Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if any) are at the bottom. And starting this month, there's a new category, because I found an anthology series that's "Always Open." Find it right above the "Until Filled" listings.
There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
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1 July 2018 -- Baby, It's Cold Outside -- ed. Robert Bose; Coffin Hop Press
Dark, deadly and noirish tales of holiday havoc and yuletide woe.
Projected launch date is November 2018. We will be accepting open submissions for 2-3 stories (of up to 5,000 words) to be featured alongside the invited authors.
We are looking for holiday (I.E. Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, etc.) themed CRIME stories ONLY. No Sci-Fi, no Fantasy
Payment currently listed at $150.00 CAD/story.
Please send in .doc or .docx format, in standard formatting.
See our STYLE GUIDE for more information.
***ANY SUBMISSIONS NOT FOLLOWING THE PRESCRIBED FORMATTING MAY BE SUMMARILY DISMISSED WITHOUT REPLY***
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1 July 2018 -- Knucklehead Noir -- ed. Robert Bose; Coffin Hop Press
Tales of dimwitted criminals and unlucky twits on the wrong side of the law. Nimrods, numbskulls and rejects. Bumbling sidekicks and idiots-gone-wrong.
Elmore Leonard and Charles Willeford ain’t got nothin’ on these dipshits.
Projected launch date is November 2018. We will be accepting open submissions for 3-5 stories (of up to 5,000 words) to be featured alongside 6-8 stories from some well-known and extremely talented authors.
We are specifically looking for darkly humorous CRIME stories.
No Sci-fi, no Fantasy.
Payment currently listed at $0.03/word CAD.
Please send in .doc or .docx format, in standard formatting.
See our STYLE GUIDE for more information.
***ANY SUBMISSIONS NOT FOLLOWING THE PRESCRIBED FORMATTING MAY BE SUMMARILY DISMISSED WITHOUT REPLY***
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10 July 2018 -- Monsters of Any Kind -- ed. Alessandro Manzetti and Daniele Bonfanti; Independent Legions Publishing
Independent Legions Publishing is seeking original horror stories in English for the new anthology Monsters of Any Kind, edited by Alessandro Manzetti and Daniele Bonfanti, to be published in October 2018 in print and digital editions. Cover art by Wendy Saber Core.
We’re looking for horror stories containing at least one non-human monster/creature (and not vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies). Unusual creatures will be particularly appreciated. All subgenres and forms of speculative fiction are welcome.
Word Count: We are open to stories of 3,500-5,000 words.
Pay Rate: We pay $100 for each original story.
We buy first exclusive English-language rights for three years.
We do not accept multiple or simultaneous submissions, nor do we accept unsolicited reprints.
Submissions should follow standard manuscript format (12 pt Times New Roman or Courier fonts, 1" margins all around, line spacing 1½ or 2 spaces). It must be in .doc or .docx format or it will not be considered. Your name and contact information must be at the top of the first page of the story. Page numbers with author’s last name and/or partial story name on subsequent pages would be appreciated.
Cover letter is optional, but if you do include one, please add a short bio (up to 200 words).
Response time is currently within four weeks. After that, if you haven’t heard from us, please query. We will not be sending confirmations of receipt.
Stories must be submitted as email attachments; to submit, put “SUBMISSION – MONSTERS OF ANY KIND” in the subject line and send to: independent.legions@aol.com
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15 July 2018 -- Terra! Tara! Terror! -- Third Flatiron
Terra! Tara! Terror! -- SF, Fantasy, Horror. Whether the setting is a cabin in the woods (Terra), Fae (Tara), or spaceship Nostromo (Terror), take us there and spin your adventure. For a bit of mood whiplash, we'd like a mixture of dark and bright stories. Examples: Obsession with odd artifacts (like Roadside Picnic's golden sphere?), alternate histories, paranormal romance (no erotica, please, we're PG-13).
Reading Period: June 15 - July 15, 2018. DO NOT SUBMIT before 15 June.
Publication Date: September 20, 2018.
Stories should be submitted in either Microsoft Word (using double spacing), RTF, or plain text. They should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Flash humor pieces (Grins and Gurgles) should be short, around 600 words.
Please don't send simultaneous or multiple submissions. If a story has been rejected, you can then send another (limit 2 per reading period).
Submit by email to:
flatsubmit@thirdflatiron.com
either as an attachment (Word, RTF) or in the body of the mail (text).
In the Subject: line of the email, please put:
flatsubmit:Title_of_Your_Work
to avoid being deemed a canned meat product based on ham.
If the work is for the humor section, please note that in the body of your email. A brief bio and a one- or two-sentence synopsis in the body of your email would also be helpful to us.
Use the following template (basically, follow William Shunn's Standard Manuscript Format):
Your Name
Address (mailing)
Email address
Word count
[10 blank lines]
Title
Byline
Body of story
--------
Our response time is expected to be about 8 weeks (or less if the writer deadline is coming up soon).
REMUNERATION
As of: November 1, 2016
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 6 cents per word (U.S./SFWA professional rate), in return for the first publication rights to the story for six months after publication. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties. If your story is selected as the lead story, we request permission to podcast the story as a free sample portion of the anthology. We welcome new writers.
Third Flatiron will price and market your story to various e-publishing venues. We will format the story for the most popular electronic readers and platforms. You agree that we may distribute a sample (portion of the story) to potential customers.
For non-U.S. submissions, we prefer to pay via PayPal, if you have such an account.
Most books (except "year's best" collections) will be available for sale in trade paperback.
Authors selected for publication will also be entitled to one free online copy of the anthology.
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15 July 2018 -- Alternative Truths: Endgame -- ed. Jess Faraday and Bob Brown; B Cubed Press
The Premise
How will the current political nightmare end? The "Endgame" referenced in the title may be that it doesn’t end. It may be that it transitions, or it there may be a paroxysm of indictments (or a spaceship landing on the lawn, or a zombie apocalypse, or we wake from a dream).
What We Want
The third and likely final book in the best selling Alternative Truths series is looking for stories, poems, and essays. We welcome both serious works and works of humor, light and dark. In addition, we would love to see stories that cover the entire spectrum of race, sexual orientation, politics, etc. We’ll even publish Canadians!
Your vision is what we want — just no assassination fantasies, please.
As always, a share of the proceeds from sales of the book goes to the ACLU of Washington.
How to Submit
Send submissions in standard manuscript format to Kionadad@aol.com. Files can be .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Be sure to include the words "Alternative Truths Endgame Submission" in the email subject line.
Word Count: 300 to 5000 words
Payment: Poems and flash fiction are paid by the piece. Everything else will be paid at $0.02 cent/word, paid on publication, plus shared royalties.
Queries encouraged.
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31 July 2018 -- Innsmouthbreathers -- Martian Migraine Press
There are folks for whom the question of whether Cthulhu has two eyes or six is a vitally important one. Individuals that believe, somehow, that a dinner of tinned spaghetti and ice cream with a reanimated H. P. Lovecraft would be the height of both culinary and intellectual pleasure. Scholars who feel that The Horror at Red Hook is a timely warning about, well, you know… those other people. Esteemed biographers of weird fiction luminaries who reveal their foaming insecurity at the changing of the guard, or the form of a literary award. Entities who dissolve with glee at the slapping of some tentacles on a meme, thus rendering it "Lovecraftian".
Yes, they're out there, in their seeming thousands, trolling social media, fawning over the dead, podcasting their paranoia. Yes, they are slouching roughly towards Arkham and Providence and fabled Y’ha-nthlei, to dwell in fossilized canon and geeky glory, forever.
INNSMOUTHBREATHERS.
Martian Migraine Press announces an open call for submissions to our latest anthology project, INNSMOUTHBREATHERS: Cautionary Fables of Mythos Fandom! We are looking for humourous stories of a certain kind of Cthulhu Mythos fan: the rabid Lovecraft worshipper, the defender of the outmoded and outclassed, the pulp reader for whom Weird Fiction peaked somewhere in the middle of the last century. (The 20th, for those keeping track of such things!) We’re looking for tales that pit Innsmouthbreathers against all manner of real and imagined horrors: shoggoths with Social Justice agendas, politically active Deep Ones, enlightened Mi-Go, and Nick Mamatas*. Make them lovable, make them loathsome, make us feel their triumphs and defeats! Put us in their basements, their garrets, their comic shops and conventions and pop-culture covens, and put us in their Cthulhu parody t-shirts while you’re at it. Mmm, is that a cotton/poly blend? Only in black, you say? SOLD.
INNSMOUTHBREATHERS will be a mostly funny book. We’re going for light-hearted ribbing here, a send-up, a roast. Stories that are outright mean and nasty won’t play well within these pages. Remember, let they who have not geeked out over Lovecraft, even a little, even once, throw the first Shining Trapezohedron into the bay! And sure, we’re asking for yuks, but please don’t feel you need to dial back the weird horror. Mix it up, thrill us, chill us, make us laugh at ourselves.
Submission period closes 31 JULY 2018. The anthology will be released in early October 2018.
SUBMITTING
Please use Standard Manuscript format when submitting. That’s double spaced, left justified, Times New Roman or Courier or something at least readable, a header on the first page (at least) with your author info and word count and… well, you know the drill. RTF or DOC files preferred, but DOCx and text files also accepted. Obviously, you could send us something that’s not in Standard Manuscript format, but it will lower your chances of it being looked at seriously.
We will look at both original work and REPRINTS.
To submit a story to INNSMOUTHBREATHERS send an e-mail (with the story file attached, not in the body of the email) to: submissions@martianmigrainepress.com, with subject line: INNSMOUTH, title of your story, and your name.
LENGTH
For short fiction, we’d like to see anything from 1,500 to 5,000 words. If your story goes over 5k, please inquire first. Honestly, we’d prefer to see shorter, punchier stories.
FLASH FICTION: got something under 1500 words? Send it in. However, the following still applies…
NO POETRY.
PAYMENT
All accepted submissions will be paid .03CAD per word, via Paypal, as well as a contributor copy (paperback) of the anthology, and copies in all electronic formats (mobi, EPUB, and PDF). Authors are also entitled to complete access to all titles in the MMP ebook catalogue.
REPLIES AND QUERIES
We will try to acknowledge receipt of your submission within a week of its arrival in our inbox. The submission period itself will close on 31 JULY 2018 and we should be responding to all submissions, yay or nay, by early August 2018. If you haven’t heard from us by 15 September 2018, please query.
* We use Mr Mamatas here as a stand-in for any writer who dares to push weird and horror fiction into new, interesting places. Sorry, Nick, but you made your bed, sir.
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31 July 2018 -- Life After All -- Less Than Three Press
Life After All — an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/pastoral apocalyptic LGBTQIA+ romance anthology — The end of the world is a dark, bleak place. Life is full of grit, misery, and barely scraping by. But if humans excel at anything, it’s making the best of a bad situation, and the end of the world would be no different.
Less Than Three Press invites you to submit stories about life after the end of the world being far from bleak and hopeless. We want to see stories of hardened apocalypse survivors building new lives and homes with their found families; gentle robots terraforming the ruined remains of the Earth; your post-Earth space settlers slice-of-life.
THE DETAILS:
== Put SUBMISSIONS: TITLE (where TITLE is your title) in the subject line.
== Stories should be at least 8000 words and should not exceed approx 15000 words in length.
== Stories must be about a post-apocalyptic society.
== Stories must have a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) end.
== Any sub-genre is gladly accepted: sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, steampunk, etc.
== LT3 always welcomes representation of all genders and nonbinary or agender characters.
== All usual LT3 submission guidelines apply.
Life After All is a general release anthology, which means authors will receive a flat payment of $150.00 once LT3 has a signed contract. Authors will receive one copy each of the ebook formats LT3 produces and two copies of the paperback compilation.
Stories should be complete before submitting, and as edited as possible — do not submit a first draft. They can be submitted in any format (doc, docx, rtf, odt, etc) preferably single spaced in an easy to read font (Times, Calibri, Arial) with no special formatting (no elaborate section separation, special fonts, etc). Additional formatting guidelines can be found here.
Questions should be directed to the anthology editor, J., at jhong.writes@gmail.com (or you can ping them on twitter @heykaunlay).
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15 August 2018 -- A Punk Rock Future -- Zsenon Publishing
Welcome to A Punk Rock Future. Get ready for an anthology from Zsenon Publishing that will feature flash fiction as fast as a punk rock song as well as longer stories, all with a gut punch and revealing a punk rock future.
You may ask yourself: Are we already in this punk rock future or did it die in the late 1970s? Or is it still coming?
We’ll find out soon in this anthology…
So you may have thought Punk Rock was going to change the world. That Punk RULES.
Or are we still here with [pic of a The Clash album cover].
Either way, we’re looking for stories from you that will explore this future, whether it’s near or far away. We’d like to see dystopias, utopias, or something in-between; anything with a punk rock sensibility/ethos; alternative history; the promise of punk; the failure of punk; music-inspired stories; science fiction; fantasy; or horror. No matter the genre label, stories must have a speculative element. This isn’t an anthology of steampunk, solarpunk, silkpunk, ecopunk (those are all fine genres), or whatever punk. We won’t rule out stories that touch on those niches but be warned: Stories should be the real deal, punk punk.
Surprise and amaze us. A punk strain runs through SFFH so we know that great stories are out there. Want a recent fantastic example? The Big So-So by Erica Satifka. Unfortunately, you can’t get Satifka's short story online but you might pick up this issue of Interzone to see what we like. Or read Sarah Pinsker’s 2015 Nebula Award winner Our Lady of the Open Road, published in Asimov's. It, too, has the vibe we want.
In A Punk Rock Future, the shortest of these stories will be confined to the 350-500 word range, which would span about three minutes if the story is read aloud. We want stories that howl like Exene Cervenka, charge ahead like Death’s drums, and roar out on a quick, high note like a Clash solo. After all, the Ramones rarely wrote songs over three minutes—although the seminal punk band penned a couple songs over four minutes long, so we might stretch it some. These flash fictions still must be stories though, which is indeed possible to do well in 500 words. Short stories, which will make up the bulk of the anthology, will top out at 6,000 words.
Almost all of the stories will come straight outta the garage, the slush pile, which seems like the punk thing to do. A few stories may be solicited from the punkiest of punk writers.
We want diverse fiction from any and all demographics of people and about any and all demographics of people.
Some sorta kickstarter-y thing is in the plans to help pay the writers, or maybe pay ‘em more. We will pay pro rates of at least 6 cents a word.
Hey, ho. What are you waiting for? Get writing and submit starting now until the August 15, 2018 deadline. Let’s go.
IN SHORT
Genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror (all stories must have a speculative element, even the horror).
Word count: 350-6000 words.
Pay rate: 6 cents per word, professional rate as deemed by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Multiple submissions: No.
Simultaneous submissions: No.
Reprint submissions: Don’t submit reprints. In rare cases maybe, but query first and only if it’s an exceptional story.
Estimated Response Time: Fast as possible.
Estimated Publication Date: Summer 2019.
BIG NO-NO’s:
No torture, porn or tortureporn.
Stay away from the well-trodden, so:
1. No Vampires
2.No Zombies
Slush piles are overrun by zombies and vampires. Don’t submit those stories. They’ll be rejected instantaneously.
HOW WILL IT BE PUBLISHED?
The anthology will be published as a book, both paper and ebook.
We’ll be buying first worldwide print and electronic rights in English, with an exclusivity period of six months. Payment on publication.
HOW DO I SUBMIT?
Submissions to: zsenonpublishing@gmail.com.
Standard Manuscript Format please. Doc, docx or rtf.
Subject line of email should read: SUBMISSION – Your Name – Your Story Title
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1 September 2018 -- Burnt Fur -- Ken Macgregor; Blood Bound Books
Furry: 'noun informal 1. an enthusiast for animal characters with human characteristics, in particular a person who dresses up in costume as such a character or uses one as an avatar online.'
Furry can also mean actual anthropomorphic animal characters. Real animals acting like people (ie. Watership Down) or half-human/half-animal hybrids (ie. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
We’re looking for stories from the dark underbelly of Furry life. The Pooka who is not only invisible to everyone but Elwood Dowd ("Harvey"), but who is also slaughtering the neighborhood pets. The talking porcupine who uses an ancient form of acupuncture to mind-control the humans into a sex/blood cult. The couple who dress up as wolves, go to Furry cons, and actually eat people dressed as prey animals. You get the idea.
Show us the corruption of innocence. Give us fur matted with blood and semen. Make us squirm as we read. But, please, make sure you have a story to go with your gory. Please include a plot with your cum shot. If it’s all shock and no substance, we’ll likely pass.
What we’re looking for:
Genres: All sub-genres of horror accepted—extreme, bizzaro, erotic, new weird, splatterpunk—if it’s dark and it’s furry, we want it!
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form
Email: burntfursubmissions@gmail.com
Length: 1,500 words up to 7K
Multiple Submissions: No
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Payment: 3 cents/word
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ALWAYS OPEN -- Future Visions Anthology Series -- Brian J Walton; Camton House Publishing
The Future Visions Anthologies is a science fiction anthology series, aiming to deliver excellent and diverse short story collections on a quarterly basis. In the tradition of great television anthology series such as The Twilight Zone, and Black Mirror, the Future Visions Anthologies will broadly explore all genres and traditions of science fiction and speculative fiction, seeking in each story to explore deeply themes that are relevant to a modern audience.
Themes:
What do you hope the future will bring? What are you afraid we may become? How do our visions of the future inform and give shape to the hopes and fears that we have today?
These questions are what defines anthology series like The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. Rather than mandating a theme for each publication, (one publication for cyborgs, one for time travelers, etc...) I want authors to feel free to explore these larger questions using any and all of the popular science fiction tropes: new technology, exploration, nightmarish dystopians, alien species, baffling utopias, the list goes on...
Diversity:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to bring diversity to all aspects of their publications, from the stories and authors we publish, to the themes and genres we explore. All authors may apply regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political affiliation.
Terms:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to engage authors with fair and equitable terms through participation in the anthologies. The anthologies will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited for an initial six-month term, during which stories will be exclusive to the anthology. After this, anthologies will continue be available as an ebook (not in KU) for an additional six-month term. During this term, partial publication rights will return to the author to publish as an ebook, except for in KU. After one year, the ebook will be unpublished, returning all rights to the author.
Payment will be based on a profit-share model with a guaranteed minimum payment of $150. Authors will receive royalties during the first six months of membership. At the end of the royalty period, if the author's royalties do not meet the minimum payment of $150 then the remaining amount will be paid. There is no cap to the amount of royalties that may be earned. Earning reports for the anthology will be provided to all participating authors to ensure complete transparency. Specific terms will be available after initial acceptance of the author's story.
Submission Guidelines:
== Authors must read and be in agreement with the above before submitting.
== There is no fee to submit.
== Submissions must be original, never before published works.
== Submissions may be set in a larger universe, but should be a complete story; do not send excerpts, parts, or volumes.
== Word Count is 2k-7k words (exceptions for up to one story per anthology can be made).
== Submissions should be written to the best of the author's ability. Professional editing is not required but may help in the consideration of your piece. Camton House Publishing will provide professional editing and proofreading, approved by the author, and a final, edited version will be submitted to the author upon publication.
== Adult language and sexual situations are permitted, but no hate speech, erotica or "X-rated" material.
== Formatting: 12pt Times New Roman font with 1.5-line spacing; 1-inch margins on all sides; no extra spaces between paragraphs; leading indentations, but no tabs.
== Include "Future Visions Short Story Submission" in the header and the following information in the body of the email:
o Author Name
o Story Title
o Word Count
o Brief Bio, written in the third person. 100-300 words.
== Submissions should be submitted in docx format as an attachment.
== Submissions should be emailed to futurevisionssubmissions@gmail.com
Submissions that do not follow the above guidelines will not be considered.
Deadlines:
Submissions are always open. Authors who have submitted will be notified within 4-6 weeks of submission regarding whether their story has been selected.
[Okay, this is different. I'll be treating this one like an "Until Filled" market, in that I'll be checking every month to make sure they're still alive. Unlike a UF, I'll keep posting this so long as it's still alive. (Unless it turns morbid or skeevy, the usual.) Note that this is a royalty split with a guaranteed minimum, which works out to pro rates up to 2500 words, and semi-pro after that. Best practice IMO is to assume that the minimum is all you'll ever get from this market; that way, so long as you do get paid, all your surprises will happy ones.
Interesting business model; it's basically a magazine that's being treated like an antho series, more or less. I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and may revisit the listing in the future.]
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UNTIL FILLED -- Black Superheroes Do It Too! -- Black Books Publishing -- First Listed January 2018
We are currently accepting submissions for our Black Erotica/Superhero Anthology (Working Title: Black Superheroes Do It Too!). Submissions should be full stories, not just sex scenes and between 3500 and 10,000 words. Writers, feel free to query to ensure your story idea hasn't already been submitted.
This anthology pays $100US. The submission period will remain open until our goal of a 225+ page anthology has been reached.
Thoroughly edited material has the best chance of acceptance. You don't need to pay someone to edit your material, but if you're serious about your writing, we do recommend it. At a minimum, we suggest you have others read over your work for typos and grammatical errors.
All manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word and should be double spaced with an extra space between each paragraph. THIS EXTRA SPACE SHOULD BE DONE IN MICROSOFT WORD, THROUGH YOUR PARAGRAPH SETTINGS, NOT BY YOU ACTUALLY HITTING "ENTER" TWICE. There should be no indention at the start of each paragraph.
Send to: submissions@blackbookspublishing.com with "Superhero Erotica" in the subject heading.
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If you've found this listing useful, and especially if you've sold a story to a market you found here (score!) I'd love to hear about it. You can e-mail me at angiepen at gmail dot com.
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