October, 2023 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For October, 2023

New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes

At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

The Map of Lost Places (Apex Book Co.)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/blogs/frontpage/anthology-submissions-call-the-map-of-lost-places
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: Open between December 1 and December 31, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: One month
Description: Stories about places where weird things happen. Places that have strange histories, their own traditions and customs, their own dangers. These can be based off real folk tales or old wives tales.


Planet Scumm
https://www.planetscumm.space/submit
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: November 5, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Previously unpublished short fiction that doesn’t lean heavily on genre tropes. Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain. Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream, glitterlit, analogpunk.


Assemble Artifacts Magazine (Assemble Media)
https://www.assemblemedia.com/artifacts
Payment: 8–10 cents a word
Story Length: “at least” 5,000 words (soft range)
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: Responses only for acceptance. Assume rejection if no response after 90 days.
Description: Stories of wonder and suspense that also reflect contemporary issues and incite meaningful conversation. (*NOTE: Submitters, double-check the rights that are being sold with work).


The Deadlands
https://thedeadlands.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word (1 cent for reprints)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (preferably 3,000–4,000 words)
Deadline: November 30, 2023
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Two weeks
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.


Apparition Lit (upcoming)—Theme of BLIGHT
https://apparitionlit.com/submissions/
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–5,000 words
Deadline: Open between November 15–November 30, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close
Description: Quarterly Theme = “Blight”. Any speculative fiction story related to this concept/ theme.


Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores
https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents/ word original; 2 cents/ word reprint (range for non-fiction)
Story Length: 1,000–40,000 words (focus on shorter form)
Deadline: Opens the 1^st and 2^nd day only of each month.
Reprints?: Yes
Response: abt. 2 months
Description: Well written original stories in science fiction, fantasy, myth, fairy tales, and eldritch; in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. We care about character, plot, ideas, and storytelling ability. We accept both serious and humorous work (no horror). Also interested in non-fiction.



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

Three-Lobed Burning Eye
https://www.3lobedmag.com/submissions.html
Payment: $100 flat
Story Length: 1,000–7,500 words
Deadline: Ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response Time: within 3 months
Description: Non-themed, original speculative fiction: horror, fantasy, and science fiction.


Die by the Sword! (DMR Books)
https://dmrbooks.com/submissions
Payment: 1 cent a word
Story Length: 4,000–8,000 words
Deadline: Open between November 1–November 30, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Unthemed, original sword-and-sorcery short stories (i.e. generally combining swashbuckling adventure with supernatural elements).