HWA L.A.: For August, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)
Little Red Flags: Stories
of Cults, Cons, and Control
https://darkmattermagazine.shop/pages/little-red-flags-submission-guidelines
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–4,000 words
(hard range)
Deadline: Open between August
1–August 16, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: 45–60 days from date of
submission
Description: Fiction stories of
fanaticism, fundamentalism, extremism, and control. We want to read about cons
people pull off that make our jaws drop. The horrors hiding just beyond the
edges of our better judgment.
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines/
Payment: 5-8 cents a word
Story Length: 2,500–8,000
words soft range (additionally, ‘Minute Mysteries’ of as little as 250 words)
Deadline: Ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: Three months
Description: (No Horror, but Mystery and Crime) Every kind of mystery
short story: the psychological suspense tale, the deductive puzzle, the private
eye case—the gamut of crime and detection from the realistic (including the
policeman's lot and stories of police procedure) to the more imaginative
(including “locked rooms” and “impossible crimes”). We need hard-boiled stories
as well as “cozies.”
Calliope Interactive
https://calliopeinteractive.com/open-call
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 100–1,000 (flash) or
2,000–4,000 words (short story)
Deadline: ongoing/intermittent (?)
Reprints?: No
Response: estimated within 2 months
Description: Unthemed genre fiction;
anything to do with high fantasy, operatic sci-fi, heart-stopping action,
that’s our jam.
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/this-way-lies-madness-submissions-call-0
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–4,000 words
(soft range)
Deadline: October 13, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: In the tradition of Poe’s “A
Tell-tale Heart” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, This Way Lies Madness
(publishing September 2025) will bring together a twisted tangle of dark
stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and
persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror. In these pages, readers
should expect to find madness in all its forms, without the tired stigmatizing
tropes.
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: Continually 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).
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#submit
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to $200 cap; no longer
minimum “pro” pay after 4,000 words)
Story Length: up to 10,000 words
Deadline: September 29, 2024
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1 cent/ word
up to $75)
Response: 90 days
Description: Good stories that
elicit emotion. Any genre. NOTE: Submissions require (free) subscription to
monthly e-mag publication.
***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of
the Month”
https://www.dirtymagickmagazine.com/submissions.html
Payment: $50 flat
Story Length: 2,000–12,500 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: Not stated by the
publisher, but The Grinder indicates less than 15 days.
Description: Original tales of
fantasy, horror, sword & sorcery, Gothic, Magic, etc.; good balance between
plot and character; tell a strong story with believable protagonists, strong
setting, and fresh ideas.
https://www.riverfolkbooks.com/rabid-otter-horror
Payment: $100 flat
Story Length: 6,000–10,000 words
Deadline: September 30, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: unknown
Description: Technology-based horror
short stories (“Man-made horrors beyond our comprehension!”)
