These fiction markets pay $150 for short stories, and a few of them pay considerably more. Some accept other genres too, like non-fiction, poetry, scripts, reviews, activities, and cross-genre work. Also see this list of fiction markets paying $50-360, and this list, paying $100-500 – some deadlines are coming up. — S. Kalekar
Woods Reader
This is a publication for those who love woodland areas: whether a public preserve, forest, tree farm, backyard woodlot or other patch of trees and wildlife. Apart from fiction/fantasy and short poetry, they also buy the following kind of pieces based on a woodland theme: Personal experience, Educational or non-fiction, DIY article using woodland materials (accompanying photographs preferred), Humor blog or cartoon, Destinations, Book reviews (please contact them prior to submitting), and Assigned topics. While they prefer stories to be 500-1,000 words, they will consider any length, and occasionally buy fiction and true stories that are 2,000-5,000 words (see guidelines). They are not currently accepting submissions pertaining to locations outside of the US and Canada.
Deadline: Open now
Length: 500-1,000 for fiction, occasionally 2,000-5,000 words
Pay: $25 for short poetry, $150 for longer articles
Details here.
Cricket Media: Spider Magazine — Enchanted Forest, and others
Spider is a literary magazine for children aged 6-9 years, and they are currently accepting stories, poems, short plays, and activities on the theme of ‘Enchanted Forest’. Their guidelines say, “Show us worlds of magic and wonder, full of unicorns, witches in the woods, mythical beasts, and fairytale castles. Give us a new version of the traditional fairytale cast—what if a princess, prince, knight, or villain did not want to follow the roles assigned to them? Fractured and contemporary fairytales welcome.” They are looking for stories on other themes too: Indigenous Stories and Home for the Holidays. Also see calls for Babybug, Ladybug, and Cricket magazines.
Deadline: 1 April 2019
Length: 300-1,000 words for fiction and plays, up to 20 lines for poetry, 300-800 words for fiction, 1-2 pages for crafts and activities
Pay: $0.25/word for stories and articles, $3/line of poetry, $75 for activities, games, and recipes
Details here.
Hinnom Magazine: Retro Weird Tales Edition
They want stories and poems from women about Weird fiction and Cosmic horror. The retro edition of this magazine will have stories akin to the old Weird Tales magazines of the 1930s, but whereas those had mainly male authors, this magazine will have contributions only by female authors. Horror, science fiction, and fantasy all are welcomed, as long as they fit in the realms of Weird and Cosmic.
Deadline: 15 April 2019
Length: 1,000-6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word for prose, $65 for poems
Details here.
Lethe Press: Hatchet Job
They want horror fiction submissions that involve one of the traditional tropes of campfire tales and slasher films: the axe murderer. Stories need not focus solely on this antagonist, but all stories must somehow involve this threat or concept. They anticipate most of the stories will be reprints, but they also accept 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.
Bennington Review
This literary magazine is published twice a year in print form, in Summer and Winter – they will consider all work for the print magazine, and some work will be additionally featured on their website. They aim to carve out a “distinctive space for innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing and cross-genre work.” They are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless.
Deadline: 15 May 2019
Length: Up to 30 pages of prose; 3-5 poems; 10-20 pages of film (or TV) writing
Pay: $100-200 for prose; $20/poem
Details here.
Grain Magazine
This Canadian literary magazine accepts work from around the world and publishes fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction.
Deadline: 31 May 2019
Length: Up to 3,500 words for prose; up to 6 pages for poetry
Pay: $50/page, up to $250
Details here.
One Story
They accept literary fiction as well as translated stories. They publish one story per issue.
Deadline: 31 May 2018
Length: 3,000-8,000 words
Pay: $500
Details here.
Liguorian Magazine
This is a Christian publication and they publish fiction. They also accept articles and personal essays.
Deadline: Rolling
Length: Up to 2,000 words for fiction, 2,200 words for articles, and 1,000 words for personal essays
Pay: $0.12-0.15/word
Details here.
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
This is a well-regarded mystery magazine. Their guidelines say that they publish every kind of mystery short story: the psychological suspense tale, the deductive puzzle, the private eye case – the gamut of crime and detection from the realistic to the more imaginative (including “locked room” and “impossible crime” stories). They are not interested in explicit sex or violence, nor do they want true detective or crime stories. They also publish poetry.
Deadline: Rolling
Length: 2,500-8,000 words preferred; occasionally publish up to 12,000 words; accept 1-2 short novels every year, up to 20,000 words, though these are from established writers
Pay: $0.05-0.08/word, sometimes higher for established authors
Details here.
CRAFT
They publish literary fiction and flash fiction. They also publish talks, essays, interviews, and book annotations/reviews, but it is unclear whether they pay for these. They also consider reprints.
Deadline: Rolling
Length: Up to 1,000 words for flash fiction; 1,000-6,000 words for short fiction
Pay: $100 for flash, $200 for short fiction
Details here.
