CLOSED: Stupefying Stories

Stupefying Stories is now closed to unsolicitated submissions

Payment: $15 flat up to 1000 words, 1.5 cents per word over that.

Who We Are

Edited by award-winning science fiction writer Bruce Bethke, STUPEFYING STORIES is a bold attempt to grow a new general-interest science fiction and fantasy magazine from the ground up. Right now we are a small-press, semi-pro, payment-on-publication market, publishing on a somewhat erratic schedule, but our goal is to grow to become a regular monthly magazine that pays professional rates on acceptance—

And here’s the radical part. We want to do this not by begging people to contribute to our Kickstarter or GoFundMe campaign or put money in our Patreon tip jar, but by selling lots of books and magazines.

Sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it?

What We Publish

Genres: Science fiction, fantasy, and horror, in roughly that order of preference.

Venues: STUPEFYING STORIES magazine and the Saturday SHOWCASE feature on our website.

Length: Generally, from flash fiction up to 10,000 words. We will consider longer novelettes and novellas, but space for longer works is limited, so please query first before sending anything longer than 10,000 words.

Original Novels: We publish original novels through our parent company, Rampant Loon Media, but do not read unsolicited novel manuscripts. Please query first. See further information below.

Reprints: We do not publish reprints.

TIP: The best way to see what we like to publish, of course, is to buy and read a few issues of our magazine. If you have a Kindle or Kindle Reader app and a subscription to Kindle Unlimited, it’s free. If you don’t have a Kindle, the next best way is to click on the SHOWCASE link in the left column and read a good sampling of the stories you’ll find there. What we’ve published in the past is not necessarily a foolproof guide to what we’d like to publish in the future, but it’s a good place to start.

What We Buy and What We Pay

Rights: Worldwide English-language first serial rights, for publication in both print and electronic formats.

Base word rate: 1.5 cents (USD) per word.

Flash fiction: For stories up to 1,000 words in length, we pay a flat rate of $15.00.

Cover bonus: For stories selected to be magazine cover stories, we pay a bonus of $50.00 USD.

When we pay: On publication.

How to Submit a Short Story

We accept electronic submissions only. Submit your story as an attachment to an email message sent to [email protected].

CRUCIAL CONSIDERATIONS!

• One story at a time, please.

• No simultaneous submissions.

• Seriously, we do not publish reprints. Don’t send them to us.

• By sending us a submission, you agree to let us put your email address on our mailing list. While we promise never to sell our mailing list to anyone else, if you do not want to be on our mailing list, don’t send a submission to us.

• Send submissions and queries to [email protected] only. Over the years we have had a plethora of other email addresses, but these are all outdated now. If you’ve found another email address for us somewhere, don’t use it, as it most likely goes straight to /dev/null.

• We prefer submissions in .rtf, .docx, and .doc format, in roughly that order. We can handle .odt files if necessary, but they have proven troublesome, so we’ll be happier if you re-save your story in .rtf format. We cannot handle other formats such as Apple Pages files, so don’t send them.

• Do not send submissions as links to cloud or file-sharing sites. Submissions sent as links to file-sharing sites are deleted unread.

• The name of our publication is STUPEFYING STORIES. Stupefy with an “e” means to stun, astonish, or astound. Stupify with an “i” means to make stupid. Address your submission to STUPIFYING STORIES and it will be dead on arrival.

• Kindly remember that everyone here is a volunteer, working purely for love of the SF/F genre and the short story format. While we’d really like to pay our staff, right now we’re plowing everything we make back into paying our authors and artists more. If you want us to become a better-paying market, and along the way help the wonderful people who make this magazine possible, tell your friends about us. HELP US GROW!

After You Submit a Short Story 

Within a week of your submission, you should receive an email message telling you either a.) we can’t use your story at this time, or b.) that it’s being held for further consideration, in which case you’ll receive a submission tracking number and further information. However, this one-week response time is a goal, not a guarantee. If you have not heard from us within 30 days, please query, as this mostly likely means either we did not receive your submission, it’s stuck somewhere in the evaluation process, or you did not receive our reply.

How to Submit a Novel

We do not consider unsolicited novel manuscripts. If you want to submit your novel to us, please send a query first to [email protected]. If we like your proposal, we’ll ask to see a partial and outline; if we like the partial and think your book looks like something that might fit well into our lineup and budget, we’ll ask to see the completed manuscript.

At this time we are not interested in reprinting previously published novels. However, over the years we have amassed considerable expertise in converting existing books to ebook and print-on-demand content, and if you would like our help in converting your rights-reverted novel into a ready-to-self-publish property, we’re willing to talk.

One More Time: Our Email Address Is…

[email protected]

If you’ve found another email address for us somewhere, don’t use it, as it most likely is no longer in use.

Via: Stupefying Stories.