Monday, August 14, 2017

August, 2017 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

August, 2017
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes

At Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)


Mother of Invention (anthology, Twelfth Planet Press)
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: 500–5000 words
Deadline: August 31, 2017
Reprints?: No
Response: November 30, 2017
Description: diverse, challenging stories about gender as it relates to the creation of artificial intelligence and robotics. We want to cover a variety of AI tropes, from the virtuous to the dangerous, from the purely computerised to the freshly built physical body. We’re looking for a diverse range of authors, story settings, time periods, cultural backgrounds and protagonists. Magic, history, fantasy, steampunk, mythology, etc. are all options for you to play with.


Fantastic Trains: An anthology of Phantasmagorical Engines and Rail Riders (EDGE/ Tesseract)
Payment: $50 for stories up to 1,500 words, rising to a maximum of $150 for stories up to 5,000 words (depending on word length, may be less than 5 cents/ word)
Story Length: 5,000 words (shorter length preferred)
Deadline: September 30, 2017
Reprints?: No
Response: 15 days
Description: Stories of trains—fantasy, steampunk, science fiction, horror, slipstream, urban fantasy, apocalyptic, set in any time, any place,—we’ll buy a ticket on all of them. We’d like to see what you can do with a train. A good part of your story should take place on a train—or most, if you can do it. We don’t care what era, what planet, or how the train might look differently there (it might even be alive!) or even if the train is moving. We just want that train—what you do with it is your magic.


Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine
Payment: 712 cents a word.
Story Length: up to 25,000 words
Deadline: None listed. Closes intermittently
Reprints?: No
Response: Two months
Description: Stories that appeal to science fiction and fantasy readers (the SF element may be slight, but it should be present); character-oriented stories. Humor very welcome. (** now allows online submissions)


Shimmer Magazine
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: To 7,500 words (prefer 4,000)
Deadline: Intermittent. Just reopened, usually for only 1-2 months at a time.
Reprints?: No
Response: One month
Description: Mostly SPEC Fict, fantasy, some horror; Unusual and beautifully-written speculative fiction stories with full plots and strong characters. We’re most drawn to contemporary fantasy, and seek out stories with a strong emotional core. We like unusual stories with a fluid and distinctive voice, with specific and original images. Send us your odd, unclassifiable stories.


Spider Magazine (for children, ages 6–9)
https://cricketmag.submittable.com/submit/17817/spider-magazine-for-ages-6-9
Payment: 25 cents a word
Story Length: 300 to 1,000 words (poetry up to 20 lines) (non-fiction 300–800 words)
Deadline: See below Issue themes; Open intermittently (and currently) for other non-themed
Reprints?: No
Response: 3–6 months

Issue theme: Spaceships and Superheroes
Deadline: August 31, 2017
Description: Fiction, poetry, activities, crafts, and recipes for the theme Spaceships and Superheroes. We’re interested in science-fiction and superhero stories about protagonists that save the day with help from super suits, super powers, or self-made gadgets. We’re especially interested in future technology like flying cars, interplanetary travel, holograms, robots, and teleporters. Take us on a time traveling mission or to the heart of a city that could use some saving. Especially welcome: twists on familiar comic book or sci-fi tropes, and female, people of color, and kid protagonists

Issue theme: Children’s Activities
Deadline: September 30, 2017
Description: Children’s activities, including clearly worded, playful step-by-step directions for crafts, activities, games, science experiments, and recipes for children ages 3 to 9. The strongest activities will engage a child’s imagination and creativity, can be done at home, and require little adult supervision. We also seek word games, tongue twisters, jokes, riddles, picture-based crossword puzzles, and foreign language activities.


Grievous Angel (online fiction)
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: Flash Fiction and Poetry to 700 words
Deadline: Continually open
Reprints?: No
Response: 28 days
Description: Any speculative fiction sub-genres, including Urban Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Horror, Mythos, Steampunk and Magical Realism, as well Humour/Satire riffs on these genre.


***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (ed. Stephen Jones)
Payment: advance of around $15-20 per 1,000 words against a pro-rata share of any royalties or further sales
Story Length: up to 10,000 words
Deadline: September 1, 2017
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Smart, previously unpublished horror stories set around Halloween/ Samhain/ Day of the Dead.


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