Events

Submission Window: July 31, 2023-August 6, 2023 for marginalized voices; August 7, 2023-August 28, 2023 for all submitters Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Disquieting and disturbing New Weird horror set in landscapes and communities on the edge of the sea. The Off-Season is an anthology of disquieting and disturbing New Weird horror set in landscapes and communities on the edge of the sea. These coastal stories defamiliarize the ordinary, evoke dread even in the daylight, and haunt like half-remembered nightmares. Think ocean-loving cults, crumbling seaside mansions, empty resort towns, strange fisherwomen, beachside arcades, eerie lighthouses, literal tourist traps, jellyfish swarms, red tides, oil spills, intertidal zones, salt marshes, gaudy luxury hotels reclaimed by sea, the cosmic indifference of capitalism, creeping urchins, thousand-yard stares, wrecked cruise ships, weird biotech, evening dock workers, and slippery marine metamorphosis. I’m especially looking for uncanny ecology, uneasy atmosphere, and strange characters who are either transcending their environment or subsiding into it. I’d love to see unusual coastal settings from around the world, or traditionally romanticized settings transformed into places of unfamiliarity and subtle wrongness. Most of all, I’m looking for fiction that makes the reader feel uncomfortable dread mixed with intense curiosity. Not sure if your story is New Weird? New Weird is a subgenre of horror-fantasy that slides along the margins of other speculative fiction genres, subverts old tropes and conventions, and/or plays with form, style, and ideas. Its roots are in the subtle ambiguity and mystery of Weird horror and the subversive playfulness of New Wave science-fiction, but it is constantly innovating itself. For me, the best of New Weird blends the mundane with the sublime, the grimy with the divine, and the grotesque with the beautiful. It seduces and horrifies at the same time, filling the reader with a quiet kind of dread-fascination. While the genre dwells...

Deadline: August 30th, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Short stories about casual encounters of fictional people with serial killers Have you ever wondered about the ordinary people who came in contact with famous serial killers before everyone knew them for their depraved, murderous acts? What did Jeffrey Dahmer's plumber experience when he unclogged the notorious cannibal's toilet? Or how about the guy who worked in the music shop where Charles Manson had his guitars strung? The girl who waited on Ted Bundy at his favorite coffee shop? Jack the Ripper's neighborhood bartender? How about one of the kids who had John Wayne Gacey perform as a clown at their birthday party? For this anthology, we're looking for short stories about casual encounters of fictional people with serial killers, that turned creepy or deadly. Stories can be straight crime/thriller stories or ones with a supernatural bent (haunted objects, ghosts, demons, etc.). Characters and victims, aside from the serial killers, must be fictional—real names of victims or family members can not be used. Also, feel free to use lesser-known killers like Richard Speck or The Boston Strangler, in case the Bundy and Manson stories start piling up like the bodies of their victims... Note: Stories should not lionize or celebrate the serial killers, or promote racism, bigotry, or depictions of violence against children. PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * Up to 5k word count (although we are incredibly flexible for awesome stories!) * Write SERIAL KILLERS along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 per poem Theme: Where cosmic horror meets campy romantic comedy! Romance. Laughter. Tentacles... Welcome to where cosmic meets cute Welcome to the Necronomi-RomCom! About this Project On the face of it, blending the Necronomicom and a Rom-Com seems obvious.  Once the idea came into my mind in the summer of 2022, it wouldn’t leave until I decided to make it into a reality.  The goal is to see how many engaging ways people can blend humor, love, and the mythos. Love can be funny and it can be scary, why can’t it be both?  While also having big teeth, or tentacles, or even too many eyes? We hope this is just the first project that will link disparate concepts in unusual ways. Just because the cosmic flirts with disaster doesn’t mean it can’t flirt with other things! In this anthology, we’re looking for cosmic tales with a light romantic twist. Think couples visiting Leng on blind dates and Carcosa on their honeymoons, Valentine's Day roses tinted with the Color Out of Space, and brains in jars finding everlasting love with Mi-go. Think the lost pages of the Necronomicon written in sonnet form, Shoggoths shape-changing to impress the objects of their affection, and Nyarlathotep crushing on someone while Azathoth is piping a love song. Send us your best blend of cosmic and romance… just no erotica. Satire is great, and a little bit of dark is always welcome—after all, just because depressed, angry Deep Ones meet cute too doesn’t mean it’s all a bed of roses. That said? We look forward to reading your most imaginative comic romance fantasies! Open to poetry, and stories 1,000 to 6,000 words, in English. We are not considering stories written, or co-written, by AI at this...

Submission Window: April 2nd to August 31st Payment: Half cent per word Theme: Speculative Fiction taking place in the Wild West Graveyard Boots: The Old West. Lawless. Filthy. Challenges were numerous. Justice was haphazard. One could die from a gunshot, a snakebite, a disease, or any number of reasons. It was not a place for the weak of heart. And that was just the wild west all by itself. For “Graveyard Boots,” we seek stories that add creatures, gunslingers, ghouls, ill omens, bad luck, evil minds, monsters and more to the already desolate landscape and ghost towns. Yet there was still humor back in those days of yore, and with “Graveyard Boots,” stories with humor will give you a leg up. "Graveyard Boots" Guidelines: Here are a couple of tips to put your story in better position to be accepted. 1. Fit the theme. Old West. Horror. Of course, Jolly Horror Press loves humor. 2. Be within our word count guidelines (for “Graveyard Boots”, 2500 to 5500) or query us for shorter/longer. 3. No matter how good your story is, if it hasn't been edited, there is a big chance we won't accept it. In the past, we've accepted stories that needed a lot of editing work, but it took so much effort to make them presentable. We aren't doing that anymore. If within a page or two of reading the story we find a bunch of editing issues, it's going to be rejected. 4. Be unique. No matter what the theme of the anthology is, you should always be unique. If it's a stalker anthology for example, and your ex or some guy you work with is your stalker, it's trite. If your grandma is stalking your fiancée, well, that's unique. 5. At Jolly Horror Press, we prefer subtle horror. We generally don't like gruesome and overly bloody stuff. If someone...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: Royalties and a contributors copy Theme: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 – from (and including) the Spanish Civil War to the immediate winding down of conflicts after World War Two. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind. SETTING: Geographically, stories should fall in the zone from Ireland to Russia, the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean shores. Stories can be set during direct military conflicts or far from battle, where distant wars have local repercussions for society or individuals. We’re not looking for ‘war stories’ so much as stories set DURING the war across Europe and showing some awareness of its impact. This was a bleak time for most. Go inventive with this one, such as (a few throwaway illustrations): Something unnatural walking through the fires of the London Blitz German occupiers learning terror in an isolated Norwegian village Dread and disquiet amongst the Free French in Tunisia US troops lost in the Ardennes Families in Britain sensing a wrongness about returnees Torn loyalties and minds in Ireland Horror in the snows of the Eastern Front An Italian soldier dealing with fear by disassociating from reality Balkan partisans trapped in the mountains Communities trying to pretend that there is no war APPROACH: Submissions could cover themes such as the intrusion of the ab-natural into the natural, the changing nature of society, and psychosocial issues at any level. Cosmic Horror is very relevant — explore the realisation that we are potentially insignificant in the cosmos, and that our understanding of the...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20, Second Place – £10, Third Place – £10 Theme: Halloween Short Stories We are currently OPEN for submissions. The winners of the 2023 Halloween competition will be announced in October. We’ll be back with another competition in the new year! Keep an eye out for the next theme. Submit stories to [email protected] – please read the below guidelines before submitting. 2023 Halloween Short Story Competition We want your spookiest horror short stories! Anything goes: from your classic ghosts, vampires and werewolves to something a little stranger. We are looking for short stories of no longer than 2,500 words that include horror elements. This means the overall genre can be non-horror, but there must be something in there that is spooky and gives us a scare. It could be a monster story, a killer on the loose, someone/something unnatural, or somewhere haunted. It’s up to you! If it keeps us up at night, it counts. Closing Date: August 31st 2023, 11:59 PM Winners Announced: October 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20 Second Place – £10 Third Place – £10 The top 15 to 20 stories will be published in our Halloween anthology in October 2023. For this competition, all submissions from young writers (aged 16 and under) will be judged separately for our Young Writer’s Award. The prize for this is £10 and website publication. Submission Guidelines Your story must be no longer than 2,500 words (not including the title) Only one story permitted per person; you can enter again if you entered our previous competitions Stories must be in English All stories should be written in Times New Roman, in 12pt, and double spaced. Stories must be submitted in Microsoft Word Please include your name (or preferred pseudonym), age, story title,...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 2 cents per word and royalties and a paperback for US authors Theme: Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Our 2024 edition. Submissions open on June 1, 2023. Theme: Hidden Villains: Betrayed– Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Betrayed- double-cross, fail, deceive, cheat, sell-out, let down, stitch up, rat out, turn traitor, rat on, expose, reveal, lay bare, stab in the back. There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Speculative Fiction, including Sci-Fi or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Suspense and thrillers are encouraged over horror for this anthology, but a great horror story will rise to the top. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: June 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023 Submissions: 1 per author; no reprints, no simultaneous submissions, no AI; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 8,000 words Submission Guidelines: Anonymous submission with no author name in document; 12 pt Times or Arial; .Doc or .Docx; double-space; first line indent; no tabs used. Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Anticipated Pay: .02 per word + Royalty share from all Draft 2 Digital sales. A paperback author’s copy will be provided for US authors. Authors outside of the US will receive at least a digital copy, depending on shipping costs on a case by case basis. Each story will receive a share from Draft 2 Digital’s wide...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3.000 words,. AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words, AU$15.00 - between 8,000 and 11,000 words, AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20, 000 words Theme: All genres, all themes! Yabblins is our theme-free collection. All themes, all genres, all the time. Deadline: August 31 2023 Word count: 1000 - 20,000 words Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3,000 words AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words AU$15.00 - between7,000 and 11,000 words AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20,000 words Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any 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: Yabblins - Story Title. Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.

Deadline: August 31t, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Weirder Still As Quarter Press continues to grow, we’re adding another coin to our pocketful of change. We want to offer a space for shorter works to mingle with art and other bits of nonsense, so we bring you The Quarter(ly): It just makes cents. 2023’s Themes and Deadlines: Weirder Still (Aug. 31) What’ve you got to show us? Stories and / or Poems For Stories: We’re open to micro works all the way up to 10,000 words. Just keep two things in mind: We want to be engaged and the submission must be completed (no pitches, please!) For Poems: We’d love to see up to five poems from you, but you can always just send one, too. Art As long as it has some tie to the current issue’s theme, we’re open to see any art created in any medium at any time. Just know that it will need to “work in print” and—might—be presented in black and white. For ART ONLY, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Graphic Stories Show us your comic strips or complete short works; we’d love to see them all! Please try to keep submissions to 20 pages or less. Feel free to also send a collection of comic strips / one shot comics, as well. (Please note that our publication size / dimensions might change between issues. Our “Norm” is 6x9”). These must be COMPLETE works. For Graphic Work / Comics, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Analysis / Interviews / Reviews As long as it is tied to the theme in some way, we’d love to see any and all media analysis (film, music, literature, etc.), interviews...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies Theme: All forms of horror welcome. A brand new anthology project designed to give new voices in the genre a chance to be heard. Whether you write subtle, gothic ghost stories, or extreme, high-concept body horror, if it's good, we want it! 1. Stories must be provided as a .doc or .docx file, attached to an email. 2. Email subject must be formatted as follows: , , by . 3. The body of the email must only contain a plot synopsis. No other information. 4. 10,000 words maximum, no minimum. 5. Stories must be in English. 6. Stories must be fully edited and ready to print. 7. Stories made (or contributed to) with AI will be immediately rejected and you will be banned from submitting stories to future anthologies. 8. Author must be willing/able to provide exclusive worldwide reprint rights for a period not exceeding 1 year, and non-exclusive worldwide reprint rights for as long as the anthology remains in print. 9. No more than 2 submissions per author. 10. Submissions are international. If you can get your story to us, we'll consider it. Submissions close August 31st. If you have not heard from us by September 30th, please feel free to contact us about the status of your submission. Accepted stories will receive slight formatting edits if required. Outside of obvious typos or spelling errors, the text itself will not be edited. Not a word of your story will be changed. Contributors included in this year's anthology will receive $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies. All profits from this year's anthology will be donated to charity. TIPS: 1. We...

  Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 + a contributor copy of the magazine. We pay $10 (per piece) for work published in our online venues. Theme: ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy Broken Antler is a literary magazine and publisher of work that is dark, speculative, experimental, unsettling, and absurd. BAM Quarterly, Broken Antler’s online journal, publishes creative work four times a year (during the months of October, January, April, and July). Submissions for Issue 1 open June 1 and close August 31. The Marrow, Broken Antler’s blog and home of our LGBTQIA+ creator series, is updated biweekly and currently accepting pitches for interviews, reviews, and essays, as well as creative submissions of micro fiction, poetry, and art. And Broken Antler Magazine is our annual print publication, featuring creative and critical work from emerging and established writers, artists, creators, and individuals working within the horror space. What We Publish: Broken Antler publishes ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy. The editors are partial to a wide range of subgenres—body, cosmic, folk, gore, etc. (and our EIC likes any writing that screws with her sleep schedule). If your work fits into the horror genre, or is some version of fucked-up, send it our way. For poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid submissions, we’re looking for work that is haunting and monstrous, weird and bizarre. Extra points if your work is experimental or doing something unusual with form. Do NOT send us work featuring gratuitous sexual assault, violence against women and/or marginalized groups, or hate speech. Broken Antler is 100% run by women, several members of our editorial staff identify as LGBTQIA+, and we are committed to uplifting these and other previously silenced voices. NOTE: Submitted work should be previously unpublished. We do...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: An LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology We’re opening the call for our newest anthology, Queens in Wonderland. This is an LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology, and we want want to see it all. Throw some of those iconic characters into space. Put them in an urban fantasy. We’d love to see a cyberpunk or decopunk (or any punk!) version. A classic Lewis Carroll version would be good too. Feel free to take any of the characters (don’t forget about the White Queen or the Dormouse) or use any of the world-building from the classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There you wish. If you need more inspiration, consider these prompts: It’s time for tea, but your main character’s running late The Queen of Hearts has invited your character to a garden ball The Mad Hatter is nowhere to be found The White Knight is talking backwards and you need them to solve a mystery Cheshire has appeared in an urban downtown, and is directing you down an alley Requirements: 1,500-5,000 word count LGBTQ+ Nothing with gratuitous violence, rape, or abuse of animals/children Cursing is fine, within reason Romance and sex is fine within reason, but no erotica Submissions close on Aug 31st Payment: We will be paying $20 USD dollars upon signing of the contract and you’ll receive an e-book once publication is complete. Paperback contributor copies at cost plus $2.00 will be available too. How to submit: Please format according to these standards Double spaced, readable font, aligned to the left 12 Font Times New Roman Please don’t hit “tab” Please don’t put two spaces between sentences This article goes into other details that make a huge difference in the presentation of...

Submission Window: July 30th to August 31st, 2023 Payment: 5 cents per word Theme: Horror that takes place in shopping malls There’s something amiss at the mall. Elderly mallwalkers are being devoured by an unseen creature. A mad scientist is building a doomsday device out of Radio Shack parts. Post apocalypse, survivors attempt to recreate their 90s memories in a ruined mall. Each day when a boy checks Google Maps, the fancy new mall looks bigger—and closer to his village. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a new collection of horror and dark sci-fi stories about shopping malls past, present, and future. Emerging in the United States as a paragon of post-World War II prosperity, the shopping mall was imagined as a cheery, futuristic, well-designed alternative to the messy and hazardous downtowns of old, providing housewives and children with a safe space to shop and entertain themselves. Malls served middle-class suburbanites dependent on cars and eager to spend their disposable income on mass produced goods. The mall has often been a subject of derision as a harbinger of cultural zombification and whitewashing. As the decades have passed, the mall has declined in prestige but also become more accessible to broader groups of people in the US. Shopping malls, too, have spread to most countries around the world. Pop-culture has viewed malls through many lenses: optimist and innovative, symbolic of racist city planning and policing, a source of nostalgia for freer spending and youthful naivety, a place for community, and a signifier of a nation’s wealth and connections to a global consumer network. But in this collection, one thing is universal: something ominous is happening at the local mall. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a document of one-stop shopping gone wrong. Kickstarter We’re raising $3500 to help defray the costs of publication—but...

Submissions Window: August 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: Upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror stories Got an original, unpublished story? We would love to feature your upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror story. Our next submission window will be 1st August to 31st August. Submissions will be accepted via an email address that will be posted here at that time. Formatting   We accept documents as .doc, .docx or, if you must, .rtf. Please follow Shunn’s modern manuscript format. Multiple Submissions   Please submit one story at a time. Unless otherwise directed, please wait 7 days to submit in the event that your story isn't a good fit. Word Limit   100-6,000 words. We intend to accept an equal number of flash-fiction and short stories. Simultaneous Submissions   Submitting to us and others at the same time is not only accepted, but encouraged! We do ask that you notify us as soon as possible if your submission is accepted elsewhere. Payment and Rights   We pay $0.01 per word for original, unpublished fiction. Payment is via PayPal only. We require First Print and Digital rights with a six-month period of exclusivity from the date of publication. All other rights remain with the author. Time Length   We aim to make our final decisions within a month of the submission window closing. You will often receive a response much sooner. If you haven’t heard from us by that time, please query via e-mail with query in the subject line. What we don’t want: Non-speculative fiction   If there is not an element of fantasy, science fiction or horror then we are not the target market for your story. Reprints   We accept reprints by request only (Although we do intend to change this...

Submission Window: August 15th - 31st, 2023 Payment: $0.05 per word for fiction, $50 per poem Theme: Reclamation Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year. February 15-28 (March 1-7 BIPOC creators only) May 15-31 (June 1-7 BIPOC creators only) August 15-31 (September 1-7 BIPOC creators only) November 15-30 (December 1-7 BIPOC creators only) Submissions received outside of posted open dates will be deleted unread. Please note that we will not accept AI-generated content submissions. This includes stories or poetry that are written or co-written by AI. We will only accept previously unpublished, complete stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,100 words, excerpted from a larger work, or incorrectly formatted, will automatically be rejected. Apparition is a semi-pro magazine, paying $0.05 per word, a minimum of $50.00 USD (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. We are now accepting submissions through Moksha. Please follow the guidelines below when submitting your work: Format the story using the Shunn manuscript  — you do not need to include your physical address or phone number. Please only use Times New Roman or Arial font in your document. Name the file using the story title and your last name, i.e. THE SWAMP EXCHANGE_Barker. This helps us find your story in the submissions list. Provide a brief cover letter that includes your full name, the title of the short story, word count, and any relevant publications. Please do not include a synopsis. All acceptances and rejections will be emailed by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close. We currently do not have the available time...

Submission Window: Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction It's our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone. Guidelines for Fiction We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. We pay 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx. We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished. We're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and emotional depth. Meditative stories that...

Submission Window: August 1st - 31st, 2023 (Listing early so you can start writing.) Payment: 10 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: Why doesn't your character just leave the scary situation that they find themselves in? Why Didn’t You Just Leave submission call (August 2023) Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios are excited to read your submissions for Why Didn’t You Just Leave, an anthology of original horror short fiction. It’s the question asked of any story about a haunting: why didn’t you just leave? If accounts of people who have stayed in haunted houses are any indication, it’s never that simple. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t just leave scary situations, and we’d like to see smart, spooky stories that reflect the complexity behind that question. A link to our Moksha submissions portal will appear here on August 1, 2023. What we’re looking for: Stories that focus on all the possible reasons why people don’t just leave haunted places – including finances, family, legal restrictions, health, etc. Stories about “ordinary” people and places (including apartments, workplaces, schools, military bases, hospitals, churches, etc.)  as well as extraordinary situations. Our editorial team is BIPOC and queer, and we especially encourage submissions from writers of marginalized and traditionally-underrepresented groups. Timeline This anthology will be funded via Kickstarter in summer 2023. Our submissions period will be open from August 1 – August 31, 2023. Acceptances will go out in September 2023, with edits to follow in the fall. We anticipate publication in spring of 2024. Word count 500 – 5,000 words. Simultaneous submissions are fine – just let us know if your story gets accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are fine – maximum 3 per author. No reprints, please – we’re looking for original fiction only. Formatting: Format your story in...

Submission Window: August 1-31st, 2023 Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue Theme: Any genre, short story Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful. Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars? Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that. What does the timeline look like? Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout. Where do I send submissions? [email protected] What are the rules for submitting? 1. No Fees 2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form 3. Any genre 4. 6- 10,000 words. Yes, just 6 words, like Hemingway's famous 6-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." 5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute. 6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers. 7. Only the winner will be published and rights will only transfer for the winning story. What do I get for subscribing? One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting. What if I can’t pay right now? That’s ok! If you publish a blurb about this site on your website, blog, or social media, I will send you one full story of your choosing. Best of all, it is on the...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Stories that are ghoulish or "fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky" We are…blown away by this cover, and we can’t wait to fill it with a bunch of gnarly stories. That’s where you come in. What we are after: short stories that fit our personal definition of the word GHOULISH, which is “fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.” Note that we said fun, not funny. Comedic stories are definitely allowed, but it’s not all we’re looking to receive. We want stories that remind us why we love the horror genre. We want to have a perverted little smile across our face while reading. Make us slobber like idiots. Turn us into the Sickos.jpeg meme. We are also interested in non-fiction about the horror genre. GUIDELINES: Deadline: August 31, 2023 (11:59 PM CST) Word count: 5,000 max (short stories); 3,000 max (non-fiction) Payment: 10c per word Simultaneous Submissions: Yes Multiple Submissions: No (Please only submit one story per open call. If we reject you, do not resubmit until we reopen for the next issue.) Reprints: No AI Submissions: No. Please note if you are caught sending us an AI story, you will be blacklisted from ever publishing with us in the future. Don’t do it. How to submit: Send all stories & essays to ghoulishsubmissions @ gmail dot com with – – in the subject line. Please do not copy/paste the story in the body of the email. We prefer Word doc attachments if possible. All inquiries can also be directed to the same address. As you wait, feel free to come hang out in the GHOULISH discord. Thank you and good luck, ghouls! Via: Ghoulish Books.

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 10 cents per word for the magazine (free to submit) $3,000 for the contest (fee to submit.) Theme: Write a story involving Sunken Secrets, and a jewel. Note: Elegant Literature has a magazine that is free to submit to and a contest that there are fees to submit to. We're obviously hyping the magazine portion as we don't believe in fees but want to include all of the details for those who are interested. Plunge into the abyss. Embrace the cold, unfathomable depths. What secrets lie beneath these waves? Descend, deeper still, until the sunlight becomes a distant memory… Shipwrecks, submersibles, and silence. Ancient secrets in watery graves. Strong currents pull you through cities cloaked in coral, where unknown creatures lurk in the shadows. Siren songs echo in the deep. A mermaid’s melody—Poseidon’s puzzle. Down here, far from tides and tempests, the world above is a lifetime away. Or is it what you’ve anchored deep within yourself, a buried truth? The pressure turns your own thoughts to monsters. Claustrophobia, drowning, the unknowable void. The frozen sea of an icy moon, the magic at the bottom of a Faerie pool, the treasure lost in quicksand. There’s life below, so dive into the abyss or the subconscious. Sunken Secrets are ready to be revealed… can you handle them? This contest invites you to explore Sunken Secrets, whatever that means to you. Elegant Literature is the first short fiction magazine to pay professional rates but not accept submissions from pros. Our mission is to help new writers earn their first publishing credits—and their first dollar—from writing stories. To date, we have published 165 new authors across 21 issues, and put over $100,000 into the hands of writers around the globe. It’s free to submit to the magazine, and...

Deadline: September 1st, 2023 Payment: $25 for art, 8 cents per word for fiction Theme: Stories that contain significant speculative elements. The Basics Stories should be submitted to [email protected]. All stories must be under 1200 words (not including the title and byline). All stories over 1200 words will sadly be rejected automatically. All stories must contain significant speculative elements. This does not mean all sci-fi stories must have lasers and rockets. It just means a non-speculative story doesn’t become speculative if you include a single line clarifying the story takes place on Mars. When to Submit Because of the time needed to evaluate submissions and prepare stories for publication, Orion’s Belt has a limited submission window. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to you. Stories submitted outside the submission window will not be deleted, but they will not be read until the submission window re-opens. Our current submission window opened March 1st. This submission window will remain open until September 1st. Art Submissions Art submissions are currently open. We’re looking for cover art for issues of our magazine. Payment is a flat $25. The art should fit the ethos of this magazine and thus should feature speculative elements, but there are otherwise no major restrictions on what we’re looking for. If you have artwork you would like us to consider, submit it to us with a subject line that’s some variation on the basic format of “Art Submission - Artwork Name (Artist’s Name).” All art submissions should be directed to [email protected]. Keep in mind that we tend to take significantly longer to respond to art submissions than to story submissions, though we will eventually respond to every submission. For examples of what we’re looking for, check the cover art of Flash Fiction Online or Uncanny Magazine, though keep...

Deadline: September 1st, 2023 Payment: 5 cents per word for original and 1 cent per word for reprints Theme: speculative elements and involve the strangeness of the fey folk and their interactions with mortals. Deadline is September 1, 2023 Stories must have speculative elements and involve the strangeness of the fey folk and their interactions with mortals. Please be aware there is a difference between fairy tales and tales with fairies. If you have not read So Fey... why are you even submitting to us? Stories do not need to be romantic; endings do not have to be happy. But any work that punishes an individual for being queer will not be accepted. When in doubt, query us. Stories should be 2,500 to 10,000 words. Standard formatting please (Times New Roman 12, double space, etc). Payment for original fiction will be 5 cents a word for one-time print and digital rights. Payment for reprints is a bit more than 1 cent a word. Additionally, contributors will receive two copies of the finished book. Publication will be sometime in 2024. Via: Lethe Press Books.

Submission Window: September 1st-2nd, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used. Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome     Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces...

Deadline: September 2nd, 2023 Payment: $10 and a contributors copy Theme: A throwback to old-school lit mags Welcome to the Unstamatic Newsprint Issue, Vol. 2! The Newsprint project is a throwback to old-school lit mags that were, once upon a time, printed in newspaper format and distributed on the streets, guerrilla style. We’re bringing it back.What we’re looking for: Prose of 500 words or fewer Poetry of 25 lines or fewer Visual art of any sort (but bonus if it’s small/can be scaled down to fit the margins) We’re primarily interested in unpublished pieces, though we may consider exceptional previously published works, so long as you currently hold the rights. Submissions close Sept. 2, 2023 Unstamatic pays $10 USD per accepted piece, plus a complimentary contributor copy. The Newsprint Issue will be available first as a physical publication for order, and later as a downloadable digital publication. We hope to have the Newsprint Issue Vol. 2 in our hands by October 2023, though this is a tentative timeline subject to change. We ask for first publication rights, and upon publication all rights revert back to you. If you want to know more about what you’re getting into, hit up our store page for a free download of Vol. 1. Via: Unstamatic.

Submission Window: September 1st - 7th, 2023 Payment: Drabbles and Flash - £5, Short Stories 1001 to 4000 words - £10, Short Stories 4001 to 8000 words - £15 Theme: All genres, styles and themes will be considered Note: Only publishes creators from under represented and/or marginalized communities. WE ONLY PUBLISH CREATORS FROM UNDER REPRESENTED AND/OR MARGINALISED BACKGROUNDS AND/OR COMMUNITIES We don't ask for any proof, we take this on trust with the expectation that anyone not from a marginalised background or underrepresented community wouldn't take up the space of someone who is. We ask you to consider this before submitting. QUARTERLY ONLINE ANTHOLOGY: BRIEF We’re looking for stories you’ve poured your soul into but haven’t been able to find the right home for. We’re looking for stories that make us feel something. Warmth, love, melancholy, rage. We want it all.  All genres, styles and themes will be considered and we especially love stories that are outside the box in their telling. Ambiguous endings? Non-linear storytelling? Antagonist’s point-of-view? A story told in just one scene? We love it all. ​ SUBMISSIONS: CLOSEDPLEAE NOTE: We will close submissions early if our cut off point is reachedQuarterly Online Anthology Submission Schedule: September 1st - 7th (Winter Issue) or until we reach 70 submissions December 1st - 7th (Spring Issue) or until we reach 70 submissions March 1st - 7th (Summer Issue) or until we reach 70 submissions June 1st - 7th (Autumn Issue) or until we reach 70 submissions ​ we do not have set issue themes but feel free to be inspired by the season, seasonal occasions and events. We are unlikely to publish stories with seasonal events out of season - for example a story set in the Winter isn't likely to make it into our Summer issue even if we adore it. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES -...

Submission Window: September 1st - 8th, 2023 Payment: 4 cents (CAD) per word, up to a maximum of $350 (CAD) per story. Theme: SF-tinged literary fiction stories and novelettes Note: Apologies for the short notice, hopefully you have something laying around, we were just notified of this market. What We Want Science fiction or SF-tinged literary fiction stories and novelettes ranging anywhere from 2,000 to 15,000 words. Although any science fiction subgenre is fair game, our tastes lean towards slipstream, cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, and anything with a little taste of the bizarre. FF prefers character-driven stories, and often skews towards quiet, reflective pieces. If the primary tone of your story is one of high adventure or humour, it’s probably not the right fit for FF. That said, quality always outstrips genre preference in terms of importance, so feel free to send us anything that even vaguely resembles science fiction. We’ll be publishing reprints, but no more than one per issue, so expect acceptance rates to be accordingly lower. Work written by humans. We have no interest in AI-written stories. We’re always interested in publishing work by marginalized voices. If that’s you, and you feel comfortable doing so, please call this out in your cover letter. What We Pay Both previously unpublished work and reprints pay 4 cents (CAD) per word, up to a maximum of $350 (CAD) per story. Our preferred method of payment is PayPal. If you live in a region where PayPal is not available, we’ll do our best to work with you to find an alternate method of payment. How To Submit Send your stories in RTF, DOC, DOCX or ODT file formats. Standard manuscript formatting is nice but not necessary. No one’s going to get accepted or rejected based on manuscript formatting, so don’t stress about it....

Deadline: September 10th, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: Non-Genre Specific Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry Deadline 2023/09/10 $20 Contributor’s Payment if Accepted No Reprints If previously accepted, wait 24 months before submitting again. Only submit once per reading cycle. We are non-genre specific. Read the previous issues to get an idea of what we publish. Samjoko purchases first worldwide English-language serial and electronic rights from the date the contract is signed and paid for up until 6 months after publication date. After initial publication date, Samjoko Magazine will maintain non-exclusive rights to publication. Paid submissions must not use the intellectual property of any other author or company. Just To Clarify: your work will not appear, and will not have appeared, in any other available format (blogs and public forums included) until 3 months after the release date of the story in Samjoko Magazine. After 3 months, we’ll retain ongoing non-exclusive distribution rights, but you can self-publish your work or sell your story to another paying market. Each piece we acquire will be published on samjokomagazine.com in an electronic seasonal issue. We may also excerpt pieces for promotional purposes. The author retains all other rights. We pay up to 6 months after publication through PayPal only. Payment projected to happen sooner. Current payment is $20 per accepted submission, though we hope to increase this with greater support from readers. Cover letter should have contact information, PayPal email, and author’s bio less than 100 words. Email subject should read: Example - SUBMISSION: The Grey Wolf (FICTION - 3200) by Lauren Hill See below for detailed submission guidelines. Submissions that do not follow the guidelines will be deleted unread. Notification of receipt and rejections will be form letters to save time. There will be no personal responses except in the case of general queries and acceptances. Cover Letter...

Submission Window: August 13th - September 10th, 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: The End Accepting: Short Stories up to 3000 Words Flash and Micro Fiction up to 1200 Words Narrative Poetry/Stories in Verse up to 1200 Words Author Compensation: $25.00 (USD) per piece Rights: We request first worldwide and digital rights for four months following publication. Thereafter all rights revert to the author. All copyright remains with the author. Issue Theme: “The End” Call Status: CLOSED Publication: Digital Format (PDF) Submission Period: August 13th, 2023 – September 10th, 2023 Decisions By: October 1st, 2023 Release Date: October 26, 2023 What We’re Looking For: Quiet Horror and Dystopian genre works. You may be as creative with your interpretation of the theme as you like as long as your submission fits the genres we publish (see our FAQ page for more on how we define Quiet Horror and Intimate Dystopia). EMail Submissions To: [email protected] Continue below to read our submission rules and guidelines… ~ Submission Guidelines ~ For all open calls, submit your work by email to [email protected] with the subject line formatted as such: “ ” (ex.“April 2023 – The Sinkhole – Emily Young – Adult”). Please submit your work as an email attachment in .doc/.docx format. Authors may submit up to two pieces per issue. We request that each piece be submitted via its own individual email. You are welcomed to interpret each issue’s theme however you like but keep in mind that your interpretation should be within the realms of quiet horror and/or intimate dystopia. Ensure your document contains your story title, your name (or pen name), and an approximate word count. In the event that your story is selected for publication, we will need your legal name for the contract. Please include a header on each page of your document with your surname, title and page number. Your document should be formatted in Times New Roman, 12pt., with...

Deadline: September 10th, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: Historical Horror October Historical Horror SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: September 10th The Crow's Quill is an online literary magazine, brought to you by Damon Barret Roe and the rest of Quill & Crow Publishing House's editorial team, that boasts stories horrific, dark, and defiantly macabre.  Are you a writer? Join us! We are looking for short stories that fall under different monthly themes. Submissions Requirements Submissions will be read in the order they are received. Please only submit one previously unpublished story per month. You will receive notification within one week of your chosen month's submission end date. Please be sure to send in your best work; all submissions are final. Do not send us unrequested re-writes after your initial submission. Please note, we will not consider any submissions written, developed, or assisted by A.I. writing tools; please do not submit A.I. written stories to us. We are looking for a total of 4-8 stories per month, so please get your submission in as soon as possible. We are offering $20 per short story. Please attach your 1500-2000 word story in .docx format (12 pt Times/double spaced) to an email with a brief query. Please specify which month/theme you are submitting for. *Please include a trigger warning in your submissions email for any instances of child/animal death/abuse. Poetry Submissions Requirements Note: Poetry submissions close on the 20th of each month, 10 days after the story submissions close. Submissions will be read in the order they are received. Please only submit one previously unpublished poem per month. You will receive notification within one week of your chosen month's submission end date. Please send to the correct email. We are looking for a total of two poems per month, so please get your submissions in as soon as...

Submission Window: September 1st - 14th, 2023 Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: up to 5 poems or 5 pages of poems, whichever is shorter. ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished Theme: Solarpunk Our submission windows are currently closed, but will reopen from September 1-14, 2023 for general solarpunk submissions. Septembers open window will be our final submission period of 2023. Our 2024 submission window schedule will be published before the end of this summer. (At the moment, our nonfiction department is current and always open for submissions. If the fiction portal is closed and you submit fiction through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be rejected.) All submissions to Solarpunk Magazine are done via Moksha. Any submissions received via email will be deleted without a response. Please don’t email us to describe your story and ask if it’s something we’d be interested in before submitting. We appreciate the consideration, but its easier if you just submit the story through Moksha. Please read the full submission guidelines on down below or on our Moksha page before submitting your work. All submission periods end at 11:59 pm PST on the 14th of their given month. 2023 Submission Window Schedule: January 1-14 March 1-14 (Colorful Roots: BIPOC authors only) May 1-14 July 1-14 September 1-14 2023 Issue Release Schedule: Issue #7 – January 10 Issue #8 – March 14 Issue #9 – May 9 Issue #10 – July 11 (Theme: Colorful Roots)* Issue #11 – September 12 (Theme: Solarpunk Myths)** Issue #12 – November 14 *Submissions for the Colorful Roots themed issue will be accepted during our March submission window. This is to accommodate our guest editor’s (TBA) schedule....

Deadline: September 15th, 2023 Payment: $10 for the magazine and additional royalties if included in an anthology Theme: Speculative Fiction We are open for fiction and poetry submissions from 15 June to 15 September and from 15 December to 15 March each year. In general ... I would love to see submissions representing not only multiple cultures but subcultures, exploring issues of race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, and many things I haven't thought of. Does this mean you have to represent everybody and everything in 1000 words? Of course not. But be aware that we are creating a magazine that overall reaches and represents the true diversity of the world we live in. In terms of genre, I am looking for work that constitutes the ever-moving edge of its kind, as a place between light and dark, consciousness and un, today and tomorrow; work exhibiting the strange, the bizarre, that which is not of the world we know, but more of a twilight realm or even altogether alien place. Not necessarily science fiction, not necessarily fantasy, not necessarily horror, and not necessarily not these things. In short, ideally edgy. Maybe even idealistically edgy. I am NOT looking for adult content. Penumbric generally accepts submissions in the following categories: fiction, poetry, illustration, graphic narrative, animation, music, or combinations of these (e.g., a spoken-word version of a poem). If you have something that fits some other category that can be displayed to advantage on the web, try me; I'll take a look. All works must be the creation of the author(s) submitting them, and must not infringe upon any right of any other person or entity. We buy non-exclusive worldwide periodical rights to publish your work in Penumbric, and will accept reprints on a case-by-case basis. We are also buying the right to continue...

Deadline: September 15th, 2023 Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25 Theme: poems inspired by Food and feasting Eye to the Telescope 50, Food & Feasting, will be edited by Claire McNerney. Food is the essential connector, it links people to their identities and to each other. It fuels us, allows us to dream. In the realms of fae, it’s a curse. What might food look like in other words? Taste like? Feel like? What might it do to people? How might someone’s relationship with food be impacted by the way that it’s made? Don’t be afraid to delve into detail, no matter how disgusting. As for feasting—is it a celebration or a crime? Who does the feasting? What prestige do certain items of food have? Delicacies aren’t always delicate. In the far future, would people even eat? If not, what might feasting look like for them? I’m interested in works that explore all aspects of food and feasting, from production to consumption, from culture to detachment, from ecstasy to shame. Don't be afraid to explore form & new forms, but I admire emotional and imaginative potency above all. Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Use the form at  to submit. Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain). Inquiries only to [email protected] with “ETTT” in the subject line. Deadline: September 15. The issue will appear on October 15, 2023. Payment and rights Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks. Eye...

Submission Window: August 15th - September 15th, 2023 Payment: 3 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: A reckoning of southern extreme horror TITLE: Y’ALL AIN’T RIGHT GENRE: Extreme Horror THEME: Southern / Backwoods / Bayou EDITOR/ARTIST: K. Trap Jones WORD COUNT: 3,000 word MAX REPRINTS: Hell Naw MULTIPLE SUBS: Hell Naw SIMULTANEOUS SUBS: Hell Naw RELEASE DATE: January 2024 PAYMENT: 3 cents per word + paperback copy RIGHTS: 1-year English Exclusive SEND stories as .DOCX or .DOC as attachment to [email protected] with subject line- YALL SUB: (story title) by (author name) OPENING DATE: AUGUST 15, 2023 CLOSING DATE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2023 *All emails before or after the dates will be beaten, tortured, grilled and eaten within a tortilla. —TOC subject to change— Table of Contents so far… Joe R Lansdale - Kasey Lansdale - Edward Lee - Jeff Strand - Wrath James White - Kristopher Triana - Kristopher Rufty - Ryan Harding - Christine Morgan - Daniel J Volpe - Bridgett Nelson Via: The Evil Cookie.

Deadline: September 16th, 2023 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Fame If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. (Vol 97) Fame: deadline 16th September 2023 SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If this form isn’t working, please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. Title your email with the following syntax: “SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT”  (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) Submission Guidelines • Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) • Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you are confirming that you are the original creator of the story • We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when your story has been used elsewhere on the document • You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this at the end of your document, underneath the log line • Payment per accepted story is 15GBP • 2x entries per theme permitted   When will I hear if my story has been accepted or not? We carefully review every single submission that comes through our door. If you’ve...

Submission Window: September 2nd - 16th, 2023 Payment: 1.5¢ per word (one and one-half cent), with a $25 (U.S.) minimum and 2 contributor's copies Theme: Horror and weird fiction Weird Horror has 2, two-week, reading periods each year: March 2 - 16, and September 2 - 16. FICTION GUIDELINES OPENS: Sept. 2, 2023 CLOSES: Sept. 16, 2023 We are seeking horror and weird fiction from 500 to 6,000 words, firm. Stories over or under the word count will not be read. (Please respect our word counts.) We are a home for the strange, the macabre, the eerie, the esoteric, the fabulist, and the gothic. The darkly numinous. The odd. We are not interested in extreme horror. Do not send science fiction or fantasy. We are very supportive of emerging writers, and have twice published first-time authors. Please send 1 story only per reading period. NOTE - We are not considering stories written, co-written, created, or assisted by AI and machine-learning languages such as ChatGPT. Please do not send them. We are seeking first English-language publication rights. Fiction must be in English, and previously unpublished in English anywhere, in any format (including audio), on any platform, including your blog, website, newsletter, Patreon, etc. Please do not query about reprints. We will consider works translated to English, as long as you are offering first English-language publication rights. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please inform us if your story is accepted elsewhere. No multiple submissions. Please send 1 story only per reading period. The magazine is free to read online here: Read Weird Horror We encourage you to read some of the stories to familiarize yourself with our aesthetic. We receive about 1,000 manuscripts each period, and accept less than 2% of submissions. Do not be discouraged by a form rejection. Payment is (U.S.)...

Deadline: September 17th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Short pulp sword and sorcery stories Submissions: OPEN (Issue 8) • Submission deadline: Sunday, September 17th, 2023, 11:59p. • Editorial decisions: Sunday, October 15th. E-mailed at the end of the work day. • Publication of Issue 8: Friday, December 15th, 2023. Published digitally at the end of the work day. Length: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets. Style: We prefer "dialog light, action heavy" fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. Please eschew typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre). Questions? Join our Discord, the Whetstone Tavern and ask questions to the Whetstone channel there. Publication, payment, and rights: Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for...

Submission Window: August 17th - September 18th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. WHAT WE LOOK FOR: We are most interested in dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. We want stories that grab us by the throat and ask questions about what it means to be human. Make us feel something long after we are done reading. The Editor is particularly fond of stories in the vein of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Creep Show. When it comes to literary inspiration, think of Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Mary Shelley. The Editor also enjoys almost anything produced by A24. Think of Pyre as a bonfire — a place of storytelling and sacrifice. Take a seat near the fire and listen or spin a yarn of your own. Here at Pyre, we worship at the altar of storytelling done well. We love genre work that tells us something about the human condition. Pyre is personally funded and maintained by the Editor. he asks you are patient with him as he gets back to submissions. PYRE WILL CONSIDER MATERIAL BY ANY WRITER AND ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN AMPLIFYING UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES. FICTION GUIDELINES:  Submissions of fiction should be no longer than 3,500 words Please submit only one piece per submission period. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: fiction submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages,...

Deadline: September 22nd, 2023 Payment: 10 cents/word, 2 cents/word reprints, $50/page of poetry, $50 minimum per piece of artwork. Theme: All of the current social issues that are happening We’re very excited to announce, for the forthcoming Reckoning 8, editors Knar Gavin and Waverly SM! Read on for their issue-specific submission call. Reckoning is a journal of creative writing on environmental justice; we’re looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, poetry and art. For Reckoning 8, we want thinking, writing and art about … this. All of this, right now. We want to hear about active resistance to the patriarchofascist, corporate-captured extractive state. Show us what it means that in order to build Cop City*, a massive facility intended to train a new generation of lethal enforcers into an institution directly descended from slave patrols, the state of Georgia and its actors must first level a forest and label protestors “domestic terrorists” as a precursor to murdering them. Help us understand how strategies of repression and control all over the world concentrate agency in the hands of the few at the expense of all other life. We are looking for work in opposition to a broad, insidious fascism that treats water, trees, and bodies as exploitable, expendable resources rather than sacred, essential components of our global, infinitely interconnected and interdependent web of life. As always, we’re seeking work from people of all genders or none, all sexualities or none, of all neurotypes, all levels of physical ability, from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, in all parts of the world. We’d love to add all languages to that, though we publish in English and are currently limited to reading submissions for potential translation in Spanish, French and Swedish. Payment is 10 cents/word, $50/page of poetry, $50 minimum per piece of artwork. We don’t charge submission...

Deadline: September 24th, 2023 Payment: 3 cents per word Theme: Speculative fiction stories that include crabs Our submission window for Issue 1 will run from 23rd August to 24th September. You can expect a response within 6 weeks of the submission closing date. Guidelines Crab Tales is a speculative fiction magazine. If your story includes crabs and has an element of the fantastic in it, we want it. We accept micro fiction pieces of up to 250 words. If there are no crabs in your story, we will reject it. If your story is over 250 words, we will reject it. We pay 3 cents per word. Crab Tales is an online venue, although we hope to move to print editions as well as online editions in the future.   Submit Please send your submissions to submissions crabtalesmagazine.com Please submit only one story. We do not currently accept translations, although we hope to in the future. We are not currently accepting artwork, but we will open for art submissions soon. We do not accept AI generated or AI assisted work. Include your name and the title of your story in the subject line of your email. Please attach your story as a word file (.doc, docx). If you cannot save your story in the above format, please send your story within the body of the email instead. You’re very welcome to include a short 100 word bio along with your submission. We look forward to reading your work! Via: Crab Tales Magazine.

Deadline: September 25th, 2023 Payment: $0.01 per word after edits are made, $50 for accepted images. Theme: Horror for the spooky season of Halloween Fall...a time for cozy sweaters, apple picking, and pumpkin spice lattes... ​ No... ​ Scratch that... ​ It's a time for brittle leaves crunching when you walk, haunting winds that leave forlorn resonance in in their wakes, and jack-o-lanterns ushering in the most magnificent season of the year. ​ Give us your sacrifices to the spooky season! What makes fall magical yet horrific for you? What does the change in seasons in conjure? What monsters wake up when the frost begins to settle? What could possibly go wrong when you're doing a little pumpkin patch fun? The possibilities are endless when it's fall! ​ This theme is a little broader than our usual—have some fun with it! Please submit your unique, unpublished, horror or dark fantasy—horror elements must be prevalent within dark fantasy—stories or images related to the fall season—fall activities, the change in weather, and Halloween   Details​ All stories and images should involve the fall season or Halloween as major components. Simply adding a fall setting to a story with an entirely different focus will not be accepted. All stories should be between 2000 and 6000 words in length. There will be no wiggle room this time. Images can be a cover image without text, a figure, or a scene.  All stories and images should be emailed to [email protected].  Stories and images will be accepted until the anthology is full or until Sept 25, 2023, whichever comes first, so it will be to your benefit to submit as early as possible.  You may submit more than one story or image if you choose; however, only one will be selected for possible publication.  Simultaneous submissions are not...

Deadline: September 25th, 2023 Payment: All rated in CAD, $100 per interview, $200 per essay, $100 per review, $150 per work of fiction, $35 per poem (or page, capped at $120 for poems running four pages or more), $50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece Theme: Any genre, though best to see previously published work for a feel for the magazine. A premier Canadian literary magazine, publishing the best in new writing. We award the annual Austin Clarke Prizes in fiction and poetry. The Ex-Puritan seeks submissions all year round, from anywhere in the world. Feel encouraged to push boundaries, play with form, and explore genre elements. Consider reading the fiction in our last few issues to familiarize yourself with work we've published. Please do not submit stories over 10,000 words, flash fiction (under 1,000 words), or novel excerpts. Please only send one story at a time. Note that all submissions must be previously unpublished and that we will not publish the same author more than once per year.We are especially interested in work by LGBTQ2S+ writers, BIPOC writers, and writing from other marginalized folks. Rates | Fall 2022 $100 per interview $200 per essay $100 per review $150 per work of fiction $35 per poem (or page, capped at $120 for poems running four pages or more) $50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece Check back with the magazine regularly; The Ex-Puritan is working ever assiduously to increase these figures. Please note that we can ONLY issue payments using e-transfer, PayPal or a cheque in the mail. We also pay in CAD. If you cannot accept payment via e-transfer, PayPal or cheque from a Canadian bank, we cannot accept your submission....

Deadline: September 29th, 2023 Payment: 8 cents a word for stories up to 1,875 words, 1 cent per word for reprints Theme: All forms of fiction Note: Reprints Welcome SUBMISSIONS TO OUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARE CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH. Why submit to us? - WE PAY PROFESSIONAL RATES. It’s hard work writing good stories, and you deserve to get paid fairly for it. Or maybe you don’t, and you’re just duping us? Regardless, we pay 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,000 words (well, 1,875, to be exact). Stories longer than this are capped at $150 payment. - NO SUBMISSION FEES. We’re not saying the other guys are getting rich off $3 per submission, but there’s something about the idea that we, as writers, have you pay you, the publisher, just for the privilege of rejecting our work with a form letter, bothers us. (Costs of running an E-zine aside) We’re going to go ahead and coin a phrase right here and now - ‘Write privilege’, get it? Of course, you do. - GET YOUR WORK IN FRONT OF A LARGE AND GROWING AUDIENCE. Our aim is fixed on telling good stories, period, and because of that we have built a massive readership from all over the globe. Want to get your stories out to more than just dear old nana? Then you've come to the right place. - REASONABLE TURN-AROUND TIME. If you haven't heard from us within 90 days, then your story was rejected. Rejections stink - we get it - but its better than forever waiting and wondering. - WORKABILITY. Is that the right term? Well, we're going with it. Unlike large publishers who view you as just a number, we actually work with you to help present the story in its best possible light, while never infringing...

Deadline: September 29th, 2023 Payment: $1 per drabble, up to 10 drabbles. Theme: 100-word Christmas horror stories with exactly a 2 word title. BLACK HARE PRESS is—and has always been—an inclusive publisher. LGBTQ+ characters always welcome. All our calls are for dark speculative fiction or weird/horror. No co-authored projects, please, unless the call specifically says they are allowed. 2 word title 100 word story (excluding title and pen name). A bio of no more than 15 words, plus one link << this is really important. Don’t include links to retailers (ie Amazon) as the books get rejected when they have retailer links. If you want to include one, we suggest you set up something like linktr.ee (here’s ours: linktr.ee/blackharepress) or bio.site (here’s ours:  bio.site/blackharepress) $1 USD per acceptance. Up to 10 acceptances per pen name. Want more? Easy—use another pen name. First three to 10 get a $10 Amazon voucher. First to 10 also gets a paperback copy of the final product. One email, one drabble. We won’t look at submissions with more than one drabble, as we don’t have time to extrapolate them into the read process. Blind submissions for the actual manuscript, please. Reprints are OK, but we’ll have no space for “First Published” acknowledgements, so please check your obligations with previous publishers first (if your first publisher is BHP, then you automatically have permission, as long as it wasn’t published in the last 12 months). No simultaneous submissions, please. Theme: December, holidays around December (Immaculate Conception, St Nicholas Day, Christmas, Bodhi Day, Feast Day of Our Lady Guadalupe, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Zarathosht Diso, and anything else you can think of), myths and legends, etc. Genre: Must be dark, but any genre, including (not an exhaustive list): horror, science fiction, LGBTQ+, romance/ steamy/erotic horror, cosmic, speculative, fantasy. Submit to: [email protected]. Will...

Deadline: September 30th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: The love... And hate... Of a narcissist A departure of sorts for HellBound... It's a golden opportunity to tell your tales of terror and woe at the hands of that most heinous of monsters, a narcissist - not necessarily a spouse - and deliver the most delicious revenge in the form of the written word. Of course, names and some details may be changed to protect the innocent (and avoid lawsuits!), but we ask that you tell your true story - it's the ultimate catharsis, and will hopefully serve as a cautionary tale to others. PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * 0.3" hard paragraph indents (NOT spacebar hits, please!) * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * 2.5K-6K word count (although we are incredibly flexible for awesome stories!) * Write 'NARCISSIT' along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. To submit, email your polished story to [email protected] - Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: 30 September 2023 Payment - $10.00 for first rights. Capped at 120K words in total. Via: Hellbound Books Publishing.

Submission Window: September 15-30th, 2023. Extended submission window exclusively for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and marginalized writers open October 1 - October 7, 2023. Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Horror stories at 1000-2000 words They got sub calls for flash and sub calls for 2000+, but what about those little bastards no one wants? What about those stories YOU wrote for no call at all, just because you wanted to? Those guys that never get picked for dodgeball. Let’s find them a home. Let’s find a place for those treasures, those stories that said all you had to say in 1600 words. Those outcasts, those weirdos, those stories that Goldilocks wouldn’t look at twice. Open call submission window open September 15 - September 30, 2023. Extended submission window exclusively for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and marginalized writers open October 1 - October 7, 2023. This anthology is unthemed and will be made up entirely of stories from the open call. No invites! What are we looking for? We want the stories you love the most, that you wrote in a fit of fury, passion, grief, or worry. Anywhere between 1000 and 2000. Too big for flash, too small for a short story. Horror only, though we count dark fantasy and gruesome or heart-wrenching literary in there too. This anthology is open to all writers, but we strongly encourage writers from the LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities to submit. What are we NOT looking for? No cruelty/death to dogs or dog-like creatures. Those will be rejected outright and you will have made an enemy for life. Beyond that, we understand the horrors of bigotry and how that makes for great storytelling, but bigoted/queerphobic/racist/misogynistic stories will be rejected and you run the risk of being put on blast. Don’t be an asshole, though your...

Submission Window: September 1st - 30th, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Canadian Theme: Blades/Swords Welcome to our four-book series, dedicated to horror inspired by the Tarot.  Does the story have to be about Tarot Cards... NO. Think cups, knives, wands, and pentacles. We are looking for the theme to be the element, not necessarily the card itself, although we would love to read that as well.  Chalice - Pentacles - Blades - Wands ​ **Patron Members get an extended submission window** ​ March 1- 31: Chalice  (Patron dates Feb 21 - April 7) June 1- July 7 Pentacles (Patron dates May 23 - July 14) Sept 1- 30: Blades/Swords  (Patron dates August 24 - October 7) Dec 1- 31: Wands (Patron dates November 23 - January 7) ​ ​ Each book will have an overriding theme of a Tarot suit and be between 50k - 60k words in length. They will be stand-alone books but will make up a four-book series. ​ ​​Word count: 1500 - 7000 firm. Payment: Flat rate payment ¢1 per word CAD after approved edits. Reprints? No ​Multiple Submission? No 💀 Only one submission per author per theme/quarter.  ​Formatting: Please use 12 pt Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, set auto-indent new paragraphs. Add the story title to the top of the manuscript. Do not include your name or email in the manuscript. These stories will be read "blind" by our reading team. Title your manuscript "Title of Story - Theme" for example "Borderline Nuisance - Tarot Wands"Please make sure the title of the story and the title on the manuscript match. ​ How to submit?Submit via the Form - Which will open on the start of each quarter. (A button will appear) IF you have issues with the form, please email your manuscript to [email protected] Title your email...

Submission Window: September 1st - 30th, 2023 Payment: Contributors copy and $50 CDN for shorts or $20 CDN for poetry Theme: Gothic Horror in the Cold Gothic fiction is renowned for being filled with spine-chilling stories in isolated and forlorn places. What better setting could there be than the deep, dark, depths of winter? When snow and storms can isolate remote locations for days or weeks and bundling up to keep the cold away provides a different kind of anonymity and isolation even in the heart of cities. Hauntings and Hoarfrost will be filled with stories of frosty mornings, blood stained snow and ghosts who appear and disappear like breath fogging the air. I will be looking for mysterious messages scratched into frosty windows, the sound of ice skates cutting across an empty pond, wild storms and blankets of soft, white, beautiful death. Rights and compensation: $50 CDN flat fee and a paperback copy of the anthology for stories. $20 CDN flat fee and a paperback copy of the anthology for poems. In exchange we are seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after publication date, after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish for the life of the anthology. Open submission period: September 1, 2023 – September 30, 2023 Length: Under 7,500 words No simultaneous or multiple submissions. No reprints. Canadian spelling, please. (Just do your best, we don’t judge) Submissions will be handled through Submittable. A link will be provided closer to the submission window opening. Via: Rhonda Parrish.

Submission Window: September 1st - 30th, 2023 Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue Theme: Any genre, short story Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful. Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars? Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that. What does the timeline look like? Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout. Where do I send submissions? [email protected] What are the rules for submitting? 1. No Fees 2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form 3. Any genre 4. 6- 10,000 words. Yes, just 6 words, like Hemingway's famous 6-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." 5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute. 6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers. 7. Only the winner will be published and rights will only transfer for the winning story. What do I get for subscribing? One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting. What if I can’t pay right now? That’s ok! If you publish a blurb about this site on your website, blog, or social media, I will send you one full story of your choosing. Best of all, it is...

Submission Window: September 1st - 30th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Stories of any genre by writers who identify with and as any of the following descriptors: trans, two-spirit, disabled, neurodivergent, Mad, queer, crip, nonbinary, genderqueer, intersex. Who: We welcome submissions by those who identify with and as any of the following descriptors: trans, two-spirit, disabled, neurodivergent, Mad, queer, crip, nonbinary, genderqueer, intersex. This is a space for the words, works, and worlds of and by those whose bodyminds defy social expectations and invite new ways of thinking and knowing. We do not need to know the specifics of your identity/diagnosis/experience unless you want us to. We invite closeted and questioning people to share their work, as well as those whose experiences fall outside the confines of the language we used above. We welcome submissions from creators of all ages. We particularly encourage unpublished/emerging/young creators to submit. If you know an incarcerated/institutionalized creator who would like to submit, email us for information as to where to mail the submission, or clearly indicate in your message that you are submitting on their behalf. What: We take submissions of all/no forms and genres. Please do not label your submission by genre. Submissions that are text-based should number no more than three <1,000-word pieces, or five total pages. If your spacing is funky (we encourage funky spacing) use your best judgement. Submissions that are primarily image-, audio, or video-based should number no more than three still images, one audio recording of five minutes or fewer, or one video of five minutes or fewer. All audio content must be accompanied by a transcription at the time of submission. All visual content must be accompanied by an image description at the time of submission. This magazine is english language-based, and we enthusiastically welcome translations (along the...

Deadline: September 30th, 2023 Payment: £20 per accepted story Theme: Unpublished sci-fi, fantasy and horror stories inspired by/based on tabletop games - roleplaying games, board games, miniature wargames. We are looking for unpublished sci-fi, fantasy and horror stories of between 2,000 and 6,000 words. Please only submit one story at a time and don't submit if it's already submitted somewhere else. All stories should be self-contained, no "to be continued". Recurring characters across multiple stories will be considered, as long as each story is a solid read in its own right. If you've already been published in an issue of Fanatical you are free to submit again, but we may hold your submission over so as not to publish the same author in back to back issues. Fanatical will pay £20 per accepted story, paid upon publication. We pay via Paypal. Upon acceptance, authors retain rights to the story but we ask they don't publish/submit it anywhere else before it is published in Fanatical. These stories should be inspired by/based on tabletop games - roleplaying games, board games, miniature wargames. Though Fanatical may take it's name from the concept of fan fiction, we're not looking to get sued here.   A story about an adventuring party consisting of a dwarf, an elf, a human and a halfling going into a dungeon to fight a dragon is fine. A story specifically set in a copyright protected world of Dungeons & Dragons, with reference to its locations and characters is not. A story about a genetically engineered super-soldier in power armour fighting aliens in the far future is fine. A story about a Space Marine fighting Xenos in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000 is not. Rest assured the editors at Fanatical will work with you to ensure your stories meet our criteria in this regard.   Authors should be able to clearly...

Deadline: September 30th, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Gothic romances that are equal parts horror and romance. Editors: Heather & S.D. Vassallo Theme: We're looking for gothic romances that are equal parts horror and romance. The short stories should be mysterious, atmospheric, and include a HEA (or happy for now). This is an open call with no slots reserved for invitation pieces. Women and non-binary authors only (our definition of women includes transgender women and femme-identifying individuals - and always will. If you identify as woman by any definition, or identify as non-binary, this call is open to you). Must Haves:  - Horror and romance - Happily ever after or at least happy for now - Overwhelming sense of menace or dread - Atmosphere (weather) and/or place prominently add to the story - Traditionally spooky locations, such as old manor houses or decaying plantations aren't necessary, but the location should be spooky. - Actual supernatural horror, implied supernatural horror, or psychological horror - Haunted places/houses welcome - Sizzle: anywhere from closed door to super sizzle welcome (but the sizzle must drive the plot forward) - Time period: anytime in the past or present - Location: anywhere on Earth Won't Accept: - Racism - Anti-LGBTQIA+ - Rape - Incest - Extreme Horror (excessive gore, explicit sex just for gore/sex sake) - Reprints - Manuscripts that don't follow the guidelines Guidelines:  - Women and non-binary authors only (our definition of women includes transgender women and femme-identifying individuals -     and always will. If you identify as woman by any definition, or identify as non-binary, this call is open to you).  - Short Stories 2,000 to 6,000 words - First page should have your legal and author name, email address, word count, and title of story - Font 12 pt Garamond - Double Spaced - No headers, footers, or special formatting -...

Submission Window: September 1st - 30th, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction It's our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone. Guidelines for Fiction We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. We pay 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx. We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished. We're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and...

Deadline: September 30th, 2023 Payment: Royalties Theme: New Crystal Lake Entertainment imprint looking for Pulp and Extreme Horror novels and novellas. Torrid Waters is an imprint of Crystal Lake Entertainment, focused on Pulp and Extreme Horror books. Novel and Novella submissions The submission window will remain open from midnight EST August 1st, 2023 to midnight EST September 30th, 2023. Only one submission per author at a time. Simultaneous subs (to other publishers) are allowed, but please inform us of that upon submission. Be sure to let us know if and when your book is accepted for publication elsewhere. No previously published works (this includes self-published titles). Your novel/novella needs to 100% written when you submit your first three chapters, in case we ask to see the entire manuscript. Do not resubmit the same title once it’s been rejected. The submission window will remain open from midnight EST August 1st, 2023 to midnight EST September 30th, 2023. Only one submission per author at a time. Simultaneous subs (to other publishers) are allowed, but please inform us of that upon submission. Be sure to let us know if and when your book is accepted for publication elsewhere. No previously published works (this includes self-published titles). Your novel/novella needs to 100% written when you submit your first three chapters, in case we ask to see the entire manuscript. Do not resubmit the same title once it’s been rejected. Email your submissions to [email protected] with the subject of “Torrid Waters Submission 2023.” In the body of the email, be sure to mention: • The title of your book and the total word count of the finished manuscript. • A one-sentence tagline that encapsulates your main plot. • An author bio • Optional: your writer’s CV, if you want to give a detailed summary of...

Submission Window: September 1-30, Early submission period for equity-deserving groups August 24-31 Payment: $0.08 CAD per word Theme: short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships in any genre (though they prefer uplifting so probably better for Scifi/Fantasy.) Note: Looking for at least 50% Canadian authors We're looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don't want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years. Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that's ok. We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules. Payment Payment is $0.08 CAD per word for short fiction (1,000-3,500 words) and $60 CAD flat per poem. We are purchasing first publication rights, to revert back to the author after one year. Canadian Writers Since Heartlines Spec is primarily a Canadian magazine, we're looking to feature writers identifying as being from Canada/Turtle Island. This includes expats, refugees and displaced people living in Canada, new immigrants, and people who refuse/resist Canadian Identity. Heartlines welcomes submissions from writers of all identities. If you are comfortable, we encourage writers to indicate their intersections in their cover letter. Disclosure is not a requirement to submit, and we recognize that not all people are safe to disclose their identities. We are committed to addressing barriers and systemic discrimination faced by equity-deserving groups, which includes (but is not limited to): Racialized people People with disabilities LGBTQIA+ people Indigenous people...

Deadline: September 30th, 2023 Payment: $.02/word for flash fiction 300 – 1,000 words. $30 flat rate for short stories 1,500 – 2,500 words. Theme: Short stories that feature The fighters, the curious, those who win against the odds. The intrepid. Thank you for considering Intrepidus Ink as a publisher of your work. Our process is challenging. Competitive. At least two editors give a story the “thumbs up” for publication. A story must speak to us, exemplify our aesthetic, and potentially delight readers. A tall order. Give Us The fighters, the curious, those who win against the odds. The intrepid. That’s what we want. Emotion. Write stories just for us. We explore intrepid culture: our stories feature danger elements, struggle, emotion, and OVERCOMING. Our stories are intrepid first and not subordinated to other themes. We accept many genres and writing styles, including literary, speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy), literary speculative fiction, action and adventure, romance, magic realism, historical fiction, and others. We love odd, quirky, experimental stories, and humor. We don’t take erotica, poetry, children’s fiction, nonfiction, or horror. We love a good, scary story, but we promote FEARLESSNESS, not FEAR or tragedies. Repackaging horror stories as speculative fiction will still earn a rejection (sorry!). Read and heed submission guidelines, especially for word counts. Click on “The Rules” below. A tip: if we’ve declined your submissions multiple times, please don’t give up! Keep trying.  But also, read our published stories to clarify what we mean by intrepid culture. What are you waiting for?  Go for the Gutsy! Submit a flash fiction or short story now.  New! Submit amazing, excellent stories showcasing narrators engaging in FEARLESS CONFLICT & overcoming. Now through September 30. Submission Guidelines for Flash Fiction and Short Stories: Flash Fiction 300 – 1,000 words; Short Stories 1,500 – 2,500 words (firm).  Unpublished Work Only: Story cannot be published anywhere online or publicly, including social media, community writing sites, or personal blogs, nor may work be retitled from said...

Deadline: October 1st, 2023 Payment: Contributor's Copies Theme: Six calls set in different decades with different themes that all have 4 requirements that you can see below Most people would agree that technical advancements have made our lives easier or, at the very least, more entertaining. But, what about the flip side? What horrors were unleashed for the sake of creation? What monsters emerged as technology evolved? We invite you to travel back in time with us as we discover the dark side of six decades. Get creative with the themes. Bring us thrills and chills. Just remember to adhere to the basic guidelines. We can’t wait to experience it. Series Submissions Guidelines Applies to all individual calls for submissions listed below Word/Entry Limits: Only 1 story per person, per book (Feel free to submit one for each book in the series!) Short stories (English only) between 1,500 words and 5,000 words Original works only - no reprints Submit your story in the official entry forms (links below). Opens: June 1, 2023 Final Submission Deadline: October 1, 2023 (or until full) Reprints: No Multiple Submissions: No Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, but please alert us and/or withdraw your submission if accepted elsewhere. While it will not affect an entrant’s chances of acceptance, those entrants who tip will receive a digital copy of each of the Dark Decades anthologies that they submitted to when it is released. (Example: If someone tipped when submitting to Listen and Capture, but didn’t tip when they submitted to Lurk, they would receive digital copies of Listen and Capture, but not Lurk. And each submission would be weighted/considered for publication equally, irrespective of tip status.) A word on response times: Having been on the receiving end of things, we know what it’s like to eagerly await word about...

Deadline: October 1st, 2023 Payment: 8 Cents per word Theme: Science fiction that feature and empower large gay/bi/queer men John Bear was a mesh of wire and silicone, of nanobot lace and rare gems unearthed from mines in foreign lands. He stepped out of the cryo-chamber, his large body pulsating with a green bio- luminescence, his head throbbing with a constant data stream being jacked into his frontal lobe. The lone light, a faint, dim sliver of faded yellow from a computer monitor a room away seemed blinding, seemed to radiate the force of a violent sun. John stumbled towards what looked like a door, banged his round belly on the control panel before sliding down the wall in a convulsing lump. The door swished open and standing before him was an onyx robot with dancing dreads that looked like guitar wires. “Kiss me,” the robot said with metallic timbre. John raised his head and admired the robot’s physique — round, carbon faced, barrel-chested, and a slick, smooth belly larger than his own. “Kiss me, remember me, understand me — and then we can both be free.” After a pause, the door closed — sssswiissshh — leaving John Bear alone in the dark, leaking fluid, drifting into the blackness of sleep. We here at the Afterverse have always wondered what a queer empowered sci-fi anthology would look like. We also wondered what would happen if those stories took place in the bear and chub communities, if they featured characters that could be our friends, partners, boyfriends, and lovers and if they featured larger bodies, fat bodies, chubby, hairy bodies! We are often left wondering what queer genre fiction — from fantasy to romance to even slice of life, would look like if we found the lead characters desirable and/or reflective...

Submission Window: August 15th - October 1st, 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: NIRVANA-inspired horror Celbrate 35 years with a collection of NIRVANA-Inspired Horror! For decades, our lives have been touched by the music. We’ve cried, screamed, laughed to the punk riffs and unique vocals. NIRVANA shaped us during our formative years and it shows. For that, we honor the mark they’ve made.    Now we sing dark, twisted covers of our favorite songs.     From Book Slayer Press and Roxie Voorhees, co-editor of MINE and READER BEWARE, comes a collection of NIRVANA-inspired horror.     Forming the ultimate playlist, the stories within showcase NIRVANA’s discography with a fear inducing twist.    NEGATIVE CREEP: A NIRVANA-Inspired Horror Anthology    GUIDELINES:  Please read carefully. Submissions that don’t meet the guidelines will be rejected.    Submissions will be accepted from August 15 through the end of September 30. Deadline is October 1st, 2023, at midnight IDLW time zone. Please submit to [email protected]. Open to any and all writers, both new and established.     What we are looking for:  20-30 stories inspired by NIRVANA songs, ranging their entire discography. All horror tropes are welcome. Genre-blending is highly encouraged. Queer retellings and gender swaps, historical horror, sci-fi horror, cults, and cannibalism are a few of our favorites. Writers should have a diverse representation of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, gender identities, disability, fat positivity, and neurodivergence. **Please note: Only one story per song will be accepted**    What we are NOT looking for:  Please, do not submit stories about Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Kurt’s suicide (mentioning is fine), anything that has to do with band members’ personal lives and not related to NIRVANA or its music.  Submissions cannot contain sexualization of minors (under 18, yes that includes “17 almost 18”).     Trigger warnings are encouraged and will be included in...

Submission Window: October 1st, 2023 Payment: One cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) Theme: Fantastic Fiction You really NEED to read the description below. The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we're interested in stories by writers who write about what they don't know, take us places we couldn't possibly go, and don't try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, "What is irrealism?") pages on this web site. We accept unsolicited fiction up to 2,000 words in length. Translations are welcome. There is no minimum length. We accept only electronic submissions via e-mail at [email protected]. We cannot, due to the various computer viruses and worms, accept attachments anymore, so please paste your story into the body of the e-mail. Also include your name, address, e-mail address, and a short bio in the text of the submission; please put the word "submission" in the subject heading of the e-mail to ensure that your submission doesn't get lost among all the spam. We pay an honorarium of one cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) to buy first-time internet rights (the story will then be archived). Payment is made upon publication. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DON'T ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and are only interested in reprints in unusual cases (e.g., the story has appeared in print...