February, 2024 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For February, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes

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

Fear of Clowns (ed. by Kenneth W. Cain)
https://kkpublish.com/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–4,000 words
Deadline: April 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: within 60 days
Description: Horror stories with a broad view relating to anything about a fear of clowns.


Haven Speculative
https://www.havenspec.com/submit/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Open From: February 1–February 28, 2024
Reprints?: No (with some exceptions)
Response: within 70 days
Description: Fantasy and science fiction stories, poems, and non-fiction, for a modern audience with a sensibility for social consciousness.


Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Urban Stories
https://houseofgamut.moksha.io/publication/house-of-gamut
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: 3,000–7,500 words
Deadline: March 31, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: The city can be more than a setting—it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped out characters. The City can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike… an anthology that takes place in different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter.


Apparition Lit—Flash Fiction
https://apparitionlit.com/submissions/
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,000 words
Open From: Feb. 1–Feb. 14, 2023
Reprints?: No
Response: by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close
Description: Month of February Theme = Drinks, Teas, Coffees. We’re looking for flash with a heavy addition of the speculative. Stories should have enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth: Speculative stories including ceremonies that are associated with tea in different cultures? Mexican Atole, etc.


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.
NOTE: ALSO Open to Flash Fiction contest, usually between the 7^th through last day of each month. Stories up to 1,000 words based on a theme to be announced on the 7^th day of the month.


Beneath Ceaseless Skies
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: Up to 15,000 words
Deadline: None at present. Closes intermittently
Reprints?: No
Response: Two to seven weeks
Description: “Literary adventure fantasy”: stories with a secondary-world setting and some traditional or classic fantasy feel, but written with a literary approach. We want stories set in what Tolkien called a “secondary world”: some other world that is different from our own primary world in some way. It could be different in terms of zoology (non-human creatures), ecology (climate), or physical laws (the presence of magic). It could be set on Earth but an Earth different from our primary world in terms of time (the historical past) or history (alternate history). It could have a “pre-tech” level of technology, or steampunk technology, or magic as technology, or anything else that’s not advanced or modern technology. However, the setting should contain some element that is in some way fantastical.



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

Roads Less Travelled Magazine (Midnight Street Press)
https://www.midnightstreetpress.com/submission-guidelines
Payment: £40 flat (about $50 US)
Story Length: No limit!
Deadline: March 30, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: “As soon as possible”
Description: Stories that have a mix of two or more of these genres: horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, and slipstream, that explore original themes or traditional themes from an original perspective.


Seize The Press Magazine
https://www.seizethepress.com/submissions/
Payment: British 3 pence a word (abt. 4 cents a word US)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 30 days
Description: Dark speculative fiction and anticapitalist sci-fi, fantasy and horror pop culture analysis. Neon, dragons and gore. Bleak science fiction, dark fantasy and horror (No moralizing, no happy endings).