Psychopomp Is Open To Novellas

by · Published · Updated

Deadline: April 30th, 2023
Payment: An advance against royalties of $750, as well as 25% of net net receipts
Theme: speculative fiction or literary novellas

Psychopomp.com publishes otherworldly novellas about death, multiverses, time travel, and other strange lands.

Open Call For Novellas

We are currently open to otherworldly novella submissions.

Please read the guidelines thoroughly before submitting.

What We’re Looking For:

We are looking for speculative fiction or literary novellas between 20,000 to 40,000 words that fall under one (or some!) of the following themes:

  • stories where grief or loss play a leading role
  • stories that feature the afterlife or the underworld
  • stories that involve the journey through death/the journey of the dead
  • stories that involve death personified (Death!)
  • stories that take place in, or utilize a multiverse
  • stories that involve time travel (esp. those that involve time travel + a previously mentioned theme)
  • origin stories (especially as they relate to previously mentioned themes)
  • stories where the characters slowly lose their sense of reality
  • goth
  • space, but make it goth
  • stories where things that are not usually personified ARE personified (planets? galaxies? time? …bones?)
  • creepy meta-horror
  • amazingly original ghost stories

We are ABSOLUTELY not interested in the following themes:

  • conventional horror story tropes (zombies, werewolves, vampires, etc.)
  • slashy, gory horror
  • stereotypical christian afterlife stories of angels, devils, pearly gates, etc.
  • stories that are heavy on the humor (Douglas Adams type of humor is a bad fit; dark, smart, black humor is more likely to land but will STILL be a hard sell)
  • hard sci-fi
  • military sci-fi
  • sword and sorcery fantasy (we want nothing to do with goblins, orcs, etc.)
  • the fae
  • mermaids/selkies

Submission Details:

We are looking to acquire original, unpublished novellas. If your story has been published in any way (including self published or published on your Patreon) please do not submit it here.

One story per author; no multiple submissions or simultaneous submissions. If a story is on submission somewhere else, please wait before sending it to us.

Payment:

If we accept your novella for publication, you will be offered an advance against royalties of $750, as well as 25% of net net receipts.

Rights:

We are buying the rights to publish the story in print, eBook, and audio formats in English, worldwide.

How to Submit:

Here is the submission link: Click!

Inspiration

Want small idea of some of creative works we love? Here is a very extremely non-comprehensive list to get an idea of stories that have stayed with us:

Magic For Beginners (the story AND the collection) + everything else written by – Kelly Link

The Merchant At The Alchemist’s Gate + everything else written by – Ted Chiang

The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch

The Locked Tomb Series – Tamsyn Muir

Gunpowder – Joe Hill

The Dark Tower (series) – Stephen King

The Library at Mount Char – Scott Hawkins

Freshwater – Akwaeke Emezi

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Claire North

Dead Astronauts – Jeff Vandermeer

The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E. Harrow

The City in the Middle of the Night – Charlie Jane Anders

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Via: Psychopomp.

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