Deadline: March 31st, 2019
Payment: 2 cents per word

We are currently OPEN to submissions for I Didn’t Break the Lamp from March 1-31, 2019. (We will reopen to standard submissions in June 2019.)

Special Call for Submissions

We will be creating an anthology titled I Didn’t Break the Lamp: Historical Accounts of Imaginary Acquaintances. It will be a collection of fictional stories about imaginary friends, imaginary enemies, and imaginary entities that fall somewhere in between. For this anthology, our pay will be 2 cents per word.

We are particularly looking for stories from authors who are underrepresented in fiction: people of color, LGBTQ, non-Western religions and cultures.

Each story is written from the perspective of someone who has been or been near the imaginary acquaintance in question. Like our regular magazine, this narrator will also have a bio. Be certain that your story meets these requirements:

• First person
• 500-8,000 words in length
• Focuses on an imaginary acquaintance
• Not a reprint

Here are some ideas that we pitched when we made our Kickstarter, but this is meant to be inspirational and not definitive.

• A monster under the bed or in the closet who helps or hinders the person they watch over.
• An imaginary friend who always gets their person into or out of trouble … but to what end?
• A creature that no one believes is real, until they prove their impact.

DO NOT send us poetry or screenplays.

Submissions should be in Standard Manuscript Format (Here’s an explanation of what that means) and sent via Submittable. As with our regular submissions, we are asking for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year.

Via: Mad Scientist’s Journal.