Category: calls for submissions

It seems that editors have spent the summer months preparing their next projects! Here are 16 of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found.

And a reminder: sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open submission calls like these…

Language Evolves
This contest supported by Cardiff University has a really exciting prompt relating to the field of language evolution. As its website states, this could include ‘imagining situations in the past or the future, speculating on how language might have evolved in a different species, or thinking about the consequences of our methods and practice.’
Word count: Up to 2500 words
Payment: £400 prize, with awards for the best Welsh language story and English language story
Deadline: 30 September 2023
Find out more

Crab Tales Magazine
You’re unlikely to have already written a story to meet the requirements of this magazine, but with a word limit of only 250 words, maybe you’d like to have a try at writing a fantastical crab story, finally?
Word count: Up to 250 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: 24 September 2023
Find out more

Negative Creep
A very specific call, but one rich with possibility… The editors of this anthology to be published by Book Slayer Press are seeking horror stories themed around Nirvana songs.
Word count: 1000–3000 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: 1 October 2023
Find out more

Night Time Economy
The editors of the new Birmingham-based publisher Floodgate Press are looking for night-time tales by writers from the West Midlands.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: £20
Deadline: 31 January 2023
Find out more

Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars
This prompt is a nice twist, with emphasis placed on magical animal familiars rather than their witchy or wizardy partners.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 6 cents per word
Deadline: 15 October 2023
Find out more

Hauntings and Hoarfrost
This anthology will be filled with Gothic stories. In the words of editor Rhonda Parrish: ‘What better setting could there be than the deep, dark, depths of winter? When snow and storms can isolate remote locations for days or weeks and bundling up to keep the cold away provides a different kind of anonymity and isolation even in the heart of cities.’
Word count: Up to 7500 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: 7 October 2023
Find out more

Gamut
This well-regarded magazine has recently been revived. When the submission portal opens, you’ll need to hurry, as the submissions slots fill up fast!
Word count: 1000–5000 words
Payment: 10 cents per word
Deadline: Open at the start of each month until submission slots are filled – next opening 1 October 2023
Find out more

Northern Nights
This opportunity’s limited to Canadian writers, but it’s a great opportunity if you fit the bill. Undertow Publications produce some of the best, and most beautifully designed, horror and weird-fiction collections imaginable.
Word count: 500–5000 words
Payment: 10 Canadian cents per word
Deadline: Open 1 October–1 December 2023
Find out more

The Way of Worlds
This anthology from Underdog Press will feature stories themed around space exploration and colonization. The editors note that stories don’t have to be hard SF, though.
Word count: 3500–12,000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: 31 December 2023
Find out more

Screams from the Ocean Floor
For their first anthology, the editors at Broken Brain Books are seeking ‘unique ocean-themed horror stories that will leave the reader thinking twice before stepping near the sea again.’
Word count: 3000–5000 words
Payment: $15
Deadline: 31 October 2023
Find out more

Love Letters to Poe
The third volume of stories connected to Edgar Allan Poe will feature tell-tale tales relating to ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
Word count: Up to 4000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 1 November 2023
Find out more

Decapitate
It’s a slightly misleading title, this one, as it has nothing to do with horror as far as I can see. Pandemic lockdown project Quaranzine has now relaunched with a new name, and its editors are looking for stories themed around social justice.
Word count: No limits specified
Payment: $25
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Death’s Other Kingdom: Horror Tales of World War I
Historical horror specialists The Scythian Wolf are looking for WWI stories that involve the supernatural.
Word count: 4000–9000 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: 1 November 2023
Find out more

Crimson Quill Quarterly
The editors of this fantasy magazine are looking for stories with the subgenres of sword & sorcery, dark fantasy and grimdark.
Word count: Up to 10,000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: 31 October 2023
Find out more

Paranoid Tree
The flash fiction featured in this online and print zine appear to be unthemed and not limited by particular genre.
Word count: Up to 400 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Stonecoast Review
Despite the fairly generic title (it relates to the Stonecoast MFA Program), this magazine features speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with an emphasis on character.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: None
Deadline: 1 October 2023
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

No newsletter this month due to the usual summer-holiday chaos, but I was determined not to neglect my gathering of open submissions calls for writers…

Do sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open submission calls in future!

Microbes to the Rescue!
This short story competition from Green Stories and sponsored by the Environmental Biotechnology Network is open to SF stories concerning microbial systems.
Word count: 1000–3000 words
Payment: £500 prize for 1^st place, £200 for 2^nd place, £100 for 3^rd place
Deadline: 21 September 2023
Find out more

Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize
I don’t normally flag contests with entry fees here, but Galley Beggar are a fantastic publisher, so I can’t resist adding this to the list despite the £10 entry fee. There are 200 free slots for low earners. No genre restrictions.
Word count: Up to 6000 words
Payment: £2500 first prize, plus runner-up prizes
Deadline: 30 September 2023
Find out more

The Quiet Ones
The third issue of this creepy online zine will feature horror and dystopian stories themed around ‘The End’.
Word count: Up to 3000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: 10 September 2023
Find out more

Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction
Another contest, this one free to enter. It may hold particular appeal for SFF and horror writers as the theme is ‘The Uncanny’. Shortlisted stories will feature in an ebook anthology published by the excellent Comma Press.
Word count: 2000–7500 words
Payment: £500 prize, and publication for 10 shortlisted authors
Deadline: 22 September 2023
Find out more

African Ghost Short Stories
This is the latest anthology from the excellent Flame Tree Press. The editors seek stories from African and African-diaspora writers, and describe the anthology as featuring ‘the deep-seated supernatural element in African storytelling – whether reaching back to the spirits, ancestors and ogres of folklore or the vibrantly modern ghosts of today’s African horror’.
Word count: Around 2000–4000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 27 August 2023
Find out more

Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors
For this unusual themed anthology, From Beyond Press are looking for horror and dark sci-fi stories about shopping malls past, present and future.
Word count: 1000–5000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: 31 August 2023
Find out more

Orion’s Belt
This online magazine seeks (very) short stories with ‘significant speculative elements’.
Word count: Up to 1200 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 1 September 2023
Find out more

Hearth Stories
This new magazine will feature ‘speculative fiction slice-of-life stories with a focus on connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world’.
Word count: Around 1500–5000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 31 October 2023
Find out more

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

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Take a look at the most interesting open submissions calls for SFF writers I’ve found this month. Good luck if you have a go at any of these opportunities!

Learning to Be Human
This new anthology from established publisher of high-quality anthologies Flame Tree Press will focus on ‘the interplay between automation, humankind, and what it is to be human’. As you can imagine, I’m pretty excited about this call for submissions myself…
Word count: Around 2000–4000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 2 July 2023
Find out more

Shadows on the Water
This is another upcoming anthology from Flame Tree Press, and another exciting theme: myth and folklore, dark fantasies and supernatural tales relating to bodies of water.
Word count: Around 2000–4000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 2 July 2023
Find out more

The Utopia of Us
Oh wow, this is a good one. Respected editor and author Teika Marija Smits is seeking stories inspired by Yevgeny Zamyatin’s proto-SF 1924 masterpiece We, with the anthology due to be published by the excellent Luna Press. The deadline’s way off, but the requirements are very specific, so I thought you’d appreciate the time in hand.
Word count: 2000–6000 words
Payment: £75
Deadline: Open 6–8 October 2023
Find out more

NPQ
NPQ hopes to ‘help advance critical conversations that can refine nonprofit and social movement policy and practice’. Its upcoming issue will be of particular interest to SFF writers, as it’s due to feature ‘short climate fiction stories that spark imaginative visions of the future’, with stated influences including Janelle Monáe, Octavia E. Butler, and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Word count: Up to 2000 words
Payment: $500
Deadline: 30 June 2023
Find out more

Make Your Presence Known
The subtitle of this anthology from Off Limits Press is ‘Stories of Seances, Conjuring, and Mediumship’, which sets the mind going, doesn’t it?
Word count: 1500–5000 words
Payment: 4 cents per word
Deadline: 30 June 2023
Find out more

It Was All A Dream
This sounds like fun: an anthology of ‘bad horror tropes done right’. In the words of the editors, ‘What is your least favorite horror trope? Why? Has it been overdone? Is it predictable? Is it unrealistic? Here’s your chance to fix it.’Word count: Up to 3000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: Open 1–15 July 2023
Find out more

Solar Press
There isn’t a huge amount of description of the forthcoming anthology from Solar Press on their website, but they’re looking for ‘high-concept’ stories and they include an interesting list of favourite authors including Clive Barker, William S. Burroughs, and Jorge Luis Borges.
Word count: Up to 10,000 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: 31 August 2023
Find out more

Cosmic Horror Monthly
Do you write cosmic horror, whether it’s Lovecraftian or a weirder flavour? Either way, this is the magazine for you.
Word count: 1000–6000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: Open 1–7 July 2023
Find out more

Diabolical Plots
The editors of this respected online zine seek speculative stories of all sorts. And they pay very well!
Word count: Up to 3500 words
Payment: 10 cents per word
Deadline: Open 17–31 July 2023
Find out more

Monstrous Magazine
There are no pretensions whatsoever in this call for fast-paced, pulpy flash fiction featuring monsters.
Word count: 1000–2000 words
Payment: 6 cents per word
Deadline: Open 29 June–27 July 2023
Find out more

Here are the most interesting open submissions calls for SFF writers I’ve found this month. Good luck!

Qualia Nous
The first volume of this anthology series contained high-profile names and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. This new volume looks set to be a bit deal, too. The editor interprets the slightly opaque title as referring to ‘subjective, conscious experience; the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena… having the ability to understand what is true or real.’ Plenty to chew on there!
Word count: 3,000 – 10,000 words
Payment: 10 cents per word
Deadline: 31 July 2023
Find out more

Luna Press
This wonderful Edinburgh-based SFF publisher, which has received multiple genre awards (and which published both my short story collection And the House Lights Dim and my YA novel Machineries of Mercy) will be open to novels and collections in mid-June. Get your manuscripts polished and ready to go!
Word count: 50,000 words and above
Payment: To be negotiated
Deadline: Open 16–18 June 2023
Find out more

Greater Than His Nature / Open All Night
Atomic Carnival Books are currently preparing two anthologies. The first is Greater Than His Nature, themed around ‘mad science’. The second, Open All Night, is more unusual, to feature ‘retail and service industry-based stories… graveyard shifts, overnight inventories gone bad, and haunted diners’.
Word count: Ideally between 2000–6000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: 30 June 2023
Find out more

Centaur
This publication isn’t explicitly an SFF one, though its editors seek bold pieces of flash fiction that could be classed as ‘fantasy, reality, and everything in between’.
Word count: Up to 400 words
Payment: $20
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Graveyard Boots
Horror in the Old West! The editors of this anthology seek ‘stories that add creatures, gunslingers, ghouls, ill omens, bad luck, evil minds, monsters and more to the already desolate landscape and ghost towns’. Sounds ace.
Word count: 2500–5500 words
Payment: Half a cent per word
Deadline: 31 August 2023
Find out more

The Cosmic Background
I like the sound of this new online publication of slipstream flash fiction, largely because their list of influential writers is pleasingly varied, including Kelly Link, George Saunders, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Sarah Pinsker.
Word count: Up to 1000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

A new year, a fresh start, renewed ambitions, and so on… January is a great time to send out stories you’ve already written, or to be inspired to write new ones. Below, I’ve gathered some of the most interesting open submission calls for writers I’ve spotted this month. If you have a try at any of these opportunities, best of luck!

To receive more open submission calls like this, sign up for my email newsletter.

Ghoulish Tales
New magazine that celebrate ‘fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.’ While plenty of horror films are fun, I think it’s trickier to achieve in written fiction, so this is definitely a worthwhile distinction.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 7 cents per word
Deadline: 15 February 2023
https://perpetualpublishing.com/2022/12/17/announcing-ghoulish-tales-a-new-horror-magazine-currently-open-for-submissions/

Horror Library
This is the eighth volume of horror stories from Dark Moon Books. Their criteria makes for an interesting list: ‘Imaginative and/or harrowing adventure; beauty of darkness; horror (edgy or quiet); exploration through fears or discovery; original monsters and/or strange lands; life events turned slightly askew, etc.’
Word count: 1500–5000 words
Payment: 2 cents per word
Deadline: Opens 16 January 2023, closes 30 January 2023
www.darkmoonbooks.com/Submissions.html

Triangulation: Seven-Day Weekend
The new volume of this longstanding series anthologies will feature fantasy, science fiction, weird fiction, and speculative horror stories themed around automation. Despite the genre list, the guidelines don’t seem to require that stories are bleak, which is refreshing.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: 1 February 2023
https://parsecink.com/index.php/triangulation-submissions/

Cymera / Shoreline of Infinity Prize for Speculative Short Fiction
Cymera is one of the friendliest and most fun SFF events around. Shoreline of Infinity is one of the most inventive and consistent SF magazines. How could the idea of impressing both of them at the same time not be a good idea? NB it’s open to anyone living in Scotland or who identifies as Scottish ‘by birth or inclination’, which is a lovely phrase.
Word count: Up to 2500 words
Payment: Prize of £150 for the winner plus publication in Shoreline of Infinity, free tickets to two Cymera events for the runners-up
Deadline: 26 March 2023
www.shorelineofinfinity.com/cymera-shoreline-of-infinity-prize-for-speculative-short-fiction-2023/

The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse
An anthology from Hungry Shadow Press with an excellent theme: ‘the experiences, the points of view, the wild, weird, disgusting, disturbing, beautiful, heartbreaking things that happened at the very beginning of the end of the world.’
Word count: 1500–4000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: Opens 1 February 2023, deadline 28 February 2023
www.hungryshadowpress.com/submissions-the-first-five-minutes-of-the-apocalypse

Seers and Sibyls
Another very specific but fascinating theme for this submissions call. In the editors’ own words: ‘We’re looking for stories about the mouthpieces of gods and goddesses. Who interprets their omens, tells their prophecies, sees their visions, and performs their miracles? And to what end?’
Word count: 1500–5000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 31 January 2023
https://brigidsgatepress.com/submissions

Monster Lairs
This anthology from Dark Matter will feature dark fantasy and horror (and related hybrids such as fairytale horror, gothic fantasy, supernatural horror, cosmic horror). Editor Anna Madden is seeking ‘decidedly inhuman monsters that have been sought out and challenged, befriended, protected, or stolen from their own grounds, roots exposed like naked bone’. I tell you what – the themes for open submissions this month are pretty amazing, aren’t they?
Word count: 2000–4000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 30 January 2023, but then until 5 February 2023 for previously unpublished writers, ESL writers, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers, and other marginalized voices
https://darkmattermagazine.shop/pages/monster-lairs-submission-guidelines

Habitats
This is a new magazine that will specialise in ‘optimistic and uplifting short science-fiction stories on any subject’. There’s not nearly enough warmth and positivity in most SF, in my opinion, so this is another very welcome theme. It’s also the first open submission call I’ve seen which states explicitly that stories written or assisted by AI are not welcome.
Word count: 1000–6000 words
Payment: 10 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing, as far as I can tell
www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelcooke/habitats-magazine-optimistic-science-fiction/posts/3701085

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Shall we ignore the fact that I didn’t post submissions calls in August or September? Sorry, sorry, and I’ll try to be more reliable in future. Anyway, as always (though not always, clearly), here are some of the most interesting open submission calls for writers I’ve spotted this month. If you have a try at any of these opportunities, good luck!

Game On!
Anthology featuring stories which represent ‘unique science fiction and fantasy takes on games, game playing, and games in culture’. (Note the emphasis on games; anything that classifies as a sport won’t be accepted.) Several notable authors such as Aliette de Bodard and Cat Rambo have already signed up to provide stories.
Word count: Up to 7500 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 31 December 2022
https://zombiesneedbrains.moksha.io/publication/game-on/guidelines

Our Ocean’d Earth
Anthology featuring non-fiction and fiction focused on ‘defending nature and empowering communities’. The editors are seeking stories ‘from a range of perspectives—from marine life researchers to conservationists, free divers to writers with a deep connection to the sea’.
Word count: Ideally 1000–3000 word
Payment: €200
Deadline: 30 October 2022
https://www.stormbirdpress.com/news/our-oceand-earth/

A Darkness Visible
Anthology from Ontology Books, with a focus on postmodern horror – reference points include Mark Danielewski, Bret Easton Ellis, William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon.
Word count: 3000–8000 words
Payment: £80
Deadline: 31 October 2022
https://www.ontologybooks.com/submissions

Come October
One-off anthology from editor C.M. Muller, who’s been responsible for the fantastic Nightscript series. This anthology is dedicated to ‘autumnal horror’.
Word count: 1000-6000 words
Payment: Contributor copy
Deadline: Opens on 31 October 2022, deadline 31 December 2022
https://chthonicmatter.wordpress.com/come-october-2/

ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society’s prestigious annual short story contest.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: Prizes of £2,000, £1,000 or £500
Deadline: 31 October 2022
https://www2.societyofauthors.org/prizes/the-soa-awards/alcs-tom-gallon-trust-award/

FABLE: An Anthology of Horror, Suspense & the Supernatural
Anthology featuring horror, mystery, crime, thriller, and/or suspense stories in which ‘supernatural elements are encouraged’.
Word count: 1000–39,999 words
Payment: 8 cents per word for the first 1000 words, then 1 cent per word after that
Deadline: 30 November 2022
https://pridebookcafe.com/fable-an-anthology-of-horror-suspense-the-supernatural

Under the Stairs: An Anthology of Homebound Horror
Anthology seeking ‘horrific stories about what happens when one’s sense of home is lost’.
Word count: Up to 3000 words
Payment: 3 cents per word
Deadline: 31 October 2022
https://www.underthestairsmag.com/submissions

Paramnesia
Grendel Press is planning a series of themed anthologies, the first of which concerns ‘a condition or phenomenon involving distorted memory or confusions of fact and fantasy, such as confabulation or déjà vu’.
Word count: 3000-7000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: Open until the anthology is filled
https://grendelpress.com/anthology-submissions/

Frivolous Comma
Website featuring SFF/horror stories ‘from or about diverse perspectives and traditionally under-represented groups, settings, and cultures, written from a non-exoticizing and well-researched position, and dealing with transition & intersectionality.’
Word count: 1000–4000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: Open until 300 submissions have been received
https://www.frivolouscomma.com/submit/

This World Belongs to Us: An Anthology of Horror Stories about Bugs
A fairly self-explanatory theme, though the editors elaborate with some examples: ‘Bugs as ill omens, bugs burrowing into bodies or thoughts, bugs taking over your town, giant bugs eating your friends, bugs giving you the side-eye at the supermarket’.
Word count: 500–5000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: 30 November 2022
http://frombeyondpress.com/submissions/