Written by S. Kalekar August 6th, 2020

5 Paying Literary Markets to Submit to in August 2020

These markets are a mix of literary and genre magazines, and they pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Not all of them are open through the month, however.

Frozen Wavelets
This speculative flash fiction and poetry magazine encourage writers to push boundaries, in format and topics. Torture porn, vampires, gore and splatter for the sake of it, and racist/misogynist/white-supremacist discourse are hard sells. They also have a list of editor preferences. Very short work (Twitterfiction, Drabbles) is also published, as are translations and reprints. They are open for submissions for the first two weeks in August.
Deadline: 15 August 2020
Length: Up to 750 words for fiction (500-1,500 for reprints), up to 10 lines for poetry
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction, $1/line of poetry
Details here.

Westerly
This Australian magazine publishes short stories, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, essays and literary criticism. Non-subscribers will be asked to take magazine subscription as part payment for their work. Submission of scholarly articles is accepted year-round.
Deadline: 31 August 2020
Length: Up to 3,500 words for fiction and creative nonfiction; up to five poems; up to 5,000 words for essays; 500-700 words for reviews
Pay: AUD200 for short stories and articles, AUD120-150 for poetry, AUD120 for visual art/intro essay and online pieces, AUD100 for reviews
Details here.

Curiosities and Gallery of Curiosities
This is a speculative fiction anthology magazine and podcast. Most of their stories have some sort of anachropunkish retro-vintage element. As an audio venue, they want short stories that entertain, be it with steampunk, gaslamp, weird tales, dreadpunk, vintage horror, mad science, fantastic cities, monsters, impossible machines, clockworks, alt-history adventures, or weird Westerns. See guidelines for details of the kind of stories they do not want, and the hard sells. They accept multiple submissions (up to three stories – send them all in separate emails), and reprints.
Deadline: 31 August 2020
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: $0.04/word
Details here.

West Branch
This respected literary magazine publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translations. Their reading period is from August to April.
Deadline: 1 April 2021
Length: Up to 30 pages of prose; up to six poems
Pay: $0.05/word for prose up to $100 for online, $10/page up to $100 for print; $50 for poetry
Details here.

Legendary Tales
This is an online speculative fiction magazine. The editor is looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, paranormal, and supernatural stories. They want strong character-driven stories, and are reading now for their first issue. 
Deadline: Unspecified
Length: 1,000-7,500 words
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.

Author Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

 

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