HINT - Click on picture to be taken to submission guidelines
Speculative
haven
Details
THEME: none
Editor: Leon Perniciaro
OPEN April 1 -30
Pay: 8c a words
Word range: 1000-4000 sweet spot, 6000max
Simultaneous submissions? yes
Reprints? No
Description
Haven Spec is a speculative fiction magazine featuring stories for a 21st century audience. We love stories with a sense of adventure, stories that teach us, that touch us, that leave us wanting more. We publish six issues every year, two of which (the DRY Issue and the WET Issue) are focused exclusively on the climate crisis and themes of displacement (very broadly defined).
The crisis facing our planet is immediate and all-encompassing, and it will affect people of color, people living in poverty, and the working classes most of all. The popular metaphor is going over a cliff, but we prefer the tempest, the torrent, the flood. The waters are rising, but we can save ourselves.
It's not too late.
Submission Hints
We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished, and we're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and emotional depth.
For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra.
Insight
I've subbed twice. Both rejected.
Horror and Weird Fiction
cursed morsels
Details
THEME: Solidarity Forever
Editor: Eric Raglan
OPEN April 1 -7
Pay: 10c a words
Word range: 500 max
Simultaneous submissions? yes
Reprints? No
Description
The call defines solidarity forever:
It refers to the old union song of the same name. This song explores the workers’ struggles, triumphs, and collective power against oppressive capitalism when organized as a union. However, your submission does not have to be specifically about unions. It could be about all sorts of problems solved through collective resistance and people standing together.
Submission Hints
Cursed Morsels Press specializes in Weird, queer, often splattery horror with an anti-capitalist and anti-fascist spirit.
Insight
Some of my writing friends have sold here and have good things to say about this market.
Speculative Fiction
the reckoning
Details
Editor: Andrew Kozma
They are open for Reckoning 9
Pay: 10 cents per word
Word Range
: 0 - 20,000
Simultaneous submissions? Yes
Reprints? Query first
Description
Reckoning Magazine is a nonprofit annual journal that focuses on environmental justice. They define environmental justice as: The notion that the people (and other living things) saddled with the consequences of humanity’s poor environmental choices and the imperative to remedy those choices are not the ones responsible for them.
Submission Hints
Reckoning 9 is open for general submissions!
There is no specific theme for this issue; if your work concerns any aspect of environmental justice, from food sovereignty to ocean plastics to industrial cleanup to Indigenous rights, we want to see it. In fact, we look forward most eagerly to perspectives none of us has thought of. Please help us learn and understand.
The editors for the issue will be C.G. Aubrey, Priya Chand, and Catherine Rockwood, with help and support from the rest of the wonderful and brilliant Reckoning staff.
Insight
I sat in on an "ask the editors" with the founder of this magazine. I was very impressed with his passion and vision. It takes a while to get your R, but everyone I know had received helpful, kind feedback. (Unless you really miss the mark. I got a couple of terse responses telling me my story was not right for the market when I first starting subbing here.) MOST IMPORTANT NOTE-- as always research the market before sending. Part of the reason I make these monthly lists.
Literary Science Fiction & Fantasy
orion's belt
Details
OPEN March 1st
Editor: Joshua Fagan
Probably closes Sept 1
8c a word
Word range: max 1200
Simultaneous submissions? Yes
Reprints? No
Description
Orion’s Belt is a literary speculative-fiction online magazine. We specialize in the strange and poignant and awe-inspiring, stories that have a cosmic scale and intimate personal stakes. Currently, we publish fiction only, one story per month. All stories must be 1200 words or less.
Speculative fiction for us encompasses a wide range of fiction that includes non-realist elements. While we focus on science-fiction and fantasy, we’re open to slipstream, horror, magic realism, myth retellings, surrealism, superhero stories, and all other fantastical genres and subgenres.
The “literary” qualifier simply means we like stories focusing on internal and interpersonal conflicts. Don’t give us people saving the world unless you can make us care about the people doing the saving. It also means we want stories that are sharply, intelligently written. We highly prize the craft of writing. This doesn’t mean you have to be Faulkner or Shakespeare, and it certainly doesn’t mean we want stories peppered with purple prose and thesaurus-words. It does mean that we care as much about form as we do about content. How a story is told is as important to us as what it is about.
Speculative fiction gives us the opportunity to imagine other worlds, but we can also use it to help us better understand our own little blue marble floating through the depths of space.
We follow in the tradition of science-fiction pioneer Darko Suvin and his concept of “cognitive estrangement,” in which the strangeness of different worlds provides readers with a lens through which to observe the strangeness in our own worlds. This is more than mere allegory. It’s an awakening to a higher level of awareness. In our view, the best speculative fiction does more than offer escapism. It facilitates a better understanding of the self and the other.
Submission Hints
All stories must contain significant speculative elements. This does not mean all sci-fi stories must have lasers and rockets. It just means a non-speculative story doesn’t become speculative if you include a single line clarifying the story takes place on Mars.
My Insight
I've had 21 rejections from this market. But two of my stories got close. They were the more unusual and artsy of my pieces.
Science Fiction
analog science fiction & fact
Details
Editor: Trevor Quachi
Ongoing
Pay: 8-10 cents per word
Word range: up to 20,000
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? No
Description
This is another founding magazine and big player in the science fiction world owned by Dell Magazines. Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine was originally published as Astounding Stories of Science Fiction when it launched in 1930. Analog was where Anne McCaffrey’s dragons first took flight! There were three issues from 1967 and 1968 which have the first three novellas in McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series. Frank Herbert’s sprawling epic Dune also originally appeared in Analog. After being serialized in the magazine, Dune was rejected 23 times before it was eventually picked up by Chilton Books. Dune has been called the best-selling science fiction novel of all time.
Submission Hints
Editor Trevor Quachri says: “Analog/Astounding is often considered the magazine where science fiction grew up. When Editor John W. Campbell took over in 1938, he brought to Astounding an unprecedented insistence on placing equal emphasis on both words of "science fiction." No longer satisfied with gadgetry and action per se, Campbell demanded that his writers try to think out how science and technology might really develop in the future – and, most importantly, how those changes would affect the lives of human beings. The new sophistication soon made Astounding the undisputed leader in the field, and Campbell began to think the old title was too "sensational" to reflect what the magazine was actually doing. He chose "Analog" in part because he thought of each story as an "analog simulation" of a possible future, and in part because of the close analogy he saw between the imagined science in the stories he was publishing and the real science being done in laboratories around the world. Real science and technology have always been important in Analog, not only as the foundation of its fiction, but as the subject of articles about real research with big implications for the future. One story published during World War II described an atomic bomb so accurately – before Hiroshima – that FBI agents visited John Campbell to find out where the leak was. (There was no leak – just attentive, forward-thinking writers!)”
Sample Rejection
This is one of those big, career defining markets. Everyone I know who has sold here, writes HARD sci-fi. I met a really lovely lady at the LTUE conference and she has sold quite a few pieces here. She's a science teacher.
You need this in paperback. My favorite resource. NEWLY UPDATED FOR 2024!
New markets. Hints for success. This book can help you find a home for your story in the easiest, most organized way.
All Genres
ASTROLABE
Details
Editor: Joel Hans
OPEN Mar 20- April 20
Pay: $50
Word range: 3,000 max
Simultaneous submissions? yes
Reprints? No
Description
At Astrolabe, we’re looking for work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection.
Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another.
And then, once we find one other, the myths we make.
We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky.
We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.
Submission Hints
The Mission Statement
We’re envisioning a Universe that’s expansive and dynamic, inclusive and lush, a perpetual explosion that defies temporal systems of organization or measurement. Instead of publishing sequential issues or a stream of work that relegates what came before to the background, we’re interested in connecting and recombining the work we publish and the artists who make it on an ongoing basis. Letting the shape of their creations, however seeming-distant in genre or style or intent, tell larger stories together.
We welcome you to stumble your way through the Universe in search of unexpected connection. And we hope that when you find something you love, you feel drawn to explore the asterism it belongs to, the other stars in its vicinity, the potential meanings of colors and shapes. We hope you’ll look into the voids in this ever-changing Universe and dream up what might, someday, call that place a home..
Insight
No idea about this market. Let's stumble together.
Fantasy
baen fantasy award
Details
Judged by Baen Editorial Staff
Closes April 30
Pay: 8c a word, $500 free books
Word range: 8,000 max
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? No
must be RTF format & ANON -finalist announced in July
Description
Write and submit a short story of no more than 8,000 words. It must be a work of fantasy, though all fantasy genres are open, e.g. epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, contemporary fantasy, etc.
No entry fee. But only one submission per person...we suggest your best one!
No reprints (i.e. the story must be unpublished).
All entries must be original unpublished works in English. Plagiarism, poetry, song lyrics, settings and/or characters from published gaming worlds or another author’s works of fiction will not be considered.
Submission Hints
What We Want to See
Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their weapons—and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under siege, urban fantasy, damsels in distress, or damsels who inflict distress.
What We Don’t Want to See
Political drama with no action, angst-ridden teens pining over vampire lovers, religious allegory, novel segments, your gaming adventure transcript, anything set in any universe not your own, "it was all a dream" endings, or screenplays.
Insight
The Baen Book people were at LTUE and Superstars, the two most amazing conferences that I attended this February. Really impressed with this press.
Speculative Fiction
translunar TravelLers lounge
Details
Editors: Aimee Ogden & Bennet North
Open Mar 22 - April 15
Pay: 3 cents per word
Word range: up to 5,000
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? No
Description
Who doesn’t want to submit to a venue that’s looking for fun? Just the name alone of this magazine is absolutely brilliant. Translunar Travelers Lounge is published twice a year and asks for stories that explore the fun side of fantasy and science fiction.
From the website:
“Put down your bags, take a seat, and relax with our fine selection of short fiction. Broadly defined, the type of fiction we are looking for is “fun”. Yes, that descriptor is highly subjective, and ultimately it comes down to the personal preferences of the editors. However, here are a few road signs to get you started on the path into our hearts."
Submission Hints
A fun story, at its core, is one that works on the premise that things aren’t all bad; that ultimately, good wins out.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that your story has to be silly or lighthearted (though it certainly can be). Joy can be made all the more powerful when juxtaposed against tragedy. In the end, though, there should be hope, and we want stories that are truly fun for as many different kinds of people as possible.
Swashbuckling adventure, deadly intrigue, and gleeful romance are some of the most obvious examples of what we’re looking for,
but we won’t say no to more subtle or complicated topics, as long as they fit under the wider “fun” umbrella.”
Insights
None. But I have 10 rejections. I've sent them my cute little story about ABACUS, a droid just looking for a friend. Doesn't that sound fun?
Spec
third flatiron
Details
Editor: Juliana Rew
Theme: Offshoots: Humanity Twigged
Open April 1 -21
Pay: 10c per word
Word range: 3000 max
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? Query
Description
Third Flatiron Publishing is based in Boulder, Colorado, and Ayr, Scotland. We are looking for submissions to our irregularly produced themed anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We want tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. Light horror is acceptable, provided it fits the theme.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Iain Banks, Alastair Gray, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today
Submission Hints
The dictionary defines “twig” as a shoot branching off a tree, the result or descendant of something, or a style of fashion. How will humanity cultivate the strongest branches from among myriad potential futures? Please give us your science fictional and fantasy speculations.
Possible subjects might include: bioengineering, space exploration, future societies, magical futurism, and extrapolation of trends (think Asimov’s Foundation or Loki’s Sacred Timeline). Stories about effects of AI and virtual reality are fine, but they must be written by people. Flash humor is welcome.
My Insights
I've sold two stories to this market and absolutely love them. They've also given homes to the tales of many of my friends. Check out my chat with Juli
Literary
VESper II
Details
Editor: Alvaro
Theme: Animal Dreams
Open till May 27
Pay: 40 Euros
Word range: max 1500 words
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? ?
Description
"The sweetly energetic elements, the animals cruelty deifies: moonfish of the ocean depths, iridiscent toads of the empty bushes, birds cooed with screams (The Magnetic Fields, André Breton & Philippe Soupault)".
What do beasts dream with? How do they appear in your dreams? Vesper is a series of anthological literary zines devoted to different aspects of the night. Vesper II: Animal Dreams will spread wild sleep dust over our oneiria. Show us the hypnagogia of tropical fish, avian REM fantasias, our own surrealist slumbers of colourful creatures.
Submission Hints
Please do not include any biographical or professional information. Emails or submissions containing this information will be automatically rejected.
We aim to set the reader’s time ablaze with lyrical texts, incursions into unexplored territories, brief flames of wonder. All our publications are unique, limited editions.
My Insights
Never head of sadwrn press before. But I already got my rejection! Here it is: Dear Angelique, Thank you very much for your submission. Unfortunately, it is not what we need for our project. Kind regards, Álvaro
rodeo
Cowboy up
Details
Editor: Carol Hightshoe
Open till March 1- July 31
Pay: $20
Word range: 2500-7500
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? Query
Description
Stories can be in any genre as long as the sport of Rodeo is a key part of the story.
Stories must revolve around the sport, the riders or the animal athletes involved in Rodeo and while being realistic to the sport must also portray it in a favorable light. We do hope to receive stories that cover all of the events in Rodeo: Bareback Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding, Bull Riding, Tie-Down Roping, Steer Wresting, Team Roping, Steer Roping, Barrel Racing and Ladies Breakaway Roping. Stories can also feature Bull Fighters, Barrel Men, Pick Up Men, the medical teams (human and veterinarian) – or anyone involved in the sport.
Submission Hints
Break the story-writing rules if you want. If you use a tried-and-true plotline, twist it in an original and interesting way. Original stories are preferred.
No fan fiction, no erotica
My Insights
I sent in a chapter from my current, WIP, A cowboy romance story. And it's moved on to the next round! Yippie-Kay-Yay.
Speculative Fiction
apparition lit
Details
Managing Editor: Tacoma Tomilson
Flash Fiction Prompt
OPEN April 1 -14
Pay: 5 cents per word
Word range: under 1,000
Simultaneous submissions? No
Reprints? No
Description
Every month Apparition Lit holds a flash fiction contest and buys a story based on their prompt.
This year, flash is a celebration of all the recipes and meals that shape your worlds, your communities, and your lives. We want rich, unique flavors, vivid stories, and adventurous tastes.
April is the Many Roles of Rice.
Submission Hints
Send us stories with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. We love proactive characters and settings that feel lived in and real enough to touch. Stories with style, stories with emotion, stories with character.
NO idea what anyone should write about rice.
Anything Good
story unlikely
Details
Editor Danny Hanker
No restrictions on genre
Closes to submissions: In September
Pay:8c a word. $200 max for non-members $400 for members
Word range: 10,000 max, 15,000 for members
Simultaneous submissions? yes
Reprints? yes, 1c a word
Description
Good stories don’t just come in all shapes and sizes, but in all genres, too (fiction and nonfiction). Although some genres naturally lend themselves to certain feelings, by no means do we expect authors to follow preordained paths. We like stories that cross genres, experiment, and push the boundaries of literature while maintaining the utmost quality in literary technique and storytelling, which is why we're open to just about anything.
Submission Hints
WHAT WE'RE NOT LOOKING FOR: Excessive anything. Think PG-13, R if necessary. We're not attempting to salt the earth with more cultural dogma couched as mediocre fiction, or writers who are jockeying for the title of Most Woke. There’s enough of that out there already. You want to impress us? Write a good story. You want to get published? Write a great one.
My Insights
Danny Hanker reached out to me and asked if I could share this info with you folks! The stories he publishes are NEVER boring. ** One note, in my experience you sometimes DON'T receive rejection letters.
Details
Editor: Wendy Lesser
Closes April 15
Pay: $400
range: max 4000
Simultaneous submissions? NO
Reprints? No
Description
"The Threepenny Review is as lively and original a literary magazine as exists in this country. Mercifully compact, uncompromisingly elegant, animated by the curiosity of its editor, it mixes the legendary and eminent with the unknown, which the eminent were when Wendy Lesser first published them. Not an issue goes by without some unexpected marvel." —Louise Glück
Submission Hints
--All online submissions must consist of a single document in Word format (.doc or .docx). If you are submitting prose, the document should consist of a single article or a single story. If you are submitting poetry, please group your poems into one document containing no more than five poems, because the online system will not accept more than a single document from each person. Please include your name and address somewhere on the document as well as in our submission form.
-- We do not print material that has previously been published elsewhere, and we emphatically do not consider simultaneous submissions. We do our best to offer a quick turnaround time, so please allow us the privilege of sole consideration during that relatively brief period; writers who do not honor this request will not be published in the magazine.
--Response time for submissions can range from two days to two months. Please do not submit more than a single story or article, or more than five poems, until you have heard back from us about your previous submission. If you have not heard from us within a couple of months, you should assume that either your communication or ours has gone astray.
6. We strongly recommend that you stay within our length limits. As a rule, critical articles should be about 1200 to 2500 words, Table Talk items 1000 words or less, stories and memoirs 4000 words or less, and poetry 100 lines or less. (Exceptions are occasionally possible, but longer pieces will have a much harder time getting accepted.) We prefer to read prose submissions that are double-spaced; poetry can be single-spaced or double-spaced.
My Insights
I've found they don't always send rejections... I've been sending them stories fairly regularly regardless.
Science Fiction
escape pod
Details
Escape Artist Podcasts
Open for submissions:Sept 15-May 31
Pay:8c a word
Word range: 1500-7500 sweet spot 2000-4000
Simultaneous submissions? NO
Reprints? yes
ANON submissions.
Description
Escape Pod is a science fiction market. We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (superheroes! steampunk! space opera! time travel!) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things impact individuals and society.
Escape Pod leans in the direction of escapism, hopepunk and optimism rather than grimdark and gloom. We love to see funny stories, which can include dark humor that doesn’t punch down, and satire that isn’t painfully bleak. Remember that the failure mode of irony is sincerity, so if you’re mocking something, be sure you’re hitting the right target.
Submission Hints
We’re not interested in stories that contain sexual assault, rape, child abuse, animal cruelty, gore, or horror. We also do not want to see stories that treat the hardships of marginalized people or groups as thought experiments. While we may have published stories with that type of content in the past, they are not currently a good fit for Escape Pod. Our primary audience is adult listeners and readers. Strong language and sexual situations are fine, but we are not an erotica market.
My Insights
22 Rejections. Many personals. Here is my latest. "This story was well-written and had some very interesting ideas, but we wanted a deeper understanding of the setting and worldbuilding."
Horror
Creepy Podcast
Details
OPEN NOW
**Looking for 1st person narratives
Producer: Steve Blizin
Creator/Narrator Jon Grilz
Pay: $2 per 100 words for patreon stories (typically stories at are 3000 words or less)
$100 flat rate for stories selected for Sunday production.
Word range: 1,000-7,000
Simultaneous submissions: Yes
Reprints No
Description
Jon Grilz is a writer and podcast living in Minnesota. His love of horror and creepypastas led to a simple question, "Where are all the creepypasta podcasts?" Having started his horror podcasting with Small Town Horror, delving into the world of some of the best scary stories felt like a natural transition.
Submission Hints
WHAT WE WANT…
SINGLE NARRATOR STORIES Obviously we have a large cast, but for production sake, single narrator stories work the best (a story where only one person is speaking). We understand that when telling stories, we all tend to quote what someone else said, and that’s fine, but it has a very distinct tone. Multiple speaking roles will always be considered, but single narrator stories tend to get preferential treatment.
WHAT SCARES YOU We hear it plenty, “that wasn’t scary.” Well, then scare us. Tell us something new. Something dark and horrible. Something that we can’t say no to. The things that scare the writers tend to be the things that bleed through into the writing and make for the most compelling stories.
DIVERSITY We celebrate diversity at the Creepy podcast. BIPOC, LGBTQIA, anyone and everyone is welcome here. Just leave your hate at the door. If you have a story that is specifically for a black or female voice actor, please tell us. If your story really grabs us and there is an ethnicity not currently represented on the show, we will find someone to read the story to do it justice.
SCARE US We’ve read a lot of stories, and been a bit desensitized. Feel free to push the boundaries of gore and horror, but remember this is audio. Think about the listener when you are writing it.
Sample Rejection
Creepy bought my story "A Deadful Friday the 13th" Listen to it and get some hints from an interview with Jon himself. His story is amazing...