April, 2021 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

 HWA L.A.: April, 2021
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Blood Knife e-Magazine
https://bloodknife.com/write-for-blood-knife/
Payment: 9 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,200 words
Deadline: Intermittent. Currently open, but unknown when it will close.
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Imagined futures, alternate histories, blood, cyborgs, and radical left politics. Besides fiction, also open to nonfiction articles and illustrations (different pay rates).


The Deadlands
https://thedeadlands.com/guidelines/#fiction
Payment: 10 cents a word (1 cent for reprints)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (preferably 3,000–4,000 words)
Deadline: ongoing or intermittent (currently open)
Reprints?: Yes
Response: unknown
Description: Speculative fiction stories about death, or what death may involve. EX: A ghost in a shadowed wood. An afterlife discovered through a rusted door. An abandoned house in the middle of a haunted field. A skeletal figure moving with intent toward something unseen. Death personified; stories from a worldwide perspective, different cultures, different approaches to death.


Unfit Magazine (see also Unreal Magazine)
http://unfitmag.com/submit
Payment: 25 cents a word for the first 1,000 words; 1 cent a word over 1,000
Story Length: under up to 10,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent (currently open)
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1 cent/ word)
Response: 30 days: NOTE: This market ONLY responds to accept. No response within 30 days means rejection.
Description: High quality Speculative Fiction and Science Fiction; Quantum Fiction, Cyberpunk, Alternative Histories and Steampunk.


Unreal Magazine (see also Unfit Magazine)
http://unrealmag.com/submit
Payment: 25 cents a word for the first 1,000 words; 1 cent a word over 1,000
Story Length: under up to 10,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent (currently open)
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1 cent/ word)
Response: 30 days: NOTE: This market ONLY responds to accept. No response within 30 days means rejection.
Description: High quality fantasy (including Magical Realism and Experimental Fiction). Well written, intelligent, and enjoyable to read. Stories with metaphors and emotional ambience and imaginative descriptive writing. Stories that define the rules of magic at this indefinite point in time.


SubTerrain Magazine (print)
http://subterrain.ca/about/35/sub-terrain-writer-s-guidelines
Payment: 10 cents a word (Canadian, translates to about 7.5 cents/ word U.S.)
Story Length: up to 3,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent. Currently (may change) to June 30, 2021
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Themed by issue; literary/ genre fiction: Issue #89 {NEIGHBOURS} explore the world of “neighbours.” Whether we love them or hate them, we all have them. There’s the “Good Neighbour” policy and the unwritten but often spoken of “Bad Neighbour” policy. We welcome essays, fiction, opinion pieces, and poetry that reflects upon this unique designation — whether it be warm and fuzzy, awkward and prickly, or strained — that we call “neighbour.”


Apex Magazine
http://www.apex-magazine.com/submission-guidelines
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 7,500 words
Deadline: Ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: One month
Description: Exceptionally well-written Science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all its sub-genres.


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

FOUND: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories
https://twitter.com/andrewcull/status/1381034413291626497/photo/1
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–4,000 words
Deadline: August 8, 2021
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original, found footage tales. Stories can be written in first person, third person, as a transcript, journal, radio play, poetry, as a script. Think stories that shouldn’t be read. Videos found in flooded basements. Broadcasts heard in your dreams.


The Forge Literary Magazine
https://www.forgelitmag.com/flm/submit
Payment: flat $75
Story Length: Generally 3,000 words or less, but will consider up to 5,000 words. Flash is also highly appreciated (1,000 words or less).
Deadline: Opens from the first of each month until monthly quota is filled.
Reprints?: No
Response: 3 months or less
Description: Prose Fiction—Open to all genres and voices, and stories with any background. Literary excellence is our only criteria. Pieces read anonymously, so please do not put your name anywhere in the file.