Special Issue

38 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for October 2025

These are calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from 38 publishers/organizers. A couple are open for more than one call. Some of the call themes are: Objection! Overruled!; soilpunk; haunt; no laughing matter; Helen of Troy; Walpurgis witcheries; rebels; performance; swashes and buckles; alien celebrations; and the lantern keepers. THEMED CALLS Murderous Ink…
Special Issue

72 Specialized Publishers Open to Manuscript Submissions

All of the presses on this list meet all of our guiding principles, but some of them have such a specific focus that we cannot justify writing a full review and sending it to our full list of subscribers. Some of them we have full reviews on. There is no particular organization to this list….
Special Issue

84 Manuscript Publishers with Geographic Limitations

We generally only review presses that accept work without geographic limitations on who can submit, but this list includes many publishers who do have geographic requirements. We have never fully reviewed most of these presses because of their geographic limitations, but they are still good presses. Most of the presses on this list accept work…
Special Issue

Why and Where You Should Start Submitting Your Writing This September

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged… I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.” — Erica Jong Starting to submit your work to literary journals is a hard task. Before…
Special Issue

41 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for September 2025

These are calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of the call themes are: folk horror; holiday; the unmaking; thresholds; arms & armor; alchemy; who gets to be American?; communication; long-term relationships; cats; the language of flowers; eerie Christmas; and soilpunk. Phi Kappa Phi Forum: Travel by PlaneThey’re reading poetry submissions for their…
Special Issue Themed Calls for Submissions

50 Magazines and Anthologies Publishing Speculative Fiction

These are submission calls for speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their sub-genres, including, but not limited to fairy tales, sword and sorcery, cozy fantasy, high fantasy, ghost stories, eldritch, slipstream, alternate history, steampunk, cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, soilpunk, solarpunk, and more. Many of them pay writers. Some of the calls are themed. Many, but not…
Special Issue

26 Respected Literary Journals

The literary journals and magazines on this list reject the vast majority of what is submitted to them. Sometimes established authors’ works are rejected for years, decades even, before they receive an acceptance. But these literary journals are respected and trusted. Most have a large readership and good distribution in libraries and bookstores. Many of…
Special Issue

50 Romance Publishers Open to Direct Submissions

For the first few years of Authors Publish, even though I only reviewed romance publishers that were over a year old, I had no lack of options in terms of romance publishers to review. They were the easiest genre to find publishers open to direct submissions, other than those focused on non-fiction. Particularly in 2016…
Special Issue

35 Magazines Accepting Book Reviews

These magazines accept reviews of books. Most of them also accept other genres, like fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of them pay writers. Many, but not all, of them are open for submissions now. Frivolous CommaThey publish speculative fiction (closed now) and nonfiction (1,000-2,500 words), including reviews; “Reviews/book round-ups through a personal/memoir lens (note: we…
Special Issue

How to Get Started With Writing Essays

By Ratika Deshpande The essay is a form that can take diverse appearances: travelogues, memoirs, lists, drabbles. As exciting as its variety feels, I’ve also found it frustrating that there are hardly any guides detailing how to work with the form. The following is a sort of beginner’s guide I wish I’d had when I…
Special Issue

25 New Literary Magazines (Seeking Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry)

These magazines had their first issue published, at most, about a year ago. A few have yet to publish their first issue. They publish fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre magazines, and some of them pay writers. Many, but not all, are open for submissions now. Please remember,…
Special Issue

53 Literary Journals Seeking Genre Fiction

Most literary journals are interested in literary work, by which they mean, not genre work (although this is changing a little). The definition of genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. However, in the context of writing, genre can refer to…
Special Issue

35 Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions of Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction is generally defined as a genre of fiction where the setting is not in the world as we know it because of supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements. Three genres are covered by this umbrella term: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. This term is used to cover work that doesn’t fit exactly in one…
Manuscript Publishers Special Issue

27 Literary Journals with Fast Response Times

It is good to start out by submitting your work to literary journals that have fast response times. It is rewarding to hear back from journals within a month, rather than a year later, when you have forgotten all about them. Submitting to journals with fast response times helps keep you motivated. All of these…
Special Issue

57 Literary Journals that Pay Their Authors

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. – W.H. Auden As someone who makes their living writing about writing and publishing, I can attest to how truthful Auden’s quote is. It is hard making…
Special Issue

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