July, 2023 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For July, 2023
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Monstrous Magazine (ed. James Aquilone)
https://monstrousbooks.com/submissions
Payment: 6 cents a word ($125 flat per comic)
Story Length: 1,000–2,000 words
Deadline: July 27, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Comics, prose fiction, and articles; we do like monsters, pulp, and classic horror films. Focus should be on fast-paced entertaining stories.


Diabolical Plots ezine (ed. David Steffen)
https://www.diabolicalplots.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: 3,500 or less
Deadline: Open between July 17– July 31, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response Time: One month after end of submission window
Description: Speculative fiction–science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Everything should have a speculative element–that includes horror. Feel free to mix in other genres at will–a fantasy mystery or a science fiction romance.


FANTASY Flash-Fiction for LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE (ed. by John Joseph Adams)
https://adamant.moksha.io/publication/lightspeed
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,500 words
Deadline: July 1–July 7, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: Generally two weeks or less.
Description: All types of fantasy are welcome—high fantasy, contemporary urban tales, surrealism, magical realism, science fantasy, folktales and anything and everything in between. Fantasy is entertainment for the intelligent genre reader — send us stories of the fantastic that make us think, and tell us what it is to be human while amazing us with your mastery of language and story elements. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.


Solarpunk Magazine
https://solarpunkmagazine.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 500–7,500 words
Deadline: Open between January 1–January 14, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Stories that strive for a utopian ideal, that are set in futures where communities are optimistically struggling to solve or adapt to climate change, to create or maintain a world in which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony rather than in conflict, etc. Also open to poetry and non-fiction.


Mysterion (ezine)
http://www.mysteriononline.com/p/submission-guidelines.html
Payment: 8 cents a word (4 cents for reprints)
Story Length: up to 9,000 words
Deadline: Open between July 1–July 31, 2023
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Four months
Description: Christian-themed speculative stories and artwork—science fiction, fantasy, horror—with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology; science fiction and fantasy, good ghost stories, etc.; there's great fiction material hidden in the mysteries of Christian theology—cherubim, leviathan, nephilim, visions, prophecy, and more.


Apparition Lit—Flash Fiction
https://apparitionlit.com/submissions/
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,000 words
Deadline: July 1–July 14, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close
Description: Month of July Theme = REALITY SHOW MADNESS. We’re looking for flash with a heavy addition of the speculative. Stories should be inspired by the genre/show type, but not fan fiction: Speculative stories in the vein of Eurovision/Singing and Talent Competitions.


Asimov’s Science Fiction (magazine)
http://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–20,000 words (generally less than 7,500 words)
Deadline: Intermittently open
Reprints?: No
Response: Five weeks
Description: Character-oriented Science Fiction stories that is serious, thoughtful, yet accessible (occasional humor), including borderline fantasy, slipstream, and surreal fiction (and some poetry).


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

Interzone Magazine (TTA Press)
https://interzone.press/submissions/
Payment: 1.5 euros a word
Story Length: 2,000–17,500 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: usually within 5 weeks
Description: Fantastika fiction: non-themed, general audience, science fiction, fantasy, and horror.


Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet (Small Beers Press)
https://smallbeerpress.com/about/submission-guidelines/
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Deadline: ongoing/ intermittent
Reprints?: No
Response: within 6 months
Description: NOTE: PAPER SUBMISSIONS ONLY (no email): Non-themed literary speculative fiction (no gore, sword and sorcery, or erotica), as well as non-fiction, poetry, and black and white art.