Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, with "Always Open" and "Until Filled" markets (if any) at the bottom.
Markets open only to writers in a limited demographic are marked with a [NOTE:] from me, in italics, right after the main header.
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 September 2018 -- Burnt Fur -- ed. 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Stories must be previously unpublished in any form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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1 September 2018 -- Release the Virgins -- ed. Michael A. Ventrella
Through a kickstarter campaign, we were able to raise enough to go ahead with this project, and we have confirmations from authors David Gerrold, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Jody Lynn Nye, Allen Steele, Steve Miller, Sharon Lee, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gail Z. Martin, Cecilia Tan, Patrick Thomas, Shariann Lewitt, Alex Shvartsman, Hildy Silverman, and Daniel M. Kimmel.
We should have room for a few extra stories as well. But only a few.
Submissions are open for short stories that include, somewhere in the story, the phrase "Release the Virgins."
The story should be no more than 5,000 words. This should be sufficient for what should most likely be a somewhat humorous tale. The payment is 5 cents a word. Do not take this as an invitation to pad your story in order to earn a few more bucks. If your story is complete at 3,000 words, then end it. A good but padded story may get rejected over a concise, fast-moving one, because we want to fit in as many stories as possible.
Unpublished authors are encouraged to submit, but will still face the same standards for submissions as the published authors. (Hint: Don’t send me a submission full of spelling and grammatical errors.)
An email proposal is required to make sure you are not duplicating an idea already reserved by one of the accepted authors. Send to michael.ventrella@gmail.com.
Once that is approved, your story should be double-spaced in rtf format with 12 point Times Roman font. There should be no spacing after the paragraphs. The first page must contain the name of the story, the word count, and your name, address, email, and phone number. Your cover letter should list any previous publications.
EDIT (ADDED A WEEK LATER):
I’m getting a lot of proposed story ideas for the anthology and if they all submit stories, I’ll have to reject a lot (or hold them in case we do a second book).
But here’s some advice:
1. Avoid unicorns. I’ve already had a bunch of proposals about unicorns and even if the submitted stories are all good, I’m not going to want to have more than one or two unicorn stories in the anthology. We want variety.
2. Be creative. If it looks like you just took a story you already had and found a way to work the phrase into the story in such a way that I could remove the phrase completely and it wouldn’t hurt the story, then I will probably not accept it. The phrase should be relevant and necessary to the story.
3. Don’t send me a proposal with spelling and grammatical errors. I mean, duh.
Thanks!
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15 September 2018 -- Non-Themed Horror Anthologies -- Corpus Press
Corpus Press is now accepting submissions for non-themed horror anthologies with a publication target of 2019. Submissions will be accepted according to our publishing needs, regardless of author publication history, status, race, creed, gender, sexual preferences or any other identity factor. Submissions should be story-driven and appeal to a wide adult audience.
What we ARE looking for:
== Not previously published short stories of 2,500-4,500 words. We are seeking stories that can be characterized as being within the broad category of “horror” fiction.
== Successful submissions will be highly original, well written and cleanly edited.
== Stories may be frightening, thought-provoking, atmospheric, humorous and/or satirical (or any combination thereof), but MUST contain a complete tale.
What we ARE NOT looking for:
== We are not seeking “extreme horror” or “Splatterpunk” material. We discourage submissions that have a singular purpose of shocking the audience with explicit language, sexuality and/or violence. Explicit language, sexuality and violence are acceptable, however, if handled in a tasteful manner and in service to a well-plotted, engaging story.
== Abstract mood pieces, vignettes, and highly experimental approaches to literature are discouraged. We are not accepting poems.
== Stories featuring exaggerated dialects, colloquialisms or excessive references to pop culture or current fads are discouraged.
== Not seeking stories featuring vampires, werewolves or zombies.
== Epistolary fiction will not be accepted.
Document Requirements: Submissions must be in an editable format sent via the publisher’s submission portal. No PDFs or scanned documents sent as image files will be accepted. Preference is for author name, email address and word count information to be placed only at the end of the document to assist with blinded review process.
Submission window: June 1, 2018 until midnight EST September 15, 2018.
Please no multiple or simultaneous submissions. Notifications of acceptance / rejection will be sent no later than October 30, 2018, with publication target of 2019.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SUBMISSION DOES NOT GUARANTEE ACCEPTANCE.
Pay Rate: $.03 per word.
Payment will be capped at $150 USD for accepted submissions (2,500-4,500 words). Two (2) free contributor copies (paperback) will be provided upon publication, with contributors having the option to buy additional quantities at cost post-publication. Payment on publication.
Anthology target length: Approximately 250-300 pages. Title TBD.
Please note: Final contract required to be signed upon acceptance which may contain additional terms and conditions.
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15 September 2018 -- The Cockroach Conservatory Vol. 2: Glory of Man: The Rise and Fall of the Reality Soldier -- ed. Trey Hudson and Andrew Hilbert; The Cockroach Conservatory
Pitiful humans!
It is time again to open submissions in celebration of our Lord Commander Patagonia! His second volume of holy texts will be titled: Glory of Man: The Rise and Fall of the Reality Soldier.
As always, the naming conventions of our infallible Lord Commander Patagonia enlightens as much as it obfuscates. Allow me, his perfect instrument of perfect judgement, to give some clarifying points.
As you may know, Lord Commander Patagonia was attracted to your puny planet by way of its music. One such song that struck him so was The Minutemen's Glory of Man.
[Click through for a video of the song.]
Themes we are looking for to further entwine the fate of our two planets, Earthagonia and Black Hole Duffel, are:
Time
Militarism
Reality
Singularity
Interdimensionality
Fake News
Propaganda
Technology
In anticipation of silly questions and to lessen the chances that my Slap of Judgement be administered unto your face, allow me to be clear.
Fake News should make no mention of whatever current political climate your country is facing now. Absorb the themes of your time into fiction but we are not looking for your long winded diatribes about what you believe this way or that way. We are followers of Lord Commander Patagonia and we have no leader before him. Therefore, we care not for the gripes of your world.
You must not have a character named "Reality Soldier." The Reality Soldier is aboard our very expensive ship and does not take kindly to misrepresentation of his character.
We appreciate weird. We appreciate humorous. We appreciate absurdity. To get an idea of what we publish, take a look at our first volume available on Amazon here. We realize we are a new market and you may not want to shell out the bucks for the first volume. Fine, heathen. Think Joe Lansdale, Kelly Luce, or Etgar Keret. Think R. Crumb or Junji Ito. Or think none of that. We are going to accept what we like. We do not adhere to a strict set of regulations in terms of genre or literature. To get a feel of how we approach things, listen to the Spacecast here.
Guidelines:
NO REPRINTS
FICTION
1. Stories must be in doc or docx format.
2. Include a short bio in the body of the email.
3. No reprints
4. Maximum word count is 3000.
5. We pay 6 cents a word. Payable upon publication.
6. NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS. We respond quickly in comparison to other markets.
7. Limit multiple submissions to three.
8. Your email subject line should be SUBMISSION: [YOUR NAME] [TITLE]
9. Submissions open on August 1st, 2018. They close on September 15, 2018.
POETRY
1. We pay a flat rate of $10 per poem
2. Include a short bio in the body of the email
3. No reprints
4. No e.e. cummings formatting.
5. NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS.
6. Send up to five poems.
7. Your email subject line should be POETRY: [YOUR NAME]
8. Submissions open on August 1st, 2018. They close on September 15, 2018.
Email all submissions to racefortheroaches@gmail.com
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1 October 2018 -- American Psychos -- ed. Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax; Red Room Press
Note: Anthology updates will be posted in the right hand column [of the web page] (accepted authors, tentative contributors, etc.)
Red Room Press is seeking stories for a new dark crime/thriller/horror anthology, American Psychos: A Serial Killer Anthology. Inspired by the most disturbingly violent and graphic crime thriller novels of our time, including Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Shane Steven’s By Reason of Insanity, Michael Slade’s Headhunter, our goal is to make American Psychos a brutal, suspenseful, nightmare-inducing hard ride into hell.
Stories must be about a serial killer, obviously. The story can either be based on a real serial killer or a fictional serial killer. Stories should primarily be set in the USA, but the character may travel abroad. We want stories that are brutal, graphic, disturbing and violent. The above referenced books will give you a good idea of what we are looking for. Serial killers must be human; no supernatural elements, monsters, or vampires. They can have supernatural beliefs, however, and they can be any gender or race.
Publication Date: Early 2019
Length: 3500-5500 words.
Response Time: 4-8 weeks
Payment for original stories: $100 ($150 if we meet our crowdfunding campaign goal, See sidebar for details and other anthology updates)
No unsolicited reprints or multiple submissions.
What to Send
In the body of an email:
== Author name
== Story title
== Word Count
== A brief bio
== A short description of the story.
== Attachment of entire manuscript in rtf, doc, or docx format only. Standard formatting.
We’ll send a notification within 48 hours that we received your submission. If you don’t get this, please inquire. We may not have received it.
EMAIL TO: americanpsychos@redroompress.com
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1 October 2018 -- Crash Code -- ed. Kevin Holton; Blood Bound Books
The future is now. At least, that's what we're told, but the more advanced technology gets, the more ways people find to hurt each other. Many say that technology changes the way we define 'human.' In this anthology, we'll erase the definition entirely.
That's what you'll answer. In Crash Code, we want to see the pinnacle of our technology meeting the depths of our depravity. Let's talk voluntary amputations so we can wear cybernetic limbs as fashion statements. Tell us how commercial interplanetary flight changes human tracking. Show the world what the criminal underworld can do in an age of quantum computers. This anthology is going to focus on just how far human kind is willing to fall in pursuit of the next innovation, whether it's paying for bionic sex in bitcoins, five-year-olds browsing the Dark Web, bar code tattoos, mainstream holographic snuff films, or corrupted neural implants driving their users mad.
Think Neuromancer with even more drugs and crime. Imagine Blade Runner meets Saw. Picture Wrath James White's version of Brave New World. Imagine a test-tube baby made from George Orwell and Jack Ketchum. If your story makes people think American Mary merged with Altered Carbon, we want it.
These are just some ideas. Pick one if you like, or come up with your own sick, twisted future. Just make sure it answers one question:
In a world where everything demands a dollar sign and subscription fees, is humanity something we can afford to lose?
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form
Email: bbbcrashcode@gmail.com
Length: 1,500 words up to 7K
Deadline: October 1st 2018
Multiple Submissions: No
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Payment: 3 cents/word
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1 November 2018 -- Unlocking the Magic -- ed. Vivian Caethe
Word limit: 3000-6000 words.
Pay rate: $300/story + royalties
Genre: Fantasy only (no Science Fiction or Horror, although horror elements may be present in the story). Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, and other genres of fantasy are all encouraged.
Language: English (translations are welcome).
Submissions close: November 1, 2018
Rights: We claim first world English rights (no reprints). For an excellent break down of what this means, please see Neil Clarke’s post here.
In fantasy, we read about how people with mental illness are more susceptible to magic, closer to breaks in reality, more likely to be able to see the unseen. These stereotypes are harmful and contribute to keeping people from seeing the good in getting help, taking their meds, or talking to someone.
This anthology is about changing the narrative and telling stories of strength and perseverance, of getting help despite the darkness. Not the myth that getting help will kill creativity and magic. Not the story our society tells about mentally ill people: that art and magic must come from suffering.
I want stories that show what can be accomplished when we take care of ourselves and seek help. I want stories that show the reality of being mentally ill within a fantasy setting. I want to see how mental illness and its treatment affects the magic that lies within all of us. I want to read realistic portrayals of mental illness in magical worlds.
Send your stories formatted in Standard Manuscript format attached as a .doc to cuppateaanthologies at gmail dot com. Include your name, byline, email address, mailing address, and approximate word count. In your cover letter, also include the mental illness diagnosis your story addresses (e.g. depression, PTSD, bipolar, etc).
When writing your story, consider that you’re writing about real experiences that real people have, not just something fictional characters have to deal with. Do your research and write with compassion. I am looking for noblebright, not grimdark.
Submissions from diverse individuals and those with mental illnesses are encouraged.
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ALWAYS OPEN -- Future Visions Anthology Series -- ed. 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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2 comments:
Thanks for posting these!
Abby -- you're very welcome! :D
Angie
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