Anthology Markets

If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month, so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one. If you want to get an e-mail notification when the listing is posted, get the list a week early, or get a full listing of everything I've found (as opposed to the two months' worth I post here) a week early, you can support my Patreon.

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.

NOTE: Future Visions is now guaranteeing only $100 minimum rather than the previous $150. This might make a difference in your decision whether to submit, depending on the length of your story.

***

31 March 19 -- Letters from the Grave: A Collection of Epistolary Horror -- Orbannin Books

The epistolary form has a long, proud tradition in the horror genre. From the classics such as Frankenstein and Dracula, through modern classics like World War Z. We want to see your fresh takes on the idea. Remember that the epistolary genre doesn't just include letters. It can be stories created from nearly any kinds or combinations of documents, i.e. crime scene reports, diary entries, interview transcripts, etc. This can include modern electronic and digital "documents" such as texts, voicemails, Tweets, blog posts, and more. Original stories only, no reprints.

Preferred word count: Up to 10,000 words

Payment and rights: $.05/word on acceptance, and one paperback contributor's copy. First Print and First Electronic Rights, exclusive for 1 year. The anthology will be published as an ebook and in paperback, and we reserve the right to produce a hardcover edition.

Stories should be submitted to editor@orbanninbooks.com, with the subject line "Letters from the Grave."

Please don’t send us:

== Fan-fiction or stories using other authors' characters, settings, etc, unless they are in the public domain.
== Gratuitous bestiality, incest, child sex, sexual assault, racism, etc. This is a horror anthology, of course, so "adult content" and horrific, disturbing incidents are certainly going to be there. Make sure, however, that any of these elements are necessary to the story and that their depiction makes sense in the context of the letter or other documents.
== Random horror stories that you’ve stuck a "Hey, you’ll never believe what happened to me!" email frame around.

***

31 March 19 -- I Didn't Break the Lamp -- Mad Scientist Journal

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.

***

15 April 19 -- Alternative Apocalypses -- ed. Deborah Godfrey and Bob Brown; B Cubed Press

Stories of endings, beginnings, and change. As always, a political bent doesn’t hurt but not required. The apocalypse can be big or small, personal or world shattering. Humor is always good. Satire is excellent.

We will include some good poetry and thoughtful essays if you have them. For stories we’re looking for 500 to 5000 words.

We anticipate releasing at World Con in Dublin.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions should be in Word or RTF attachments, using SFWA manuscript format. Include your name AND email on the document. We’re pretty organized, but sometimes emails and stories get separated, and that is NEVER GOOD.

Email your submission to kionadad@aol.com. The subject should be: "SUBMISSION Alternative Apocolypse". Really. Just copy it – we’ve made it simple.

Pay is 2 cents a word and royalties for stories. For very short fiction, poems, and nursery rhymes, we offer an option of a flat $25 to the writer. Payment is made on publication.

Multiple and simultaneous submissions okay, reprints as well, but they are held to a higher standard.

***

15 April 19 -- Alternative Bedtime Reading for Progressive Parents -- ed. Diana Payton and Bob Brown; B Cubed Press

We’re looking for nursery rhymes, poetry, and stories that can be read and enjoyed by children of all ages. There is no lower word limit on poems or nursery rhymes.

The work can be completely original or derived from fairy tales, bible stories, folklore, myths, or similar so long as acknowledgement is made, but absolutely no fan fiction of work that is not in the public domain.

For stories we’re looking for 500 to 3000 words. We anticipate publishing in fall of 2019.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions should be in Word or RTF attachments, using SFWA manuscript format. Include your name AND email on the document. We’re pretty organized, but sometimes emails and stories get separated, and that is NEVER GOOD.

Email your submission to kionadad@aol.com. The subject should be: "SUBMISSION Alternative Bedtime Reading for Progressive Parents". Really. Just copy it – we’ve made it simple.

Pay is 2 cents a word and royalties for stories. For very short fiction, poems, and nursery rhymes, we offer an option of a flat $25 to the writer. Payment is made on publication.

Multiple and simultaneous submissions okay, reprints as well, but they are held to a higher standard.

***

15 April 19 -- Tales from the Space Force -- B Cubed Press

Okay, how could we not. Now that America has an official Space Force, we need to incorporate it into literature.

What to do we want? Camp? Satire? Bug Eyed Monsters? All good. We’ll do serious stories, too. Mostly we want good stories. And if I am to confess, we want campy stories. We want the golden age of pulp to live again.

Political bends are allowed.

Poetry and essays are allowed.

Ask yourself, what would an American Space Force do? Will there be a space wall around the International Space Station? Will NASA and the Space Force get along? I have no idea, but I’m leaving it up to you to tell us. Here at B Cubed, we leave the writing to you.

We’re looking for 500 to 5000 words.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions should be in Word or RTF attachments, using SFWA manuscript format. Include your name AND email on the document. We’re pretty organized, but sometimes emails and stories get separated, and that is NEVER GOOD.

Email your submission to kionadad@aol.com. The subject should be: "SUBMISSION Space Force". Really. Just copy it – we’ve made it simple.

Pay is 2 cents a word and royalties for stories. For very short fiction, poems, and nursery rhymes, we offer an option of a flat $25 to the writer. Payment is made on publication.

Multiple and Simultaneous submissions okay, reprints as well, but they are held to a higher standard.

***

30 April 19 -- Geek Out II! -- Qommunicate Publishing

[NOTE: Submissions open to LGBTQ+ writers only.]

Queer Pop Lit & Art

Geek Out! – Queer Pop Lit & Art will be published in print & ebook (compatible with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows devices in addition to PDF and other downloadable formats and web-viewable formats.)

Submission Guidelines:

Please read the following submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work to Geek Out. If you have any questions not answered below, please write us at submissions@qommunicatepublishing.com and we will be happy to answer.

Theme:

= Where queer meets geek. Whatever you geek out about, we want to read it!

Genres:

= Genre Fiction (e.g. scifi, fantasy, western, noir, horror)
= Poetry: slam poems and non-traditional formats
= Creative Nonfiction (non-memoir based): opinion essays, topical articles, reviews, comedy
= Comics / Graphic short stories (black & white only)
= Scripts: short stage plays, teleplays, screenplays, video scripts, etc.

Not Looking For:

We are not looking for work in the following genres for this particular publication. (See our other Submission Guidelines homepage for other publications with upcoming deadlines seeking work in these genres.)

= Literary Fiction
= Memoir-based Nonfiction
= Traditional Poetry

Additionally, we rarely accept work in the following genres:

= Erotica*
= Work written for children

( * Look for an upcoming call for submissions for our new adult series “Pan’s Ex: Queer Sex Poetry” – coming soon!)

Length:

= Prose: up to 5,000 words
= Flash Non-fiction: 1 page or less
= Poetry: up to 3 pages (per poem)
= Comics & Scripts: up to 10 pages
= Submissions of longer than 10 pages must be numbered.

Formats:

= All submissions must be typed. No handwritten submissions will be accepted.
= If you send your submission in, please do NOT mail us your only copy of your work. We can not be responsible for returning submissions.

Multiple Submissions

= Multiple submissions (submissions of more than one work) are fine. Send us what you’ve got!

Simultaneous Submissions:

= Simultaneous submissions (submitting work you’ve already submitted–or are planning on submitting–elsewhere) are fine too.
= Please just be sure that if your submission gets accepted elsewhere, you contact us at submissions@qommunicatepublishing.com to withdraw it from consideration for Geek Out!

Reprints:

= Reprints will NOT be considered.

Rights:

= We are seeking First English Anthology Rights and First World Anthology Rights in print and ebook formats.
= NOTE: These rights only allow the material to be used in the anthology and its reprints, and the writer retains all rights to their work not specified here (i.e. in the contract), including copyright to their work.
= We are also seeking, for all material, Non-exclusive Excerpt Rights (for the purposes of promoting the Anthology on the website).

Compensation:

= Contributors will receive $5 per printed page.

[NOTE: There's no way to tell exactly how many cents/word they'll be paying; it depends on the size of the pages, the size of the typeface, and the density of the writing on any given page. (A page with many short lines of dialogue will have a lot fewer words than a page full of long paragraphs of description or narration.) A standard manuscript page is counted as approximately 250 words, which works out to about 2 cents per word. I'm assuming a "printed" page will be less than twice that, which means this market squeaks in just past my guidelines, to give them the benefit of the doubt. Keep this in mind, though, when you decide whether to sub here.]

What to Submit:

= Your submission
= A brief bio telling us something about you and (if applicable) any publishing experience
= At least one form of contact information (phone number, email, or mailing address. Please do not give a social media account handle as your only form of contact information.
= IMPORTANT: Pen names are acceptable. However, for contractual purposes, all submissions must also include the author’s legal name.

Where to Submit:

Submissions may be emailed to us at: submissions@qommunicatepublishing.com or mailed to us at:

Qommunity
201 Lancelot Lane
Becket, MA 01223

AGAIN, MAILED SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE RETURNED

Response Time:

= We will respond to all submissions by June 1, 2019.

***

30 April 19 -- Nox Pareidolia -- Nightscape Press

Nox Pareidolia will open to previously unpublished submissions on April 1st and will close to submission at the close of that month.

Payment

Payment will be 6 cents per word. I prefer shorter pieces but I will accept exceptional tales that are longer, however the payment will be capped 6,000 words.

Theme

The theme is heavily inspired by Robert Aickman's fiction. Initially, I envisioned a book of stories where it is ambiguous as to whether the nature of the horror/weird element is supernatural or not. But I've recently decided to make that a more openly interpreted theme of ambiguous horror/weird fiction. Whether it be ambiguously supernatural or whether what exactly has or is happening is ambiguous, or any creative idea playing off of ambiguity could be interesting to see explored. But the element that is ambiguous must be intrinsic to the story.

Formatting

Standard Shunn formatting is just fine, but we're finding more and more that we prefer single spaced manuscripts as we read submissions on our devices. And italics should preferably be italicized and not underlined. Single spaces between sentences is also a huge help when final formatting comes around. That said, we will not reject stories if the formatting isn’t perfect. First and foremost make it readable. And where stories require odd formatting for effect, certainly don’t change that on our account.

***

30 April 19 -- Hatchet Job -- ed. Jerry L. Wheeler; Lethe Press

This horror anthology, to be edited by Jerry L. Wheeler, seeks stories under 10,000 words that involve one of the traditional tropes of campfire tales and slasher films: the axe murderer. Stories need not focus solely on this antagonist, but all stories must somehow involve this threat or concept. Think Angela Carter's "The Fall River Axe Murders." Surprise us by breathing new life into this theme. That said, we anticipate most of the book will be reprints – for which we are offering 2 cents a word. Original work pays 4 cents a word but first query the editor with a synopsis.

Specs? Please submit Word docs only, standard formatting, 12 pt Times Roman to me at pfloydian806@gmail.com, using the title of the anthology as the subject line.

***

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 $100. 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 $100 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 1666 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.]

***

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.

If you'd like to support these listings in a more concrete way, here are a couple of ways to do it:

Become a Patron!