18 Jazzy July Open Submission Calls
Tons of EXCLUSIVE insights right from the editor's mouths!
Common Bonds 2
Spec - Aromantic/platonic relationships - Now till August 15 - 8c a word - 7500 max - yes sim subs - MY INSIGHTS: They ran a successful Kickstarter and had a lofty goal of $11,000 cdn. They make nearly $15,000 which is amazing. I sent in one of my Rosie stories telling the tale of how she found ABACUS.
At the heart of this collection are the bonds that impact our lives from beginning to end: platonic relationships. Whether with family, mentors, friends, colleagues, or found family, these links pepper our lives and their importance is often overlooked. We seek to explore the powerful impact of these bonds on aromantic people through the lens of science-fiction and fantasy.
We dream of sisters on a roadtrip through space, of queerplatonic partners hunting dragons, of an alchemy teacher changing the course of their student’s life, of neighbours supporting each other through the apocalypse.
For Common Bonds 2, we are particularly interested in stories featuring these elements:
Stories bold with their aromanticism and unafraid to explore its many facets
Allosexual aromantic characters, and/or the exploration of platonic fuck buddies and other forms of non-romantic sexual partners
Worldbuilding that decentres romantic pairings as the highest form of attachment or a central structural unit of a society, especially inspired by existing cultures
Space and Time
Spec - July 15 -30 - 5000 word max - 1c a word - We seek: Broken boundaries, blown minds and new horizons. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk, magical realism—we look for poetry with a speculative element. Creative hybrids welcome. If you can combine horror, science fiction and fantasy into one compelling poem, you’ve caught our attention. If your poem has the power to shake some perspectives, we are interested.
MY INSIGHTS- I’ve interviewed the editor-in-chief of this foundational sci-fi magazine. She also bought a story of mine for a past issue.
Key insight from Angela:
Lately, however, the stories we love best are those that offer insight and solutions to what ails us in the world. Stories that deal with hunger, ecological disaster, social issues like racism and erasure… these have been rising to the top for the last few years.
Diabolical Plots
Spec - opening July 7 - 21 - 3500 max - 10c per word - no multiple or reprints - sim subs yes - ANON subs - Speculative fiction–science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Everything should have a speculative element–that includes horror. Feel free to mix in other genres at will–a fantasy mystery or a science fiction romance. MY INSIGHTS - this is one of those biggie markets we all want to get into. I’ve cornered David and interviewed him. He also runs one of the best story market tools and trackers in the industry at Submission Grinder
Here is some advice direct from David:
For what kinds of stories we tend to buy: I think we buy a pretty wide variety of different topics and styles, though leaning a bit more to weird difficult-to-classify stories that might have more difficulty elsewhere. But also, the scores of stories we've published are all online free to read so if anyone wants to know what we tend to buy, it's a matter of public record!
Mmeory
Speculative - Opens July 7 - August 15 - 2000 words max - 8c a word - Theme: Memory manipulation - Examples include magic spells, cyborg memory edits, very unreliable narrators, time travel gone horribly wrong.
We are open to all genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Alternate History, Steampunk, Hopepunk, Solarpunk, and beyond....
Todd asks for some specific layout specs: Margins: .5”; Font: Calibri 11 point, single spaced - if possible.
MY INSIGHTS: I’ve interviewed Todd twice, and he purchased a short story, “The Last Drop of Diesel” from me (Near Future Dystopian Mystery) for his We Are All Thieves of Somebody’s Future. I received two rejections with good advice from two previous calls before finally finding his vibe. Keep an eye on this Substack for an upcoming interview on July 7th! (It might help you sell Todd a story.)
Undertaker Books
Weird West - Theme: Horror on the Range : Opens July 1-31 - 2000- 4000 words - pay $25 -no reprints - yes to sim subs - It's time to ride into the Wild West with a western horror anthology!
D.L. Winchester and C.M. Saunders will headline this anthology, but we're rounding up more stories for our readers to enjoy! From gunfights on Main Street to train robbers and cattle rustlers, we want your horrific tales from the old West!
Theme: Horror stories of all subgenres that take place in the Old West.
MY INSIGHTS: I’ve sold one story to this press for their “Stories to Take To Your Grave: High Seas Edition” anthology. It’s not out yet. I’ve interviewed the founder and publisher. Read here
D.L. Winchester’s advice to authors?
Push the boundaries. I intentionally write my calls so authors can interpret them as creatively as possible. Find a story that will take me somewhere unexpected and horrify me in a way that makes me say, “wow, that was good.”
Solarpunk Magazine
Solarpunk - July 1- 14 - 8c a word - sim subs yes, reprints no - 1500-7500 - Solarpunk Magazine publishes hopeful short stories and poetry that strive for a utopian ideal, that are set in futures where communities are optimistically struggling to solve or adapt to climate change, to create or maintain a world in which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony rather than in conflict. We also publish solarpunk art as well as nonfiction that explores real world, contemporary topics and their intersection with the solarpunk movement for a better future. Our fiction editors are interested in works that stir readers with themes of defiance, change, and achievement. This effect isn’t likely to come via high concept utopias alone, but rather, from vibrant characters whose struggles affect the reader. Speculative elements should be apparent but not dominating; our disbelief suspended not by necessity, but immersion. Any genre of science fiction, interstitial fiction, magic realism, or fantasy has potential as a solarpunk forum—we welcome robots and elves with equal excitement.
Submit
My Insights - Justine gave me this tidbit when I interviewed her: “I’d also like to see more stories that are set further out in the future and explore pitfalls and problems within communities that have already, by and large, successfully adapted to or solved climate change and are well on their way toward the utopian ideal.”
Check out the full interview here
Death’s Head Press
Horror - Deep Anthology - May 1 - July 31 - word count 2500-10,000 words - 5c per word - Death’s Head Press continues its exploration of dark horizons. This time we seek the abyss.
We’re putting together an anthology for lovers of the unexplored depths of our planet and the universe.
My Insights - none, but oohhhhh, love the concept. I’m sending in my “Rowing the River Styx” which comes from the Dancing into the Dark universe.
THE FORGE
Lit - free subs open first of month and fill up fast (this is why we are starting with this market!) - pay $100 - 3000 words max - ANON subs - Literary excellence is our only criteria. We are open to all genres and voices, and stories with any background, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual or personal identity from all over the world. - My Insights - Last month, subbing on June 2nd was too late! The free subs are filled up. If you still want to sub here, it’s a $3 fee.
The Orange and Bee
Lit - open July 1 - 14 - flash fiction up to 1000 words - $80 pay - short fiction up to 5000 words 8c a word - no reprints- We are seeking original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales. We are interested in works that stretch, expand, test, subvert, and challenge the fairy-tale tradition.
We are interested in works that are entertaining, but also in works that matter: that is, in works that are both pleasurable to read and thought-provoking.
We are interested in works in which the relationship between your writing and the fairy-tale tradition is complex and thoughtful. Works that—ideally, though this is a Big Ask—open up our hearts and minds, offering us a new way to think or feel about the fairy-tale tradition as well as broader themes and issues.
My Insights: Two rejections. This market lives on Substack
Mysterion
Christian-themed fiction - July 1 -31 - 8c a word - 9000 words max - sub sims NO - reprints, YES, 4c a world - They are looking for speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology, and for artwork for this site.
The story must have a speculative element. It needs something beyond the everyday. We love science fiction and fantasy, enjoy good ghost stories, and think there's great fiction material hidden in the mysteries of Christian theology--cherubim, leviathan, nephilim, visions, prophecy, and more. The story must engage with Christianity. We want stories with Christian characters whose faith affects their actions, with Christian themes such as grace and redemption, or with a Christian view of the supernatural. Note that we're not saying that you must be a Christian. We are not in a position to judge your faith and won't try, and we welcome submissions from authors of all backgrounds and perspectives. Nor does your story need to be unambiguously pro-Christian. If you can tell a good story that meaningfully engages with Christianity, we want to read it.
Insights - I’ve had 6 rejections from this market and they take a while to come. Which is a tad painful from a no-sub-sim market. (I’ve waited up to a year.)
The Quiet Ones
Horror - July 1 - August 1 - pay $25 - max words 3000 - Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction - The Quiet Ones is a free-to-download e-zine that centers LGBTQIAP+ and women’s voices in the subgenres of quiet horror and intimate dystopian fiction, both for YA and Adult audiences.
Quiet Horror applies to atmospheric, unsettling stories that rely more on mood and rhythm than on shock and gore. Examples of quiet horror include: classic ghost stories and shorts like The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, modern moody masterworks like The Walls Around Us by: Nova Ren Suma, and films such as The Exorcist III or Pontypool where so much of the horror is left to the viewer to imagine as opposed to horror films that bombard their audience with scenes of excessive gore and jump scares.
Intimate Dystopia is all about scale. We’re looking to zoom that lens in – show us the personal, everyday impact of living under totalitarian regimes, or heavily restricted environments – anything from haunted houses to run-down clubs or playgrounds – anywhere upon which the larger trappings of dystopian visions apply. For post-apocalyptic stories, give us small, contained spaces which explore life in the ruined world. Examples of intimate dystopia include: Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler, Wool by Hugh Howey, and films such as Quarantine (or [Rec]), or Tale of A Vampire.
My Insights : 3 rejections.
Fraidy Cat Press
Horror - Theme- Rage - July 1 -7 - 400-8000 words, $10 -$20 payment. Sub sims allowed. Fraidy Cat Press loves all things horror – from the eerie, creeping terror of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”’s systematic violence to the unhinged tilt of Laird Barron’s “The Imago Sequence” and everything in between. We want your stories that go bump in the night, your stories that creak like an intruding foot on the staircase, your best writing that screeches through the calm darkness.
This is another publication where I interviewed the founder to get all the nitty gritty hints. Robert Helfst says:
Essentially, we enjoy character-driven stories and strong writing that take place in horrific settings. This doesn't always mean that a story has to be set in the midst of spine-chilling action (although we do love those too.)
BRINK
Hybrid Lit - theme - OBSESSION- Open July 1 -31 - pay $50 for under 1500, $100 for over - Brink is open for hybrid and cross-genre submissions of any length and style engaging the theme of obsession. We are interested in work that presses boundaries by using more than one medium to tell a story; work that looks and feels different on the page. Additionally, we look for submissions that engage the issue's theme and the notion of being on the brink. MY INSIGHTS - I checked out the magazine, and they like strange text formations, mixed media, and inventive offerings.
Seize the Press
Dark Spec - Editor Jonny Pickering - ongoing - 3 pence per word - 7500 word limit - yes to sub sims - no to reprints - Seize The Press Magazine is an anticapitalist publication looking to publish dark speculative fiction. Bleak sci-fi, dark fantasy, horror and all kinds of weird, messy, genre-defying stories that defy labels. We’re looking for stories that aren’t didactic or moralistic. We want stories where everything isn’t wrapped up neatly at the end. We want to promote a diverse range of voices from authors who write messy characters, so give us your problematic queers and your angry women—we want your difficult and morally questionable characters in unpleasant situations who don’t slide neatly into a narrow definition of positive representation and don’t fit the model minority mold.
My Insights: Some really strange and disturbing fiction found here from some very imaginative authors. I so want to join them. I have 32 rejections so far from this market.
Sometimes Hilarious Horror
Podcast -The Mentally Oddcast - ongoing - pay $25 - Looks like your story is read adn then you have a chat with the host - The Mentally Oddcast features creatives discussing how mental illness, addiction, neurodivergence, and the impact of trauma informs & inspires their art. New eps every Wednesday! CW/TW for discussions on suicide, addiction, abuse, SA. I believe you email the creator at wednes@sometimeshilarioushorror.com
Inner Worlds
Spec - July 15 -31 - 2 Euros a word, 20 Euro min - 500 - 2500 words - sim subs yes, reprints yes, as long as not free to read on-line - Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus. We are mainly interested in fiction, but we're open to speculative memoir or creative non fiction, as long as it has speculative elements. Please see 'What We Like' below for some examples. My Insights. 3 R’s
Altitude Press
Gen X Flash Fiction Anthology - deadline July 15th - $25 pay - 1500-2000 words - (Gen X characters and/or themes and/or culture should figure prominently within the story in ways that distinctly identify them as Gen X and/or that have an easily identifiable Gen X “vibe”).We’re especially interested in unique, unexpected takes on the Gen X experience from original points of view. - Genres and categories accepted:
Literary, Romance, Sci-Fi & Spec Fic, Mystery, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Paranormal, Magical Realism, and others.
No horror (spooky is okay), gratuitous violence, erotica, of use of “F-bombs,” please.
We are most interested in stories that encompass a complete, compelling narrative arc including an interesting/unexpected hook and/or twist and/or reversal and/or “aha!” moment for the reader. Original, eye-catching phrasing is always a plus as well.
My Insights: Nothing. But I am Gen X, and becoming more obsessed with our generation’s lore everyday. I blame Small Talk created by
for it. He has a wonderful Substack talking about everything Gen X. Look at his awesome hat!
Brilliant Flash Fiction
Flash All Genres - ongoing - 1000 words or less - $20 pay - sim subs yes - Our goal is to present the best and most unusual international fiction for readers. We welcome submissions from writers at all levels of experience. My Insights - I sold one story here the came out in their TENacity 10th anniversary anthology (published year-end 2024).
Gragon and the Neptune Nits is a dark funny exploration of what happens when an AI loses his patience with humanity.
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