New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
Deep Anthology (Death's
Head Press)
https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market/Index/19663
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 2,500–10,000 words
Deadline: July 31, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original horror short
stories regarding the unexplored depths of our planet and the universe.
SmokeLong
Quarterly
https://smokelong.submittable.com/submit/316909/dark-fantasy-and-psychological-thriller-a-smokelong-themed-call-for-submission
Payment: $300 flat
Story Length: up to 1,000 words
Deadline: August 14, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Two weeks
Description: Prose that is
troubling, that explores our darkest fears. We're not quite sure we're ready
for this to be honest, but that's part of the appeal. We are looking for
literary prose. We do not want to weather gratuitous violence or cruelty, but
we do--or at least we think we do--want to feel fright, unease, a racing heart.
If you are a writer of stories that do this, this call is for you. Think
Shirley Jackson.
Plott Hound Magazine
https://plotthoundmag.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
(preferred 3,000–4,000); or flash fiction up to 999 words
Deadline: Open between June 1 and June
15, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown
Description: Stories with
anthropomorphized animals as protagonists; Animal-centric speculative fiction
(fantasy, science fiction, horror). (Also open to poetry and non-fiction.)
Anomaly
https://forms.gle/gyYiefg2A2rffr779
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: flash fiction up to 300
words
Deadline: Open between June 1 and June
7, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Dark and disruptive SF
stories that have strong emotional resonance.
Haven Speculative
https://www.havenspec.com/submit/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Open From: June 1–June 30, 2025
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.
Clarkesworld Magazine
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
Payment: 14 cents per word
Story Length: 1,000–22,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent (usually open)
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown
Description: Science fiction and
fantasy. No horror, but dark SF/F is permitted.
***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of
the Month”
Saturday Mourning
Television (anthology)
https://sliceduppress.com/submissions/
Payment: $35 flat
Story Length: 1,000–4,000 words
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: July 31, 2025
Description: Horror fiction inspired
by early morning kids TV; the educational/bizarre 1960’s & 70’s, the advert-packed
80’s, the radical 90’s, the wayward & wacky 2000’s or anything beyond. Even
web-based entertainment is fair game. And don’t limit yourself to tales
involving kids, what about parents, or performers & hosts, workers behind
the scenes, even animated creations.
Fearmoji: Queer Emoji Horror
https://www.slashichorrorpress.com/submissions
Payment: $25 flat
Story Length: 4,000–7,500 words
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Presumably within three
months
Description: Adult queer body horror
that somehow strongly incorporates the use of emoji…. sentient emojis, cursed
emojis, a secret combination of emojis that unlocks a demon, a serial killer
whose signature is the love heart reaction, disaffected youths whose use of the
shrug emoji comes back to haunt them, a coder with an emoji axe to grind… The
potential here is limitless. Include believable, authentic characters, and
crazy fucking scenarios!
Kozy Krampus: The Cosmic Horror of
the Holiday Sweater
https://www.underlandpress.com/the-cosmic-horror-of-the-holiday-sweater/
Payment: 1 cent a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
(also open to poetry)
Deadline: June 15–June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Cosmic horror inherent
in the holiday season with Kozy Krampus, a collection of stories merry and
monstrous, cozy and cosmic. The gothic nightmares and horrific haunts of our
forebears persist in our fever-fueled dreams. Some monsters are never
vanquished; they merely find new shapes. Slip into the dark shadows behind the
million flickering holiday lights. Stare down the prehistoric fruit log in
which lurks something truly eldritch and batrachian. Hark to the songs sung
after midnight by carolers with extra-long tongues and extra-sharp teeth. This
is the holiday season with the masks ripped off.
