-genre anthology. We are following up the Beyond Steampunk anthology with its sequel, Beyond Steampunk: Fake News. Real conspiracies are everywhere in history, from failures like the Gunpowder Plot to the successful Gulf of Tonkin incident to the variously successful Russian attempts to infiltrate multiple governments. Let’s not write about those. Let’s write about conspiracies that have been debunked thoroughly but do so through the lens of Alternate History, where they have actually happened. Let’s write about the second shooter, chemtrails, the Illuminati, Lizard People, Greys, the Loch Ness monster, Pope Joan, Templars worshipping Satan, and so many other rumored conspiracies throughout history as if they were real. In keeping with theme of Beyond Steampunk, no stories will be accepted if they are set in the British Isles during the Victorian era or are steampunk. Nor will we be accepting stories set during World War II as those have been done to death. Technical issues: We will be paying a flat rate of $50. We are looking for works between 1000 and 6000 words. The due date is August 1st. The earlier, the more time we have to consider it and offer suggestions. We will be publishing roughly a dozen works, depending on the total length of all of them. If this is successful, or we get enough good submissions, we will be creating another volume of this anthology. All works must be PG-13 or less. Authors will retain all copyright to their works and will be able to resell or reuse them. We only retain distribution rights for said works for the duration of the publication of this volume. Contact us at [email protected] or via our facebook page, com/oldsins/

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: $25 We’re all grown up right? Or are we? Do things in the night still make you wanna cry to mama? Well you can’t anymore, she doesn’t live here. Time to face your demons, man or woman. Mama ain’t here, but all she ever wanted was to hear your laughter, and to know you’re safe. You’re not safe. It’s just you now. But you won’t let mama down, right? Did mama tell you if you did that thing with your face it would freeze that way? Or that pop rocks and cola would make your stomach explode? Give us your funniest, grossed out horrors about the things and creatures you were warned about by your mama, God rest her soul (if applicable, of course). We want stories that tread that line between cringe worthy and shudder filled, tales that will make you laugh uncomfortably while being genuinely terrified. If you can strike that balance, we want your story. Your story must include a reference to Mama, or it won't fit the anthology theme. Diversity and Inclusiveness: Yes, we want stories from all sectors, from all kinds of people! We encourage submissions from women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. We seek to include writers from all walks of life who have a scary/funny story to tell. The Details: Please see our generic submission guidelines page for how to submit. Submission Period: May 27, 2018 to August 1, 2018 Reading Period: August 2, 2018 to December 31, 2018 Author Payment: $25 per accepted story. Via: Jolly Horror.

Deadline: August 1st, 2018.  Payment: $10.00 per 1000/w (to a max of $100). No Reprints allowed. We are seeking short stories based on our ongoing cryptozoology comic series "Beastly". These will be prequels, and explain how the various cryptids came to be captured. You can check out the comic at https://tapas.io/series/Beastly Your work has to include at least one of the two main characters (Graeme and / or Mr. Rutherford) in some capacity. Other than that, you are free to chose from most Cryptids (although if unsure just get in touch), and kill off who you please! Submission Information: Copyright to be included, but you will have the right to use as part of your CV / writing samples. Simultaneous submissions: okay. Multiple submissions: okay. Submission window: Now through August 1. Payment: If selected, rate of $10.00 per 1000/w (to a max of $100). Accepted lengths: anything (but noting the maximum payment of $100). Send your submissions or queries by e-mail to: dannyrichardwriter @ hotmail.com

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: Royalty Split Stories: You keep copyright and all rights associated with the story. You give Millhaven Press first North American print rights, and permission to use the story in any anthology stemming from the original printing (such as a “best of” type anthology). Stories should be between 2,000-8,000 words (we may accept something shorter than 2,000 words or something longer than 8,000 but it has to be phenomenal). Do not submit a story for reprint. We are only interested in previously unpublished material (a story published on a personal blog is ok). No simultaneous submissions. Please do not submit the story to another outlet while waiting for a response from us. Multiple submissions are ok, but we will only print one story per author, per issue. If you aren’t sure which is your best, send more than one and we’ll decide. Use an easily readable font, double-space as .doc or .docx. Send as an e-mail attachment to [email protected]. Send a cover letter with contact information. Use story title, genre and approximate word count in the subject header of the e-mail. This is a quarterly print publication and the deadlines for the genre themes are as follows. Spring: Science Fiction/Fantasy (Submission Deadline 2/1/19) Summer: Mystery/Crime/Espionage (Submission Deadline 5/1/19) Autumn: Horror/Dark Fantasy (Submission Deadline 8/1/18) Winter: Action/Adventure/Western (Submission Deadline 11/1/18) We realize a lot of stories cross genres (the best usually do). Submit your story with all possible genres in the subject and we’ll sort it out. Not all submitted stories will be published. Stories are chosen solely by the publishers. We will read all submissions and respond with an acceptance or rejection letter via e-mail (Generally, within 2 weeks). If accepted, a standard royalty contract will be sent shortly after the closing submission deadline for that...

Deadline: August 1st, 2018 Payment: Royalties Note 1: Canadians only! Note 2: My apologies for the short window, was just notified of this one! Open for submissions from April 1, 2018 – August 1, 2018   SUMMARY Canadian Dreadful will be a collection of short stories between 2,500 and 10,000 words, each one set in one of the provinces or territories of Canada. We are looking for horror stories written by Canadians that employ elements of dark fantasy or magical realism. We welcome new authors and well experienced authors. Dark Fantasy combines fantasy and horror and creates a suspenseful, dread-inducing mood for the reader. A movie like “Pan’s Labyrinth” is an excellent example of this genre. You are welcome to utilize the darker elements of fantasy just as long as the story takes place the real world, not a mythical one. Magical Realism or “The Unreliable Narrator” is a style of fiction where magical, fantastical, or supernatural elements are brought into the “real world” of the story—and by the end of it, your reader will have to decide whether or not the magical events actually took place or not. Is the narrator crazy, telling the truth, or deliberately lying? Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an example of this. So are the novels (and movies) “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel and “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson. Another movie that employs magical realism is “Big Fish”, directed by Tim Burton. Tell us a horror story that leaves the reader questioning whether or not the narrator was reliable. Leave “clues” for the reader to interpret as either confirmations or negations of the narrative. And most of all, let your reader feel a weighing sense of dread from the first to the last page. Another goal for this anthology...

Deadline: August 5th, 2018 Payment: First place: $120 | Second place: $80 | Third place: $40 3-IN-1 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 3 Themes—1 Submission Period PRIZES PER THEME: First place: $120 | Second place: $80 | Third place: $40  SUBMISSION PERIOD: July 1, 2018–August 5, 2018 4,000 to 8,000 words, with three winners selected from each theme. NO REPRINTS. The winners of each call will be published in the ASTERISK ANTHOLOGY VOLUME 2 releasing on Halloween 2018. THEMES: Southern Gothic Southern Gothic wallows like a feral hog in the ambiance of the Gothic macabre, fused with the dark underbelly of the American South. With its lingering themes of insanity, desperation and decay, the Southern Gothic exhumes the pervasive specters of bygone rituals and pervasive racial obsessions of the South in lushly lyrical fashion. Nosetouch Press welcomes original short stories of the Southern Gothic, and encourages writers to expand its frontiers, while embracing its terrifying traditions. Email entries to [email protected] | .doc or .rtf format • Please state “AA2-Southern Gothic” in your subject line. One entry per category, per person. ————————–————————–——– CREATURE FEATURES Monsters have always enticed people. They can embody larger than life, elemental forces that threaten the everyday, established order of nature, itself. The aberrant nature of monstrosity communicates a fundamental wrongness or evil. Nosetouch Press wants writers to summon unforgettable creatures in their stories, unique monsters that shake the ground and make waves, bringing terror wherever they go. Email entries to [email protected] | .doc or .rtf format • Please state “AA2-Creature Features” in your subject line. One entry per category, per person. ————————–————————–——– Cursed Things The history of cursed things—objects and places—is an ancient one. The supernatural threat implied in curses carries a special kind of narrative weight that can terrify and haunt anyone who encounters them. Nosetouch Press...

Deadline: August 13th, 2018 Tor.com Publishing will soon be reopening to unsolicited novella submissions! Starting July 30, 2018, Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen will be reading and evaluating original novellas submitted by authors to https://tor.moksha.io/publication/tornovellas. You can find full guidelines here, and we highly recommend you read the guidelines before submitting. We will be open for two weeks beginning on July 30 around 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00) and ending on August 13 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00). For those of you who held off submitting in May, this is your moment! If you did submit in May and have not yet received a response, fear not: we are still reading and will be responding to every submission. Until the end of this open period, Tor.com Publishing will be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words in both the science fiction and fantasy genres. If it’s speculative and fits the bill, we want to take a look at it. Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen all actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that. In addition to reviewing the guidelines, we also encourage you to take a look at our existing list to get a sense of the work our current authors are producing and Tor.com Publishing’s vision and tastes. Good luck—we look forward to reading your work. Via: Tor.com.

Deadline: August 13th, 2018 Payment: $15 and contributor’s copy Theme: What we abandon begins to rot from the inside, while the outside succumbs to the ravages of nature and time. Unsightly creatures take root, protecting their new feeding grounds with ferocious antipathy. Darkness fills the debris-filled corridors, and in the darkness lurk all of the things that make our skin crawl. An abandoned building is a place of death and gloom. The living are not welcome there. But there they'll go. Because the living are nothing if not curious--and inimitably stupid. Simultaneous Submissions: Sure, but please let us know that it's a simultaneous submission and tell us immediately if it was accepted somewhere else. Multiple Submissions: Yes Reprints: Yes, but let us know where it has been previously printed and make sure you have the rights to have it reprinted. Word Count: Up to 10k words. Formatting: This is a very good guide if you have any questions. You can't really go wrong with it. But, if you don't feel like reading that, here's the down and dirty of it. Italicize italics. Do not underline Don't use spaces to lead paragraphs. Use tab or, even better, the formatting options to get the indent. For scene breaks, use either "#" or "***". Use an easy to read font, like Arial or Times New Roman in a reasonable size (about 12 point). Double space your work. Submission Please make sure to include a synopsis of the piece in your cover letter. If you're not sure how to do that, here's a good collection of articles to learn from. Yes, even it's poetry or flash. Just a quick line or two helps us out a lot. Aside from that, just be yourself. Tell us anything you think we should know about you or your work. What inspired you to write...

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: 6 cents per word Welcome to A Punk Rock Future. Get ready for an anthology from Zsenon Publishing that will feature flash fiction as fast as a punk rock song as well as longer stories, all with a gut punch and revealing a punk rock future. You may ask yourself: Are we already in this punk rock future or did it die in the late 1970s? Or is it still coming? We’ll find out soon in this anthology… So you may have thought Punk Rock was going to change the world. That Punk RULES. Or are we still here with… Either way, we’re looking for stories from you that will explore this future, whether it’s near or far away. We’d like to see dystopias, utopias, or something in-between; anything with a punk rock sensibility/ethos; alternative history; the promise of punk; the failure of punk; music-inspired stories; science fiction; fantasy; or horror. No matter the genre label, stories must have a speculative element. This isn’t an anthology of steampunk, solarpunk, silkpunk, ecopunk (those are all fine genres), or whatever punk. We won’t rule out stories that touch on those niches but be warned: Stories should be the real deal, punk punk. Surprise and amaze us. A punk strain runs through SFFH so we know that great stories are out there. Want a recent fantastic example? The Big So-So by Erica Satifka. Unfortunately, you can’t get Satifka’s short story online but you might pick up this issue of Interzone to see what we like. Or read Sarah Pinsker’s 2015 Nebula Award winner Our Lady of the Open Road, published in Asimov’s. It, too, has the vibe we want. In A Punk Rock Future, the shortest of these stories will be confined to the 350-500 word range, which...

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: $0.07 per word and contributor's copy Born from a desire to produce high quality, pertinent publications – small collections of relevant excellence – Crossed Genres is trying something new. It’s a pop-up anthology: 7-10 stories plus original cover art, published very quickly. We’re open to fiction submissions NOW; submissions will close in ONE MONTH, on August 15. There will be a short crowdfunding project, and assuming it’s successful, we will publish the micro-anthology shortly before US election day on Tuesday November 6, 2018, less than 4 months from now! For our first microanthology, we’re looking for science fiction and fantasy stories about Resisting Fascism – a subject already appearing in many writers’ recent works. Whatever that may look like, small scale rebellion or worldwide revolution; set in any time period past, present or future, or even in alternate universes.   FICTION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Word Count: 250-8000 .doc, .docx or .rtf files only Standard Manuscript Format preferred No Courier font Name, contact information and submission word count on the first page No simultaneous submissions. No reprints. Email your submission to [email protected]. Be sure to put “Story Submission” in the subject line. DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15   PAY RATE & RIGHTS Pay will be $0.07 per word (possibly more depending on crowdfunded stretch goals). Authors will also receive a gratis print and ebook copy of the anthology. Crossed Genres takes first worldwide English-language ebook and print rights, exclusively for one (1) year, and non-exclusively for an addition four (4) years. There will be an option to extend the non-exclusive rights for additional compensation. QUESTIONS Please email [email protected] with any questions regarding the anthology or your submission. Via: Crossed Genres.

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy if you need to know what Planetary Romance is, you can click here. Max of 3,000 words As a monthly zine, we are always looking for short stories, flash fiction and even artwork. Genre fiction is a PLUS! Normally the weirder the better, but that isn’t always true. Short stories should be around the 3k word mark. Flash fiction could be as short as you want. As of now, the only payment we can offer is contributor copy. We hope to change that in the near future. If you are wanting to submit a serialized story, please message us first with a small pitch and how many issues you would need to tell the story and we will get back to you promptly. The submissions page can be found here. Via: Weird Mask.

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: $60 RAWR! Do you like robot dinosaurs and want to join our amazing line-up?  Well, have we got awesomsaurus news for you! August 1st thru 15th, 2018, we will be open to general fiction submissions!  (Please do not send any stories before the open submissions period, as they will not be read.) Want a sneak peak at the guidelines? Read on! WHAT IS THIS? An open call for ROBOT DINOSAURS! stories (we will be accepting between 3 to 4). These stories will be ebook/print anthology exclusive—they will not be immediately available online, though you are welcome to sell reprint rights after a three-month exclusivity period of the anthology’s publication in ebook and print. RIGHTS: three-month exclusivity upon publication, and non-exclusive archival rights for the anthology (ebook and print) thereafter. All other rights (audio, film, etc) are yours. We will ask to use excerpt from your story as promotional material on the website (usually a few paragraphs at most). DETAILS: Payment is $60 USD (payable via PayPal, preferably, and check if in the US). Story must feature a robot dinosaur of some kind. Stories must be written in English, original, and unpublished. Story must be between 750 and 1,200 words long. (You may query for longer works, but the flat fee remains the same. We will not consider anything over 2k.) Strong language, sexual content, and violence are fine–please no erotica. We prefer PG-13 stories to match the general tone of the project. Story must be original and not use copyrighted or franchised characters or settings. Simultaneous and multiple submissions: yes! Sim subs (sending the story to ROBOT DINOSAURS and another market at the same time) are fine, so long as you let us know if the story is accepted elsewhere as soon as possible. Multiple submissions (up to three per author) are also fine, but please...

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy Submitting to Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly As the name suggests, submissions to OPQ have a quarterly window. Deadline is February 15th for Submissions for Spring Quarter (Ostara and Beltane) Deadline is May 15th for Submissions for Summer Quarter (Litha and Lugnhasadh) Deadline is August 15th for Submission for Autumn Quarter (Mabon and Samhain) Deadline is November 15th for Submission for Winter Quarter (Yule and Imbolc)   General Submissions Guidelines: Please send your submission in an email where the subject line is Submission: Title, where Title is the name of your article or piece, to [email protected].  Note that our submissions can often become backed up due to the number of people on staff, so please allow up to four weeks for us to respond.  If queries or submissions have been unanswered after six weeks, please send us an email with ‘QUERY’ in the subject line. Please indicate which prospective issue your piece is being submitted for. What We Are Looking For: Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly is looking for non-fiction and fiction submissions for our new quarterly publication. OPQ is a quarterly magazine dedicated to folk religion, spirituality, and paganism of all paths and stripes. Whether your article is over Witchcraft, Fey Work, Reiki, Heathenry, or other equally important paths, we would love to feature the independent voices of our community.  Though we are located in Oklahoma and as a result are focused on our local community, we also want to hear from those in other states, locations, and countries. Part of the appeal of Paganism and other nontraditional paths is the diversity of thought and culture inherent in our worship and way of life. To that end, we will not accept work that is derogatory, violent, or condemnatory of other ways, walks, or paths in life. We will not judge submissions based on the client’s gender, gender identity, religion, age, spirituality, ethnicity, race,...

Deadline: August 21st, 2018 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words Colp is our 'anything goes' anthology collection. Expect to see a little bit of this and a little bit of that within each issue, so feel free to submit stories from any genre. Current theme: Sky's The Limit The sky's the limit when it comes to Colp's sophomore collection. We are looking for stories that take the reader and their imagination up, up and away. An ill-fated plane trip? Inexplicable cloud formations? Star-crossed lovers enjoying a romantic sunset? Feel free to take us anywhere within the realm of Earth's atmosphere, but please try to avoid ending up in outer space. Colp is for everyone and therefore we are willing to read stories that fall into any genre. So, no matter whether your story is a horror, romance, sci-fi or historical fiction piece, please send it on through. We also encourage new and unpublished writers to take the leap and get in touch. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines below and if there are specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: 'Colp -  Sky's The Limit - *Story Title*'. Word count: 1000 - 5000 words (we're willing to consider longer or shorter if the story is good) Deadline: August 21 2018 Payment:  AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words General guidelines: Please no extreme erotica or stories that feature excessive violence or vulgarity (unless otherwise specified). All stories should be formatted appropriately. Please see here for more details. Ensure that your name, address, and email contact and word count...

Deadline: August 22nd, 2018 Payment: $25 We at Three Crows want your stories set in dark, weird, and gritty fantasy, horror, and sci-fi setting, with complex characters making morally ambiguous decisions. Think of a lovechild of Andjei Sapkowski, Naomi Novik, Joe Abercombie, Geroge R.R. Martin, H.P. Lovecraft, and China Mieville. All submitted works must be: previously unpublished stories at a maximum of 4,000 words In English, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and German in a non-exhausted (think - LotR, GoT, Shannara and etc.) fantasy or sci-fi setting Slavic folklore and setting are of highest priority of the highest possible quality must be submitted in Standard Manuscript Format submitted electronically in .doc or .docx format No simultaneous and no multiple submissions until the next submission cycle. Send your work to editor (at) threecrowsmagazine (dot) com with the following in the subject line: Short Fiction Submission: <Story Title> In the body of the email (address it to Alex), tell us the following: Story Title. Word count. A 1-2 sentence summary of the story. A list of works published in any other paid markets (no self-published works). A 1-2 sentence about yourself for the bio. PAYMENT Since we are only starting the payment won't be in line with SFWA guidelines yet, but we pay $25 (USD) per story. ART GUIDELINES Technically we expect artwork to be available in a 300dpi .tif. Portrait 5.5" wide by 8.5 high. Artwork for covers must include a 1/4" bleed. It shouldn't be outright genre-ish. We prefer 2-d digital and traditional painting. No photography or photorealistic paintings. If you're interested - leave a link to a gallery or send your images to editor at threecrowsmagazine dot com and we well evaluate if it is a good fit for the issue and discuss the rates. LEGAL We are buying first world-exclusive serial and electronic rights, Ukrainian and Russian translation...

Deadline: August 30th, 2018 Payment: Royalty Split And Contributor's Copy With the recent closing of Black Mirror Press, their planned anthology celebrating the works of Poe sits orphaned. After giving this situation a great deal of thought, and discussing it with our partners and staff, we at Camden Park Press have decided that the efforts of the authors who have been working on stories for the past several months should not be wasted, and Black Mirror Press’ efforts in inspiring the project and motivating the authors to create their own, re-imagined versions of Poe’s work need not be in vain. To that end, we are now opening submissions for Quoth the Raven, a contemporary re-imagining of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Quoth the Raven ~ Call for Submissions ~ The works of Poe were dark and often disturbing. From dismembered corpses, rivals bricked behind cellar walls, murders in back alleys, and detectives on the trail of devious villains, his stories have had a profound impact on both the horror and mystery genres to this day. In Quoth the Raven, we invite you to revisit Poe’s work, all of which is now in the public domain, and re-imagine it for the twenty-first century. We’re not looking for a simple retelling of the classic tales, though we’d love to see what you can do with them. Consider also the more obscure but equally compelling work. Or, if you’re so inspired, write your own, original, story in the style of a modern-day Poe. No matter what approach you choose, we’re looking for stories with a unique 21st century perspective, that incorporate twists that reflect present-day technological and societal changes and life in today’s world, married to Poe’s distinct form of storytelling. These should be contemporary tales, set in the real world. While it’s fine to incorporate...

Missile rocket flying high in dark sky Deadline: August 30th, 2018 Payment: $10 Note: Reprints Only! Note: Sorry for the short notice but as this is for reprints you at least won't need to write something new in the next 8 days! Pole to Pole Publishing is seeking short, re-print fiction for the Re-Enchant anthology to be published in late 2018.  Re-Enchant will join our previous submission calls (now closed) for Re-Launch and Re-Quest in the Re-Imagined Series of anthologies. Re-Enchant requires dark stories and myths about faeries or faerie-like creatures. Payment: Payment is $10 per story, paid on acceptance  (contract must be signed), via PayPal only; plus, one electronic and one print copy of  the antho.  (Sorry:  If you do not have a PayPal account, please do not submit your work.) Right Purchased: – The non-exclusive right to collect the stories into an anthology, published in 2018 and sold thereafter. – The non-exclusive right to publish the story to the new Pole to  Pole Publishing Patreon blog (for patron’s eyes only). General: Stories should be 3,000-5,000 words and meet  the central theme of the anthology. Reprints currently available on line  are not eligible. Preference is for stories that haven’t been published  in at least a year.  Older reprints will carry more weight than new  ones. Author must possess the right to offer the story for submission. Hard Sells: Profane and vulgar language — because we market to both adult and YA  readers. If we are interested in your story, we may ask you to edit  profane and vulgar language as a condition of publication. First Person and Present Tense. We’ve published both: when the  stories were very, very good. We want to let you know up front that  we’re going to reject this most of the time. It’s just not our  preference. Excessive Gore and/or...

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: $5 per printed page Geek Out! will be published in print & ebook (compatible with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows devices in addition to PDF and other downloadable formats and web-viewable formats.) Submission Guidelines Please read the following submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work to Geek Out. If you have any questions not answered below, please write us at [email protected] and we will be happy to answer. Theme Where queer meets geek. Whatever you geek out about, we want to read it! Genres Genre Fiction (e.g. scifi, fantasy, western, noir, horror) Poetry: slam poems and non-traditional formats Creative Nonfiction (non-memoir based): opinion essays, topical articles, reviews, comedy Comics / Graphic short stories (black & white only) Scripts: short teleplays, screenplays, video scripts, etc. Not Looking For We are not looking for work in the following genres for this particular publication. (See our other Submission Guidelines homepage for other publications with upcoming deadlines seeking work in these genres.) Literary Fiction Memoir-based Nonfiction Traditional Poetry Additionally, we never accept work in the following genres: Erotica work intended for Children Length Prose: up to 5,000 words Flash Non-fiction: 1 page or less Poetry: up to 3 pages (per poem) Comics & Scripts: up to 10 pages Submissions of longer than 10 pages must be numbered. Formats All submissions must be typed. No handwritten submissions will be accepted. If you send your submission in, please do NOT mail us your only copy of your work. We can not be responsible for returning submissions. Multiple Submissions Multiple submissions (submissions of more than one work) are fine. Send us what you’ve got! Simultaneous Submissions Simultaneous submissions (submitting work you’ve already submitted–or are planning on submitting–elsewhere) are fine too. Please just be sure...

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: Contributor's copy and 1st place: 100 dollars plus contributor’s copy, 2nd place: 50 dollars plus contributor’s copy, 3rd place: 25 dollars plus contributor’s copy OPQ Presents: The 2018 Spooky Samhain Stories Contest Do you have a scary story to share? Fiction, fact, or otherwise, share your prose with us and you, too, can win up to $100* and get your story printed. Enter your submission today! Contest will be judged by a panel of three impartial judges, all of whom have a vested interest in the unknown. Scare us, terrify us, and thrill us!   Contest Rules: Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please only send us one story at a time and if your story is accepted elsewhere please email us and let us know ASAP. Many will enter, few will win. Entrants cannot be related, legally or otherwise, to OPQ staff Entries must be emailed to [email protected] by August 31st, 2018 to qualify. Entries must match one of the following three themes: ‘True Tales of Terror,’ ‘Spooky Semi-True Stories,’ or ‘Fantastic Frights’ No entry fee necessary! Note: entries will be judged based on quality, thematic appropriateness, and writing chops. Though we want to be scared, there are some things that are off-limits. As with our normal morality policy, OPQ will automatically reject stories that involve pedophilia, excessive gore, violence for violence’s sake, and non-consensual sex. As always, we would prefer stories that use religion and/or spirituality as an uplifting theme or a bridge towards a larger, thematic discussion, rather than being derogatory towards one specific religion. That being said, we enjoy looking forward to what your twisted imaginations come up with!   Themes: Entries must follow one of the following themes: ‘True Tales of Terror’ are reserved for true experiences you’ve witnessed. Ritual gone...

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: Royalties We will be releasing a 4th volume of The Twilight Madhouse this fall. This is by far our most popular theme and we’re excited to return to it, this time with a bit of a twist – We are releasing The Twilight Madhouse: Dark Rooms Edition Reading Period: July 1 – August 31 Publication: October 1 Word Count: 3,000 – 12,000 preferred, 1,500-15,000 considered Theme: Madness and opposites We are looking for stories with big twists, stories that subvert expectations, stories that make you shiver. We want stories that explore some form of opposites and the grey spaces between them: madness/sanity, dark/light, day/night, good/evil, monster/hero, safety/danger, reality/illusion. And this time we want the weirdest of the weird. The strangest of the strange. The bizarre, the creep fests, the grimdark, the so far out there you don’t think anyone will read it. We encourage writers to download a copy of one of our previous volumes to get an idea of what we’re looking for, and what we’ve already seen. While we are looking for strange and out there we want to add that we prefer stories that scare without the use of graphic sexual violence. Ax murders, chainsaws, blood spraying everywhere? Sure, as long as it drives the story forward. Sex? Yup, no problem with that. Characters with tragic backstories? Great. But we believe there is a difference between putting your characters through hell, and exploitation. If you’re not sure where your story falls, query us. If you have any questions please use the contact form. Because the contact form strips formatting we are now accepting story submissions in the body of an email sent to schreyer _ ink _ publishing (at) outlook dot com (remove the spaces between the underscores and insert correct symbols)....

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: $6 Submissions open until August 31st... Send your story of between 666-1,000 words using one of the themes below. Include the name or number of the theme in the Subject of the email and send to [email protected] No reprints, thanks! We will pay a nominal fee for this fun fiction-magazine ($6 per story) or if you prefer we can donate your payment to a women's refuge. You can submit to 1 or more themes, but only 1 story per theme please. If sending multiple stories, please send them separately and include the theme in the subject of the email. Theme 1: Halloween House Photograph (Left) (C) Steve Dillon, 2018 Theme 2: Pumpkin Head Artwork (below) (C) Copyright Steve Dillon, 2018 Theme 3: Trick or Treat!  Photograph (below) licensed from Adobe.  Theme 4: Haunted Forests and Trees! Photograph (left) by Steve Dillon, 2018 Theme 5: Bob-Apple Artwork (below) (C) Copyright Steve Dillon, 2012 Theme 6: Fancy Dress Photo (Left) by Ellen Duffy, 2013 Via: Things In The Well.

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: $10 In anthropological terms, liminality is the midpoint of a ritual: the threshold where a person is no longer quite who they were, not yet who they might become. In between masks, what face might you have? What might you be in transit? Where will you go? Everything is possible in that moment; change is its own goal. Liminality is the space between. Liminality is an online quarterly magazine of speculative poetry edited by Shira Lipkin and Mattie Joiner. We are very pleased to meet you. We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. We’d love to see work that shifts shape, refuses to be to be easily pinned down or categorised. We actively welcome diversity; we want to hear new as well as established voices. Tell us tales we thought we knew, the way only you can tell them. Give us new myths. Liminality pays $10 per poem, for first worldwide publication rights and non-exclusive anthology rights. We are currently open to submissions. We will be open: April 1 – May 31 July 1 – August 31 October 1 – November 30 To submit, send up to three poems to liminalitypoetry AT gmail.com with the subject line “SUBMISSION – ”. Please include your poems in the body of the e-mail; if you have formatting that makes that untenable, you may attach the poem as an .rtf. You may send up to five poems per reading period. We do not accept reprints or simultaneous submissions. (If the poem has been publicly viewable online, yes, it would be a reprint.) “Dear Editors”, “Dear Mattie and Shira”, and “Dear Shira and Mattie” are all fine as forms of address. Via: Liminality.

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Prizes: US$1,000 for the winner, US$300 for the runner-up and US$100 for number 3. Throughout history doomsayers predicting the end of the world have always been met with howls of derisive laughter. Rightly so, because most of them were buffoons whose predictions were based on weird and implausible sources. So far they have all been completely wrong. But, alas, those days are behind us. Contemporary warnings of impending doom, the rapidly approaching end of our overdeveloped and unsustainable world, are based on reality and science, on cold, hard facts, matters of projection rather than prediction. And we are already seeing the end beginning. The signs are everywhere: environmentally and socially (check our fact sheet for details). We are going down, and most of us know, perhaps not consciously, not clearly spelled out, but we know, deep inside, that we are going down, in spite of all the comforting lies told by those who are profiting from our downfall and want us to go meekly. This contest is meant to raise people's awareness of what is happening to our (natural) world right now and what this may mean for the near future. We are looking for short stories dealing with the many existential issues facing us. No nonsense, no wild, impossible fantasies but strong, intelligent stories, based on realistic speculation, cautionary tales, plausible and thought-provoking.   Important update 25 June 2018: We are gratefully receiving a steady flow of entries but, sadly, too many are not relevant to the theme of this contest. Please check our fact sheet(s) to understand the issues that we want to see reflected in the stories. They offer an enormous range of subjects and also literary genres, from contemporary realism to futuristic science fiction (which describes the possible, contrary to fantasy, which describes the impossible)....

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: 1¢/word and a contributor's copy Extended issue for release in November 2018 Over the almost two years I've been running Unnerving, many stories very obviously inspired by Stephen King's work have landed in my inbox, most a bit too on the nose. I've usually rejected these stories, thinking it would be cool to have an entire issue of King-inspired tales. Though different, this issue follows all the same rules about topics (no cop dramas, no space operas, no wars, no Lovecraft). Again, each story must have been inspired by a Stephen King story (or mashing multiple Stephen King-ish scenerios) without simply rewriting King's stories. That said, no fan fiction: no Pennywise, no Overlook Hotel, no Cujo, no Derry, you get it. Do not infringe on copyright. Horror - Crime - Science-fiction - Suspense Unnerving Magazine accepts short story submissions of horror, dark science fiction (light), dark fantasy, crime, thriller, and suspense. Generally leaning toward horror over other genres. Sex, gore and violence are welcome in moderation (nothing gratuitous). The same goes for bizarro works, nothing too far gone (whatever that means). Please no hard science fiction, sword and sorcery fantasy, erotica, romance, humor that isn’t sinister or literary works that venture so far into experimental that they become nonsense, no cop dramas unless hard boiled gumshoe vs. supernatural, no fan fiction, no war stories, no stories where rape is the lead character's motivator (victim/victim spouse/rapist none of that stuff, it's burnt toast), and no blatant rip-offs. Moving forward, I am less interested in quiet horror, though still will print it, as there are significantly more paying markets for dark literary and dark weird than thrilling and commercial horror.  Payment is 1¢/word + paperback contributor copy. Original fiction only. Reprints by invitation only. I ask for...

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: 1000-3000 words will receive $5. Stories that are longer than that will receive $10 and a contributor's copy. Unfading Daydream is looking for unique and exceptional fiction to be showcased in our quarterly literary magazine. We strive to feature stories within the genres that have inspired us (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc) as well as stories that feature LGBTQ+ themes. We are currently not seeking submissions – but our next reading period starts in August which is for Issue 6 (published in Octoboer 2018). Basic Details We are open to established and new, emerging authors. In terms of length, we’re looking for stories between 1000 and 7000 words. Shorter or longer stories will be evaluated on a case by case basis. No previously published works. Please no simultaneous submissions Reading periods are May, August, November, and February. All submissions must be in by 11:59pm CST on the last day of the reading period (May, August, November, or February) Please do not send submissions outside of our reading periods. Submissions received outside of reading periods will not be considered. Expect a decision within four weeks See full guidelines below Payment Stories that are between 1000-3000 words will receive $5. Stories that are longer than that will receive $10. All contributors receive a hard copy of the magazine. In time, we would like to pay contributors more! Submissions We accept submissions only by email. Free to submit! Please send your submission to submit unfadingdaydream com with the title of ‘Unfading Daydream Submission’. Full Guidelines We want to see your unique sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc. We prefer stories that are between 1000-7000 words, but if you feel that your 8000 word story or your 700 word story is brilliant, we’d love to see it. The Submission Piece One submission...

Deadline: August 31st Payment: Short Stories are at 1 cent a word, to a maximum of $20 with Poetry at $5 per piece Note: NZ and Australian authors only We publish SF, horror and dark fantasy short fiction from NZ and Australian authors. We publish bimonthly and open for submissions for the month prior to release. Our submission periods for 2018 are as follows: Issue #08: August (to publish in September) Issue #09: October (to publish in November) Issue #10: December (to publish in January 2019) In the Zine All work must be original and previously unpublished. We pay for first worldwide publication rights and nonexclusive reprint rights. Copyright belongs to the author or artist. We simply ask for you to credit Breach as the site of first publication if your work is then subsequently reprinted elsewhere. Stories between 500 and 2000 words, in doc format. Poetry of a page length, doc format. Cover art in A4, 600dpi, RGB. Payment Short stories: 1 cent a word, to a maximum of $20. Poetry: $5 per piece. Cover art: $20 per piece. From August, 2018 we'll also accept submissions of longer works of novella (17,000 to 40,000 words) and novelette (7,500 to 17,000 words) length. Our short stories lean toward horror and the darker side of science fiction and we'd like to carry that over to longer works. If you're interested in publishing with us, please send the first chapter and a single-page synopsis as a Word doc using the form below. All work must be original and previously unpublished. Breach pays 50% royalties from all print and ebook sales - we don't offer advances. We pay for worldwide publication rights to any and all editions of the work, for the duration of the copyright. Via: Breach.

Deadline: August 31st, 2018 Payment: $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year. February 15-28 May 15-31 August 15-31 November 15-30 Apparition Lit also holds monthly flash fiction contests. These stories will follow selected themes and be published online. For more information on themes and submission guidelines, please see the flash fiction drop down below. Our themes for 2018 will be: Apparition (Published January 2018) Delusion (Published April 2018) Vision (Published July 2018) Diversion (opens for submissions August 15-31, 2018, publishing October 2018) PAYMENT: Apparition is a semi-pro rate magazine, paying $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 dollars (excluding flash contest, a flat rate of 5.00 dollars to the winning flash). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: SHORT FICTION: We will only accept stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,200 words will automatically be rejected. PAYMENT: Apparition is a token-rate magazine, paying $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 dollars (excluding flash contest). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. HOW TO SUBMIT: Format the story using the Shunn manuscript Please only use Times New Roman or Arial font in your document Save as an RTF file and attach to an email In the text of the email, provide a brief cover letter that includes your name, the title of the short story, word count, and any relevant publications Edit the email’s subject line so it reads: SUBMISSION: Title of Your Story Email your formatted email...

Deadline: September 1st 2018 Payent: 3 cents/word Furry: ‘noun informal 1.an enthusiast for animal characters with human characteristics, in particular a person who dresses up in costume as such a character or uses one as an avatar online.’ Furry can also mean actual anthropomorphic animal characters. Real animals acting like people (ie. WATERSHIP DOWN) or half-human/half-animal hybrids (ie. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). We’re looking for stories from the dark underbelly of Furry life. The Pooka who is not only invisible to everyone but Elwood Dowd (“Harvey”), but who is also slaughtering the neighborhood pets. The talking porcupine who uses an ancient form of acupuncture to mind-control the humans into a sex/blood cult. The couple who dress up as wolves, go to Furry cons, and actually eat people dressed as prey animals. You get the idea. Show us the corruption of innocence. Give us fur matted with blood. Make us squirm as we read. But, please, make sure you have a story to go with your gory. Please include a plot with your cum shot. If it’s all shock and no substance, we’ll likely pass. What we’re looking for: Genres: All sub-genres of horror accepted—extreme, bizzaro, erotic, new weird, splatterpunk—if it’s dark and it’s furry, we want it! Stories must be previously unpublished in any form Email:  [email protected] Length: 1,500 words up to 7K Deadline: September 1st 2018 Multiple Submissions: No Simultaneous Submissions: No Payment: 3 cents/word Editor: Ken MacGregor Publisher: Blood Bound Books Via: Blood Bound Books.

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: 5 cents per word The anthology Release the Virgins! is now open for submissions. Through a kickstarter campaign, we were able to raise enough to go ahead with this project, and we have confirmations from authors David Gerrold, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Jody Lynn Nye, Allen Steele, Steve Miller, Sharon Lee, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gail Z. Martin, Cecilia Tan, Patrick Thomas, Shariann Lewitt, Alex Shvartsman, Hildy Silverman, and Daniel M. Kimmel. We should have room for a few extra stories as well. But only a few. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYWGqegtzrU Submissions are open for short stories that include, somewhere in the story, the phrase “Release the Virgins.” The story should be no more than 5,000 words. This should be sufficient for what should most likely be a somewhat humorous tale. The payment is 5 cents a word. Do not take this as an invitation to pad your story in order to earn a few more bucks. If your story is complete at 3,000 words, then end it. A good but padded story may get rejected over a concise, fast-moving one, because we want to fit in as many stories as possible. Unpublished authors are encouraged to submit, but will still face the same standards for submissions as the published authors. (Hint: Don’t send me a submission full of spelling and grammatical errors.) An email proposal is required to make sure you are not duplicating an idea already reserved by one of the accepted authors. Send to [email protected]. Once that is approved, your story should be double-spaced in rtf format with 12 point Times Roman font. There should be no spacing after the paragraphs. The first page must contain the name of the story, the word count, and your name, address, email, and phone number. Your cover letter should list any previous publications. The deadline...

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: $0.06 per word Radix Media is proud to present the next project in our publishing program: Futures, a series of short stories that will explore critical contemporary issues and their human ramifications in a science fiction setting. What would climate change look like in the future? What about policing? Labor issues? Immigration? The human cost of technology? By using science fiction as a means through which to unpack these issues, we hope that the stories will allow for a better understanding of our world and give us more tools in our struggle to make it better. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES We are looking for unpublished short stories that could be described as “literary science fiction.” The work should be about more than just rayguns and spaceships. (But there’s nothing wrong with those things!) They should explore the human element of science fiction, ask tough questions, and examine what it would mean to be alive in a future that is yet unwritten. We believe that good science fiction reflects the dreams and nightmares of the present day. Pieces should adhere to the following guidelines: Cover Letter Please submit a cover letter with your submission to [email protected], listing: Your contact information The title, word count, and a summary of the submission If you have been published in any major publications or won any awards Any association or relationship with a worker at Radix Media or a guest editor Manuscript Guidelines Between 5,000 and 10,000 words Typed, double-spaced pages Numbered pages Attach your submission as a .DOCX file. No .DOC or PDF files. Deadline is September 1, 2018. CONTRIBUTORS & PAYMENT Contributors to Futures will be paid at the rate of $0.06 per word. Payment for finished pieces will be issued within 30 days of publication. If you are a person of color, queer, trans, disabled,...

Deadline: September 1st 2018 Payment: 4¢ per word, if funded Tales From the Old Black Ambulance — a horror anthology that we will be attempting to fund via a Kickstarter campaign. This anthology has an open call for manuscripts and will pay at least 4¢ per word, if funded. Word count guidelines 5-10k, for a total anticipated length of 100k. Open for horror and weird stories about graveyards, cemeteries, mausoleums, morgues, funeral homes, funerary rites, and, of course, hearses. Juried. Deadline for submission is September 1st 2018. Accepted authors are expected to participate in anthology promotion during the Kickstarter campaign. Via: Prospective Press.

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: $20 per author per issue “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? We have published long...

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: Stories that are up to 5,000 words will receive $50.00, above 5,000 words will receive $100.00 It's dark... You’re tired. Not thinking straight. It’s the worst time of all for you to make decisions, and maybe that’s why you take a…WRONG  TURN. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS We want your detective stories, your noir, your thrillers/mysteries. Any story you want to tell, any way you want to tell it…with the theme of WRONG TURN. Your story will be published in audiobook first, followed by paperback and ebook. We purchase the rights for this anthology, but authors retain their rights and are welcome to use their stories in any way they choose after publication. Payment: Stories that are up to 5,000 words will receive $50.00 Stories above 5,000 words will receive $100.00 Guidelines: Please submit your original story: Double spaced 12-point font Word document Basic formatting only Word count: up to 15k Previously published stories are okay if you own the rights   Submissions due: September 1, 2018 Email submissions and/or questions to: [email protected] Via: Blunder Woman Productions.

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: $0.06 per word for original fiction, $100 for reprints, and a $20 flat rate for flash fiction reprints (stories below 1,500 words). Note: Female authors only Note: Reprints Welcome In March 2019, Escape Artists will bring you ARTEMIS RISING for a fifth year. This special month-long event, across all four Escape Artists podcasts, is a celebration of stories written by women, in the broadest definition of the word. This year, Cast of Wonders is excited to introduce guest editors Amy Brennan and Karissa Sluss, with assistant editors Katherine Inskip and Alexis Goble. ARTEMIS RISING specifically highlights women in genre fiction, a demographic that has been underrepresented until recent years. This showcase helps to address that historical imbalance and correct the impression, which continues to persist in some social circles, that women cannot write excellent genre fiction. Who Can Submit Submissions are open to anyone who identifies as a woman to any degree. In past years, we have specifically included the term “non-binary” in our Artemis Rising submission calls — you may notice it is missing this year. English is flawed in its ability to accurately represent the breadth of human genders, and as such the language we use is always evolving. We respect the feedback that we’ve received regarding our use of “non-binary” as a catch-all: that it erroneously tilts the perception of non-binary people in a feminine direction. In a continuing effort to support diversity and inclusivity, we’re changing the language of our ARTEMIS RISING call. Non-binary authors who identify as women are welcome to submit. Your gender is for you to determine, and we support you and take you at your word. If you feel you have a story that helps cast light on the multitudinal existence that is womanness, please don’t self-reject....

Deadline: September 1st, 2018 Payment: Unknown for another month, likely pro rates Note: Sorry for the short window, was just e-mailed about this one last night. FORESHADOW: A Serial YA Anthology will be published monthly on this site for a single year starting in January 2019 and ending December 2019, and will feature stellar YA stories from established and emerging authors. Each issue will feature three stories, one of which will be from a new voice specially selected by a beloved author. DEADLINE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR OUR FIRST ISSUES OF 2019: SEPT. 1, 2018.   WHAT WE’RE SEEKING: We are seeking original YA short stories. Please see our FAQ for what we mean by YA or young adult; stories that are not YA will not be passed along to our team of readers for consideration. Stories should be between 2,000 and 7,000 words. We especially encourage submissions from underrepresented voices, including people of color and Indigenous writers; LGBTQIA+ and gender diverse writers; writers with disabilities; and religious, ethnic, and cultural minorities. NEW VOICES: Every issue of FORESHADOW will feature a short story from a “new voice”—a writer who is very early in their career, and this story will be selected and introduced by a beloved, established author. New voices guidelines: Writers being considered as a new voice in our serial anthology cannot have a previously published: A young-adult, middle-grade, or adult book-length work of fiction. A full-length poetry collection. More than a few short stories, whether in print or online—we will look closely at the markets where they’ve been published to decide (e.g., someone with three stories in the New Yorker would not count as a “new voice”). Writers also, at the time of submission, cannot have a YA, middle-grade, or adult book of fiction under contract that will be published before January 2020. Writers who have...