September, 2024 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For September, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Unréal (AE)
https://aescifi.ca/unreal-call-for-submissions-lappel-des-textes/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–5,000 words
Deadline: November 15, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: by January 31, 2025
Description: Stories and poems in with fantastical or speculative elements set on the island of Montréal. Submissions may be science fiction, fantasy, horror or any adjacent genre. They may be set in the distant past, the distant future, or any time in between. They may feature Montréal as we know it today or an alternate Montréal that has never been. The island or city of Montréal must, however, be an essential element of the story.


TWO SEPARATE ANTHOLOGIES from Flame Tree Publishing
Payment: 8 cents a word (6 cents/ word for reprints)
Story Length: 3,000–4,000 words (soft range)
Deadline: September 22, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: within 4 months of the submission deadline

1. Morgana le Fay: Fiction short stories about the Arthurian character, Morgana le Fay.
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/morgana-le-fay-submissions-0

2. Achilles: Fiction short stories about the Greek mythological character, Achilles.
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/achilles-submissions-call-0


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: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
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.


You, Human, Vol. 2 (Written Backwards)
https://nettirw.com/submissions/
Payment: 10 cents a word (capped at 5,000 words, thus max of $500)
Story Length: 7,500–15,000 words
Deadline: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Within three months
Description: Dark sci-fi and all blended sub-genre (horror, fantasy, etc.) novelettes regarding: What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be real? What does it mean to exist? What does it mean to be human?


Utopia SF Magazine (Flash Fiction issue)
https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/submit
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,000 words for flash fiction issue (normally up to 4,000 words)
Deadline: November 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Up to four months
Description: See site for quarterly themes! December issue is Flash Fiction and Poetry. Mag is also interested in art and non-fiction, all science-fiction related.


Analog Science Fiction and Fact
https://www.analogsf.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
Payment: 8–10 cents a word (9 cents a word for non-fiction)
Story Length: up to 20,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 2–3 months
Description: Science fiction stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse.



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

Solarpunk Conflicts
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o9cXEU-IJLIq6Qpufrxl9UgbstygkycE/view
Payment: 5 cents a word (Canadian; translates to about US 3 cents/word)
Story Length: 2,500–8,500 words (also open to poetry, no longer than 2 pages)
Deadline: November 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: By January 1, 2025
Description: The conflicts related to the hopeful and optimistic nature of Solarpunk; Stories and poetry should explore a solarpunk conflict, either one manufactured entirely for the story, or one based in a real-world point of contention you feel currently divides solarpunks, or that has done so in the past. Conflicts can be as small or as grand as you would like, though the story as a whole should be legibly solarpunk and should not champion a non-solarpunk ethos.


Strange New Moons
https://frenchpresspub.blogspot.com/2024/08/open-call-strange-new-moons.html
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–5,000 words
Deadline: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Werewolf stories! Looking for something wild, strange, and new!