Taking Submissions: Behind the Shadows III: Dark Secrets

Deadline: March 31st, 2025
Payment: $20.00 and Royalty Share
Theme: Horror of all speculative fiction genres

Behind the Shadows III: Dark Secrets – our horror anthology

Behind the Shadows III: Dark Secrets– This is horror. Humor and mystery beats are welcome.
Express yourself as the theme moves you.
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.

Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted.

Submission Period: January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025

Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no simultaneous submissions, no reprints;

Submission Cost: Free

Word Limit: 2,000 to 7,000 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: Horror

Anticipated Pay: $20.00 and Royalty Share of D2D sales

Each story will receive $20 and a D2D royalty share from the sales on the D2D platform. This does not include: Kickstarter funds unless detailed in the Stretch goals; wholesale to authors; or non-D2D retail outlets. Links will be available to direct your customers to D2D outlets.

Timeline Projections:
Submissions close: March 31, 2025
Review: April 2025
Acceptance / Rejection: April/May 2025
Edits: June 2025
Production: June 2025
Kickstarter: July 2025
Published: August/September 2025

Upon acceptance, the author is expected to work with the editor on at least one round of revisions in MSWord. Our publication goal will be the fall of 2025; however, the extensive time needed to review and edit submissions may vary depending upon the submitted works and author’s response times. Inkd Publishing LLC will hold first publication rights for four months after publication and the continuing non-exclusive right to reproduce the work in Behind the Shadows III: Dark Shadows.

Authors must provide assurance that their story submission is an original, previously unpublished work, was not generated by AI, is not currently under consideration elsewhere, and that it will not be submitted for publication elsewhere prior to receiving notification that it has not been accepted for inclusion in Behind the Shadows III: Dark Shadows.

D2D royalty sharing is ongoing financial compensation from Draft 2 Digital for stories published in the anthology. An account with Draft 2 Digital will be required to provide royalty share payments. US authors will also receive one complimentary paperback copy of the printed anthology, other shipping destinations can provide a US address.

Via: Inkd Publishing.