Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
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Dust & Dark
This new British magazine aims to publish ‘stylish, atmospheric horror fiction’ – that is, stories more focused on lingering dread than jump scares.
Word count: 2000–7000 words
Payment: 7p per word
Deadline: 31 October 2024
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Stop Surveillance Copaganda
The instructions on the website are a little opaque, but nevertheless this sounds like an exciting project. Stories must engage with the rise of surveillance technologies in modern life, and successful stories will appear in Strange Horizons and COMPOST Magazine.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 10 cents per word
Deadline: 21 November 2024
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Afrofuturism
The editors of this upcoming anthology from Flame Tree Press are seeking authors writing ‘from an authentic perspective of the Black experience, whether based in the diaspora or in Africa’, and engaging in technology and ‘liberated futures for Black life’.
Word count: Around 2000–4000 words
Payment: 6 cents per word
Deadline: 27 October 2024
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Dread Mondays
The editors of this anthology of workplace horror cast around references such as Office Space, American Psycho and Alien as potential influences for stories.
Word count: Up to 4000 words
Payment: 6 cents per word
Deadline: 31 October 2024
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Starship Librarians
I love the prompt for this upcoming anthology from Tyche Books: librarians of tomorrow! To clarify, the librarians don’t have to be starship-based.
Word count: Unspecified
Payment: $50 CDN
Deadline: 15 November 2024
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The Forge
This classily designed online zine publishes fiction of all genres. You’ll need to time your submission carefully, though, as the portal is only open on the first day of each month.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: $100
Deadline: Ongoing
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Planet Black Joy
Rosarium Publishing will publish this anthology of speculative fiction by Black women and non-binary people at the end of 2025.
Word count: 3000–7000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 1 January 2025
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Choices
This anthology is subtitled ‘An Anthology of Reproductive Horror’; stories must be written by people of marginalized genders and relate to ‘the horrors that occur when reproductive choices are threatened or taken away’.
Word count: Up to xx words
Payment: 8 cents (CAD) per word
Deadline: 30 November 2024
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Phano
The masthead of this new zine states it intends to ‘deliver wondrous, thought-provoking content about the future to the questioning masses’.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 2 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing
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Feral Lands
This first horror anthology from Samak Press will feature stories about isolation ‘set in untamed lands beyond the reach of civilization’.
Word count: 1500–7500 words
Payment: $20
Deadline: 31 October 2024
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Syncopation Literary Journal
The odd-sounding prompt ‘Must Love Music’ makes sense when you understand that this literary journal is aimed at musicians and writers inspired by music. The series of story ideas represent terrific starting points.
Word count: Up to 7500 words
Payment: No payment
Deadline: 2 November 2024
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Inanimate Things
This is the second volume of a horror series from Burial Books featuring, as you might expect, inanimate things that are somehow living. Examples provided include ‘a doll, the dead flesh of zombies, or your Ford F-150’.
Word count: 1500–6000 words
Payment: $10
Deadline: 1 December 2024
Find out more

Good luck if you submit a story to any of these venues! And remember, you can sign up for my email newsletter for monthly open submission calls direct to your inbox.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.