These markets pay up to $50 for fiction, and some pay more – a few also accept other genres, like non-fiction and poetry. Also, look at this list for fiction markets paying $100 to $3,500, and this one for writing contests that are free to enter, with prizes up to $38,000. Deadlines are approaching quickly. – S. Kalekar
Copper Nickel
They
publish poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translation folios. Contributors have
received numerous honors for their work. For
writers outside the US, payments are subject to a 30% tax which is withheld at
the front end. Their submission system can only accept 1,800 submissions per
month during a reading period.
Deadline: 15 December 2019
Length: No length guidelines for fiction and non-fiction; 4-6 poems
Pay: $30/page (per-page pay will vary slightly each year based on funding);
$500 each in Editors’ Prizes for a poetry and a prose entry in each issue
Details here and here.
Frozen Wavelets
This is a new speculative flash fiction and poetry e-zine which
pays pro rates. They encourage
writers to push boundaries, in format and topics. Torture
porn, vampires, gore and splatter for the sake of it, romance, 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. Proposals for speculative art are welcome.
Deadline: 15 December 2019
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.
Autonomous Press: Spoon Knife 5
– Liminal
This is a fiction, poetry, and
memoir anthology. The guidelines say, “A liminality is a
threshold, the place between here and there which is, in itself, both and
neither. From it we get the word “subliminal” meaning, literally, “below the
threshold of sensation.” A liminal space is a transitional zone. It is at the
heart of a ritual or rite of passage, when one is no longer the thing they
started as, but has yet to become the thing they will be. To stand at a liminal
point is to occupy both sides of a boundary at once. … We are looking for fiction, poetry, and memoir
that explores thresholds and liminalities of all kinds… The work must further
intersect with themes of neurodivergence, queerness, and/or the intersections
of neurodivergence and queerness.” Some examples are racial or cultural
liminality, the experience of occupying liminal space as an individual,
explorations into the subconscious or other borderland spaces, or ghosts,
entities out of phase with the material world, virtual entities, voices, or
other characters that exist in threshold or liminal/subliminal spaces.
Deadline: 31 December
2019
Length: Up to 10,000 words for prose; up to five poems
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Red
Room Press: Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Vol. 5
This is a horror fiction reprint anthology. The
collection aims “to give recognition to the extreme, harder side of horror, stories that
break boundaries and trash taboos.” The story should
originally have been published, or scheduled for publication, in a 2019 anthology,
single author collection, magazine, or online magazine. Self-published
anthologies/collections are also accepted.
Deadline: 31
December 2019
Length: Up to 6,000 words (longer works accepted, but pay capped at $60)
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Again, Hazardous Imaginings: More Politically
Incorrect Science Fiction
The editor wants short stories that “due to
their content, viewpoint, and/or subject matter, have little or no chance of
being published in the commercial market. … What are TODAY’S taboos? What
kinds of science fiction stories are verboten in today’s commercial publishing
market? What just won’t fly, whether due to shared social beliefs and aversions
common to editors, assumptions that editors make about their readerships’
beliefs and aversions, or the commercial pressures of the corporate publishing
world? How can these modern-day taboos be illuminated and explored using the
unique extrapolative tools of science fiction?” And “the more outrageous or
disturbing the material, the more incisively it needs to be explored using the
cognitive tools of science fiction.”
Deadline: 31 December 2019
Length: Up to 7,000 words (can be a bit flexible on length if the story is
truly outstanding)
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here.
Parsec
Ink: Triangulation – Extinction
This is a speculative fiction anthology, and they’re now in their 16th
year. Their guidelines say, “Every day, another species creeps
closer to extinction, often brought on by things out of their control. The
world changes every time an insect, a rhino, a macaw ceases to exist. These
changes are tangible. Tell us about them. Bring us stories of imposing threats,
extraordinary creatures brought low, stories of those warriors who fight tooth
and nail for their survival. What does extinction mean to you? We like our
stories to be profound, relatable, poignant yet familiar. Tell a tale for the
ages. Also, “We don’t want to read a hundred stories about dinosaurs and
asteroids; we want gritty commentaries and hopeful ruminations.” While they
love creative interpretations of the theme, the stories do need to be a solid
fit. They like SF, fantasy, and horror, and stories that are an intelligent
blend of all three. Stories that aren’t speculative will not be considered.
Deadline: 29 February 2020
Length: Up to 5,000 words (the sweet spot is 3,000)
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here.
87 Bedford
They publish fiction (short, flash, micro, serial), poetry, spoken-word, art, photography, other forms of creative media, and book reviews. They welcome both traditional and experimental forms of literary fiction, as well as genre fiction provided they feel that the work shows some “literary” aesthetic. They accept serial works, especially for fantasy, science fiction or other genre fiction, and will publish each installment weekly or in each new issue. They also accept reprints.
Deadline: Open now
Length: 500-8,000 words for short stories; up to two poems
Pay: $0.01/word for short stories, installments of serial fiction, or book review; $10 for everything else, such as reprints, flash fiction, micro fiction, poetry, art and photography, or other creative works
Details here.
Don’t Flinch
They want scripts for their horror anthology podcast. The guidelines say, “The style we are going for is theater play meets podcast. The script should be between 20 and 30 minutes in length. We are not looking for first-person narration styles, although we may certainly entertain them if they are extra special.
If
it has a twist ending, all the better.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: 20-30 minutes’ length
Pay: $100
Details here.
James Gunn’s Ad Astra
This is a science fiction magazine, and they also publish
poetry and scholarly articles. The guidelines say, “James
Gunn defines science fiction as “the literature of change” and states that it
“incorporates a belief that the most important aspect of existence is a search
for humanity’s origins, its purpose, and its ultimate fate.” A tall order but a
worthy goal.
Our editorial vision for James Gunn’s Ad Astra calls for raising our eyes above
the horizon and not limiting the scope of speculative fiction. It is in this
spirit that we welcome great stories that range from the near-reality to the
far reaches of the what-if.” They are reading stories for Issue 8.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Most interested in stories of 2,500-5,000 words, will consider up to
7,500 words; flash stories are a hard sell
Pay: $50 for fiction, $20 per poem
Details here.
Write Ahead/The Future Looms
They publish cyperpunk stories and art. They value fiction that is experimental with regard to narrative techniques, yet retains strong character and plot elements. They welcome queries for art submissions.
Deadline: Open now
Length: 750-2,500 words; also serialize works, with each installment of that length
Pay: £0.02/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.
