These are 18 themed submission calls for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and scripts. Some of the themes are humanity, detritus, winter holidays, Halloween, identity, alternate history farce and fantasy, axe murderers, retro weird, and the moon. All of these pay writers – royalties, token, or pro rates.
Gypsum Sound Tales: Colp – Big
Gypsum Sound Tales is a publishing house based in Sydney, Australia. They welcome stories from all authors with any experience or background for their anthologies. For their Colp (this is their ‘anything goes’ anthology collection) call, the current theme is ‘Big’ – they want stories that feature at least one significantly-sized character or component. Stories must have at least one of the following: a character (main or otherwise) that is physically enormous (tall, wide, both) – think the size of a skyscraper as your starting point; an environmental feature or man-made structure that is equally enormous; or giant objects. They will accept stories in any genre.
Deadline: 11 April 2019
Length: 1,000-4,000 words
Pay: AUD5 for stories under 2,500 words; AUD10 for anything above 2,500 words
Details here.
Escape Artists: Cast of Wonders – Halloween, Dinovember, Winter Holidays
This is a speculative fiction online magazine and podcast for young adult fiction. Apart from unthemed works, they are also looking for Halloween, Dinovember, and Winter Holidays stories in their April reading period. They also accept reprints.
Reading period: 1-15 April 2019
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here and here.
Visions: Humanity
They want science fiction and speculative short stories on the theme of Humanity for their second issue. Their guidelines say, “…we’re not looking to precisely define the subject but rather show the variety of perspectives that surrounds it.
This goes from pieces about what makes us human now and in the future, to ones highlighting how little we might differ from computers or animals. Stories about robots and artificial intelligence are welcome but so are the ones about DNA manipulation, eugenics, death and human behaviour in society at large.”
Deadline: 15 April 2019
Length: Up to 3,000 words; won’t take anything above 5,000 words
Pay: Around $0.06/word
Details here.
Hinnom Magazine: Retro Weird Tales Edition
They want horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories and poems from women. Stories should be Weird fiction and Cosmic horror (see guidelines). The retro edition of this magazine will have stories akin to the old Weird Tales magazines of the 1930s, but while those had mainly male authors, this magazine will have contributions only by female authors.
Deadline: 15 April 2019
Length: 1,000-6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word for prose, $65 for poems
Details here.
The Suburban Review: Detritus
They want fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and comics on the Detritus theme. Their guidelines say, “Waste and decay surrounds and absorbs you. It’s warm, thick, fertile. Breathe in the fetid excess and expose all the crawling, seething life forces. Write into the dark warmth and send us the best of your scum and grot.”
Deadline: 18 April 2019
Length: 500-2,500 words for prose, up to three poems
Pay: $75-150 for prose and poetry, $100-200 for comics
Details here.
Shooter Literary Magazine: Identity
They want literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and narrative journalism on the theme of ‘Identity’. They want work on anything to do with the sense of self, whether personal or cultural. They particularly want content that addresses topical issues of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, religion, and occupation. The theme is open to interpretation.
Deadline: 21 April 2019
Length: 2,000-7,500 words
Pay: £25 per story and £5 per poem
Details here.
Nightscape Press: Nox Pareidolia
The theme for this anthology is heavily influenced by Robert Aickman’s fiction. The editor wants ambiguous horror/weird fiction. “Whether it be ambiguously supernatural or whether what exactly has or is happening is ambiguous, or any creative playing off of ambiguity could be interesting to see explored. But the element that is ambiguous must be intrinsic to the story.” Also see their calls for reprints and a charity anthology on the guidelines page.
Reading period: 1-30 April 2019
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here.
Post-to-Print Publishers: From a Cat’s View
They want stories written (fully or partially) from a cat’s point of view – from a cat’s perspective, using its words or thoughts. The cat does not have to be a principal character, though the cat’s character should impact the plot in a significant manner. They accept stories in all genres and time periods. Plots involving cat familiars and witches are low on our list of preferred stories for this volume.
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: 3,000-7,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Martinus Publishing: This Never Happened! Alternate History Farce and Fantasy
This is an anthology devoted to the humorous side of alternative history fiction. They want stories that are funny and outrageous, “set in worlds where history differs from what happened in our own reality, with ridiculous consequences; tales that could not possibly have happened, or maybe they could have but they’d have just been absolutely hilarious!” Stories must be PG-13.
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: 1,500-10,000 words
Pay: A share of profits
Details here.
Quommnicate Media: Geek Out II!
The theme is, ‘Where queer meets geek’. They are looking for genre fiction, slam and non-traditional format poetry, non-memoir-based creative nonfiction, topical articles, reviews, and comedy. They also want comics/graphic stories, and scripts. This anthology will be published online, and also printed.
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: Up to 5,000 words of prose, up to 3 pages per poem, comics and scripts up to 10 pages
Pay: $5/page
Details here.
Lethe Press: Hatchet Job
They are looking for horror fiction featuring axe murderers. Stories need not focus solely on this antagonist, but all stories must somehow involve this threat or concept. They accept reprints – in fact they expect many stories to be reprints for this anthology – and original work.
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: Up to 10,000 words
Pay: $0.04/word for original, $0.02/word for reprints
Details here.
Corona Books UK: The Third Corona Book of Horror Stories
They want “brilliant modern horror short stories” for their anthology. They want various different takes on what constitutes horror – stories can be supernatural or natural horror, graphic or gory, or merely sinister or spooky. They also accept reprints and multiple submissions.
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: 1,000-8,000 words
Pay: Advance of £50 against royalties
Details here.
Eibonvale Press: The Once and Future Moon
This will be a fiction anthology about the moon. Their guidelines say that the ‘Once’ aspect will deal with how older cultures/earlier civilisations/people in history saw the moon, considered and reflected upon the moon. The stories do not have to be factually, scientifically accurate; the moon element could be seen as poetic, figurative, or imaginative. For ‘Future’ stories, they want both the liveable near-future (e.g. up to 50 years’ time) and slightly further ahead; stories grounded in how we will live on/adapt to/use the moon in the near and further future, and how the moon will affect our lives going forward. Will it be the site of the next war?
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Pay: £10
Details here (scroll down).
Slice Magazine: PersistenceETA: They just switched their submission window to the fall. They want fiction, nonfiction and poetry for their ‘Persistence’ themed issue. They publish both established and emerging voices. They look for work that plays off the theme, especially in unexpected ways.
Reading period: 1 April-15 May 2019
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, up to five poems
Pay: $250 for stories and essays, $75 for flash fiction pieces, $75 for poems
Details here.
Rock and Hard Place Magazine
They want fiction about that focus on the plight of marginalized, poor, depressed, and desperate people. They want fiction on this theme in any genre, or mixed genres.
Deadline: Unspecified
Length: 2,000-5,000 words
Pay: $35
Details here.
The Norwegian American
This is a magazine for the Norwegian-American community. They also publish short works of fiction of any genre that have something to do with Norway, or crime/mystery stories even if they have nothing to do with Norway, though bonus points if they do.
Deadline: Rolling
Length: Up to 1,500 words (under 1,000 words preferred)
Pay: $50
Details here.
Issues in Earth Science
They want middle grade and young adult fiction that incorporates earth science concepts as key, not incidental, elements, and also represent a key idea that might be taught in an earth science classroom. Stories should also be emotionally compelling. Those with adult characters but for a young adult or middle grade audience will also be considered. The purpose of these stories will be to serve as supplemental reading material for middle or high school students studying particular topics in earth science. They also accept nonfiction, for “Topics for Debate” and these should address a topic of interest in earth science, science education, or science in fiction. Deadline: Open now
Length: 1,000-3,000 words for fiction, 500-1,000 words for nonfiction
Pay: $0.06/word; additional pay if selected for print edition later
Details here.
Zooscape
They want stories prominently featuring an anthropomorphic animal figure – it could be anthropomorphic in body or only intelligence. “We’ll consider any type of furry fiction from secret life of animals to fox in Starbucks. We love science-fiction with animal-like aliens and fantasy with talking dragons, unicorns, or witch familiars.” Query for multiple submissions. They accept reprints.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 10,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word up to 1,000 words, flat rate of $60 for longer
Details here.
