Tag: submissions

Open submission calls for writers: March 2025

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Patterns
This theme might set your imagination going – can you come up with a piece of dark fiction involving patterns? Interestingly, the editors note that the pattern could relate to the structure of the piece, rather than the plot.
Word count: 2000–4000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Find out more

Creature Feature
Inky Bones Press will be putting out this anthology of horror stories featuring earthbound or alien creatures.
Word count: 1500–3500 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 30 April 2025
Find out more

Planet Scumm
This well-established zine contains SF and weird fiction and slipstream fiction of all descriptions.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 7 May 2025
Find out more

Jupiter’s Eye
This print and digital zine from Hiraeth Books features science fiction stories about the exploration and settlement of other worlds.
Word count: 1000–5000 words
Payment: $30
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Foofaraw
This anthology isn’t genre-specific, but the editors are open to SFF and horror. The main requirement is that stories relate to ‘foofaraw’, meaning ‘a great fuss or disturbance’.
Word count: 500–5000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 31 March 2025
Find out more

Consumed
Horror stories about food – sounds fun! Examples include cannibals, zombies, cursed birthday cakes.
Word count: 1500–7500 words
Payment: $10
Deadline: 30 April 2025
Find out more

Horrific Scribes
This new online archive of dark fiction will feature ‘provocative, scary, and strange’ horror stories.
Word count: 1500–5000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Bullet Points
Do you happen to write ‘speculative military fiction that is sensitive to the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human (and nonhuman) society’? Then this is the place to send it.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: $30
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

This Exquisite Topology
This anthology will feature SFF and horror stories, though the requirements beyond that are a little opaque: stories should be ‘cast through the lens of joy, exploring deformations and reformations of new landscapes and environments…’
Word count: 1000–6000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: Open until filled
Find out more

Wet Screams
Though the editors’ request for ‘monstrous romance with high spice’ is slightly coy, the anthology’s explicit subtitle ‘A Monsterf*cker Anthology’ clarifies their intentions somewhat.
Word count: 2000–6000 words
Payment: 10 Canadian cents per word
Deadline: 14 April 2025
Find out more

Jungle Scandals
This follow-up to Sword & Scandal will feature jungle tales featuring gratuitous nudity, sex, and gore.
Word count: 2000–7500 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 16 April 2025
Find out more

Sex Science Fiction
More sex-themed SFF! I’m not sure why this has turned out to be this month’s trend. This one’s for the authoritative-sounding Future of Sex website.
Word count: 800–1000 words
Payment: $70
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Supernatural Parables
This anthology, subtitled ‘Myth versus Reality’, will feature stories in which supernatural forces collide. A neat quirk is that the editors require two stories from each author, representing some sort of opposite elements.
Word count: 2000–6000 words
Payment: Royalties
Deadline: 1 April 2025
Find out more

The Gothic Gazette
This anthology from Pulp Cult will feature Gothic tales. Intriguingly, SF and fantasy stories are accepted.
Word count: Up to 8000 words
Payment: None
Deadline: 6 March 2025
Find out more

Circus of the Dead
As you might guess from the title, this anthology from Wicked Shadow Press will contain horror stories featuring a circus.
Word count: Up to 8000 words
Payment: None
Deadline: 14 March 2025
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.

Open submission calls for writers: February 2025

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Hiding Under the Leaves
This new anthology from The Slab Press will contain folk horror stories. Editor Donna Scott is on the hunt for stories featuring ‘curses and cunning folk; superstitions and the old ways; twisted rural landscapes and dark, creeping woodlands.’
Word count: 2000–9000 words
Payment: 1 pence per word
Deadline: Open 9–23 February 2025
Find out more

Remains
This came out of nowhere! Erstwhile editor of Black Static and Interzone Andy Cox has returned with a new beautifully designed magazine. The submission guidelines are vague, but dark fiction seems to be the way to impress him.
Word count: Not stated
Payment: Not stated
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Ripples in Space
Samak Press are putting together an anthology of tales of first contact between intelligent species. That could relate to encounters between humans and aliens, or between two other races.
Word count: 1500–7500 words
Payment: $20
Deadline: 28 February 2025
Find out more

Myths Reborn
This anthology from October Nights Press is subtitled ‘Modern Tales of Cryptids & Dark Folklore’. That is to say, what’s required are new approaches to old tales.
Word count: 3000–5500 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 31 March 2025
Find out more

Wrath Month
The editors of this anthology are seeking SFF and horror short stories that embrace punk and queer rage. In the editors’ words, feel free to ‘crash mainframes, collapse empires, and break normativity’.
Word count: Up to 6000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Find out more

Modern Mummies
For clarity, we’re talking mummified corpses, not mothers. It could be a lot of fun to write a mummy story set in the modern world…
Word count: 1500–5000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: 28 February 2025
Find out more

Merganser
This new online magazine pledges to publish ‘writers and artists whose work transcends disciplines and genres’.
Word count: Up to 2000 words preferred
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Incensepunk
This new online zine is dedicated to its titular subgenre, which concerns a world (or perhaps other worlds) in which traditional faiths and churches play a major role in society.
Word count: 4000–6000 words
Payment: $100
Deadline: Ongoing
Find out more

Elder Things Expeditions
This is the seventh volume of Hiraeth Publishing’s series of Lovecraftian anthologies. This one will feature Antarctic expeditions past, present and future, though presumably not ones that end well.
Word count: 3000–6000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word for first 3000 words, then 3 cents per word
Deadline: 31 March 2025
Find out more

Fahmidan
This magazine is open to dark fiction, whimsical fantasy, thought-provoking existentialism, hopes and dreams… pretty much everything, it seems.
Word count: 1000–2500 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: Ongoing
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.