January's 25 Jazzy Open Submission Calls!

All Paying, No Fee Calls to start the year!

THREE LOBED BURNING EYE

Dark Spec - open till Jan 16th - 8c a word - 500-7,499 words - NO Sim Subs or reprints

We publish stories across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof. We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot. We want to see something new and different.

MY INSIGHTS - I have 29 rejections from this market. Sometimes my stories get lost in the old submission machine, but they are using Moksha now, so that issue is probably resolved. Sometimes I get a quick R. The editor, Andrew Fuller says:

We receive nearly a thousand submissions per reading period, and accept 18 stories per year.

Learn more

APEX Magazine Flash Contest

DARK SPEC - 8c a word - 1000 word max - Theme: Hope or Sacrifice - or Hopeful Sacrifice or Sacrificial Hope. - MY INSIGHTS - I took a flash fiction class with Rebecca and it was outstanding. She advises writers to really think about the theme. It’s her experience that the winning stories come in closer to the end of the month. She had us make a list in her class of the story ideas that came to mind with a theme and chuck the first one. She wants unusual explorations.

My Interview with Rebecca

Submit here

Inkd Pub

Beach Reads - Dec 1 - Jan 31 - 2000-6000 words - $20 pay or share of royalties. (I asked the publisher, he said they rarely pay out more than $20 per author, so I’d take the $$$) - Theme: Beach Reads – we’re searching for the light and fun stories for those longer warmer days. These might be a slice of life or a simple romance – anything that might bring smiles, and maybe a tear.

- MY INSIGHTS - - One of my fantasy tales “The Emotional Support Dragon” was purchased by Inkd Pub for their Dragon Mythicana anthology.

I recently interviewed Kevin A. Davis. Read Here.

Inkd Publishing

Supernatural -Noncorporeal III: Nightfall - open till Jan 31 - 2000-6000 words - royalty share - We’re searching for the spooky stories. This is not horror, though there may be suspense and even a dash of horror. A spooky, haunting, incorporeal element is certainly expected. Humor and mystery beats are welcome.
Incorporeal – At least one paranormal entity must be not composed of matter; having no material existence.
Nightfall – Some stories selected will have a component of night to them, it is not required for submission
Express yourself as the theme moves you. Learn More

Behind the Shadows III: Dark Secrets - Jan 1 - 31st - pay $20 AND royalty share - 2000-7000 words - This is horror. Humor and mystery beats are welcome.
Express yourself as the theme moves you.
There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Speculative Fiction, including Sci-Fi or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion.

GRADESIDE PRESS

Horror for Younger Readers - GRADEside anthology - 2c a word - 2000-6000 words - aimed at 10+ audience - Gradeside is your haunted carnival for the tales geared toward younger readers—still spooky, but with a little restraint. Both middle-grade and young adult titles are considered, however, if we feel your YA title skews to an upper YA older audience, we may ask to publish it as a standard Graveside title. - MY INSIGHTS - I contacted this press to enquire about pay, and Hannah Rebekah Graves (how cool is her last name) got back to me and said the base pay is .02c a word paid 90 days after publication. I sent them my story about a Creepy clown who eats kids.

LEARN MORE

FLAMETREE FLASH FICTION

Nov 17th deadline - 1000 word max - 8c a word - theme TBA (check back in a few days!)- email Leah Radcliffe at FLASH2024@flametreeepublishing.com

JUST KEEP UP Magazine

Sci Fi & Horror: open now- $10 a story- 100-10,000 words- Sim subs allowed - This is a brand new market and there are no stories online yet. (Shall we be the first?) Send your subs to: JustKeepUpMagazine@gmail.com. - MY INSIGHTS - So I’ve already received my first rejection from this market. It took 9 days.

LEARN MORE

DARK PENINSULA PRESS

Horror -PHANTOM WORLDS: THE CELLAR DOOR - Dec 1 - Jan 31 - $50 plus a paperback - 2000-8000 words - Seeking horror stories where alternate realities invade our own. (Silent Hill, Stranger Things) - Sim subs fine - - I’m going to send in a story about an alternate hellish dimension - email your sub to darkpenpress@gmail.com - MY INSIGHTS -I’ve got five R’s from these folks.

More calls in the wings:

Negative Space 3 - Opening for subs in fall 2025
VVV2 (Revenge) - Opening for subs in 2026
VVV3 (Final Girls) - Opening for subs in 2027

34 Orchard

HORROR - open Jan 1 -15 - Pay $50- 1000-5000 words - At 34 Orchard, we like dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth. We’re not genre-specific; we just like scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad. We like things we can’t put down and things that make us go “wow” when we’ve finished. But our main goal here at 34 Orchard is to publish the stuff we like to read, and you’re not in our heads. So, don’t over think it. Just submit. We are an international journal and welcome submissions from everyone, all over the world.” - MY INSIGHTS - Kristi Peterson Schoonover has been one of my most amazing finds in my exploration of speculative fiction. She has given me exceptional advice and has taken the time to communicate personally. Schoonover says: “There are two types of writing that I really love. Literary stories with prose that takes your breath away and transports you into another world. Then I also love to be scared, made uncomfortable, and sometimes even shocked. 34 Orchard is a new literary online journal that combines both.” LEARN MORE

She contacted me, thanking me for listing her call on my Substack:

“I just wanted to thank you for listing 34 ORCHARD in your blog and for your kind words! That was a nice treat to wake up to. I so appreciate everything you do for us. We've not even been open 2 days yet and we already have over 200 subs and the number's growing fast.”

BFS HORIZONS

Fantasy - 20 pounds per item - 500 -5000 words - They call themselves a community for those who love magical creatures, monsters and the fantastic. - MY INSIGHTS - I’ve subbed 3x here. The first story was rejected, the second story made it past slush, but then got the R, and the third story I withdrew when it sold elsewhere - I just sent them in my mystery/thriller starring the Loch Ness Monster - you need to use a form to submit - https://britishfantasysociety.org/get-in-touch/bfs-horizons/

Fraidy Cat Press

Horror - THEME : Paranoia: Open Jan 1-7th - 400 -8,000 words - can submit 2 stories per reading period - sim subs allowed - $10 pay for flash, $20 per short story - They call this magazine, “Fiction that goes bump in the night.” - MY INSIGHTS - 3 rejections for me so far. They came fairly quickly.

Learn more

Wildsam Magazine

Non-fiction road trip mag - takes pitches, not stories - $1 a word!!! - 300-3000 words depending on what section you chose to write for. aka. Pilgrimage (a dispatch about a town up - up to 500 words) On the Road (800-word profiles of a person and how road travel figured in their life) Road Icon (300-word micro history of a classic vehicle) The Special ( 300-500 words in praise of an eatery) Shop Talk (700-words on a brand making an impact on cross country travel. aka an RV) Service stories (mainly written by staff and are features aka quests.)

Wildsam is a first of its kind national magazine dedicated to road trips, recreational vehicles and the outdoors. With a reverence for the textures, stories and characters of the open road, Wildsam offers unexpected insights into place and culture, vehicles and the outdoors, foodways and folkways, and more.

Looks like they are primarily interested in road trips in the USA and to a lesser extent, Canada. Learn more here.

Carnival of Horror

HORROR - Undertaker Books - Jan 1 -31 - word count 750-3000 - pay $25 - Amid the lights, games, and shows, in the shadows the bright lights don’t reach, are horrors of all kinds...
We’re looking for stories of abandoned amusement parks, traveling carnivals, haunted attractions, chilling circuses and more! Get ready: the Carnival of Horror is coming to a horror bookshelf near you! MY INSIGHTS - I recently interviewed D.L. Winchester about his press after he purchased a story of mine “Hodge and the Deep Sea Horrors,” for his anthology Stories to Take to Your Grave: High Seas Edition. Here is his advice:

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.”

He also says he sees too many “Stories with a lot of exposition on the front end. I want to be dropped into the action and have the environment built around me… It’s not that I don’t care about the environment, but I’m there for the story, and I want to see the details weaved in as the story progresses, not dropped on me at the start before anything happens.

Full interview here

SUBMIT TO: submissions@undertakerbooks.com

UTOPIA SCIENCE FICTION

Science Fiction - pay 8c a word - 100-4000 words - Open now for their Disability Pride Issue -deadline April 1st, 2025 - We want enthralling stories set in futures we might want to live in. Counter to the recent dystopian craze, we publish stories that shine with a more optimistic future, one we want to believe in, one we would fight for.

We're looking for

• Captivating world-building

• Character-rich, diverse settings

• Well-written engaging plots that steer away from common tropes

• Tension and conflict that leap out of the page and grab us

• A good ending

• Hard science fiction, stories based in explained science

MY INSIGHTS - I’ve subbed a few stories (9) to them, and they held one for a while and then sent me a kind rejection letter with feedback. I like this market.

SUBMIT HERE

ASIMOV’S PRESS

Science Fiction Non-Fiction -Pay $1500 for essays under 2,500 words and $2000 for longer pieces - no deadline that I can see - Note, this market is NOT affiliated with Asimov’s Magazine - instead it is a publishing company funded by a genetic design company in Boston. From the Editors:

We always welcome pitches from writers who can make sense of scientific progress, especially regarding biology’s impacts on climate, energy, security, agriculture, materials, and medicine, or in metascience. Our authors are typically researchers or policy experts with extensive knowledge in their field or journalists with a deep background in a scientific discipline.

On occasion, we reach out to writers with specific assignments. If you’d like to be added to our database of freelance journalists, please send a message to editors@asimov.com with your name and topics of interest. We are seeking stories with the following characteristics:

‍Clarity: An Asimov Press piece should be clear and accessible. Steven Pinker reminds us, “The better you know something, the less you remember about how hard it was to learn. The curse of knowledge is the single best explanation I know of why good people write bad prose.” We want to avoid the curse of knowledge and publish pieces that are capable of simplifying complicated ideas while remaining rigorous and well-reasoned. Like all good writing, an Asimov Press piece shows rather than tells. ‍

Steelmanned: Our pieces strive to be mechanistic, clearly explaining how things work. They do not rely on hype or hyperbole and are charitable to alternative approaches that achieve the same ends. In other words, they clearly answer the question: “Is this technology really the best way to solve this problem?”‍

Learn More here. It looks like this publication lives here on Substack!

The Fahmidian Journal

Fantasy Lit -pay $25 - closes March 15th - “Send us your thought-provoking existentialism, your phobias, your darkest moments. Entrance us with your whimsical fantasy. Move us to tears with your truth in a world of suffering. Captivate and intrigue us with your hopes and dreams. A broad range of styles, forms and voices make any journal truly representative in the 21st century and we are no different!”

Memento Mori Ink Magazine

Horror - 2026 Anthology exploring power of artifacts or relics working with Crystal Lake Publishing- deadline June 1 - 2c a word - 3000-5000 words - no sub sims - In this collection, we explore the power of Memento Mori artifacts or relics. We want ancient objects or seemingly mundane items which have the power to whisper to those who possess them. We are looking for character-driven stories with a focus on the history and source of power behind their chosen object which must be tied to the afterlife, the passage of time, or the thin veil separating the living from the dead. As these objects reveal their secrets, characters must confront their deepest fears and the inevitable reality of their own mortality. - this one was hard to find online, right now I can only find a Facebook Post. You can use this link to submit - SUBMIT HERE

Women’s World

Romance- pay $500 - word count 750-800 words - They also look for mysteries. Those are 500 word stories, 450 for the plot, 50 for the solution. MY INSIGHTS - By looking at their editorial calendar, my guess it that you should be sending in EASTER, CINCO DE MAYO, & MOTHER’S DAY themed stories-

5-minute Romance offers the reader a feel-good fiction “snack” that shimmers with hope and possibility. Participants of focus groups have revealed that they consider this one of the classic columns that differentiates Woman’s World from other magazines—in fact, they said that it wouldn’t be Woman’s World without it!

Most Woman’s World readers are avid fans of romance novels, so we look for manuscripts that are clever, concise, and contemporary (no fantasy or historical romance), with heartwarming themes and classic romance tropes including: enemies-to-lovers, meet-cutes, long-lost loves, finding love after giving up, love after 50, etc. Each story should have:

● Realistic relationships: Whether it’s a couple who has just met or is about to celebrate their 50th anniversary, the emphasis in our stories is on real relationships—but real life that sparkles with feel good, fluttering romantic possibility and, in the end, reflect a hopefulness for the future. Stories must also revolve around a true-to-life relationship dilemma; may feature either a female or male protagonist; and may be written in either the first or third person.

● Character and chemistry: We look for appealing, engaging, relatable and down-to-earth characters (no yuppies or jet-setters) who may be married, single, divorced or widowed. There should be an obvious physical and emotional “butterflies-in-the-stomach” type of chemistry, but no overtly sexual or racy innuendoes. For instance, the steamiest we get is a kiss—and that is rare.

● Seasonality: Each story should be anchored seasonally, like a fall festival, summer picnic or a holiday celebration. Writers can join the Facebook group “WW Writers” and will be kept up to date regarding what season or holiday we are working on.

Submissions: Please email manuscripts to Fiction@WomansWorldMag.com. Please be patient: Due to the volume of manuscripts we receive, our turnaround time may range from two to six months. If after that time you don’t hear back, feel free to resubmit.

Here is one problem with writing for Women’s World, if they reject your story, where do you send it?

I just discovered this market:

MICROMANCE Magazine

Romance- special anthology calls are announced randomly throughout the year - It looks like there is no pay, which normally would make this a firm NO-GO for me, but I haven’t had much luck finding alternate places for my WW rejects. - They also say no Simultaneous submissions, which is something else I don’t like - their word count varies from 501-3500 - They are based on Substack. Check them out here:

https://micromancemagazine.substack.com/p/35bed309-383f-4439-91df-9c8730753906

This World of Vile Wonder: Horror Tales of the Scientific Revolution

HORROR -The Scythian Wolf - $75 per story - 5,000- 10,000 words -Jan 1 - Feb 28th - Story must be set between the years 1500 and 1700 ce Any category of science from the period welcome. With setting and details, historical accuracy is vital. All subgenres of horror welcome - I had to research what ce stands for, “It is a secular term used to denote the same period of time as AD (Anno Domini), which refers to the years after the birth of Jesus Christ. The use of "CE" avoids religious connotations and is often employed in academic or non-religious contexts to describe the calendar years. For example, 2024 CE is equivalent to 2024 AD.” My Insight -I don’t know anything about this press, but the website is cool.

Learn More:

The Joining: Scenes of Wedding Terror

HORROR - Crystal Lake Publishing - 2c a word - Jan 1st- March 1st - 2500 - 5000 words - No Reprints - Editor - Jacob Steven Mohr - Looking for stories concerning the rite of matrimony. Weddings are unusual events, bringing together masses of humanity that might never interact under any other circumstance, requiring them to travel great distances or take part in bizarre rituals ranging from the solemn to the frenzied and sometimes even dangerous…

But: stories submitted to The Joining need not concern only the event itself. They might take place at any time, so long as nuptials are central to the narrative. Imagine it: proposals gone wrong, literal bride-zillas, unsettling in-laws, bachelor parties that end in bloodshed—and of course, trips to destination weddings held just north of Hell itself… MY INSIGHT - I’ve received a few very encouraging rejection letters from this publisher. Keep an eye on them. I think they are growing.

Submit here:

Heartlines Spec

SPEC - open Jan 1 - Feb 1 - 8c a word - 500-3500 words - Heartlines Spec is an online speculative magazine focused on long-term friendships and relationships. It's the comfort of the known, the fierce hug of someone that knows you best. We're looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don't want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years.

Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that's ok.

We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules. MY INSIGHTS - 12 Rejections. None personal. Some of my friends have sold here... usually their stranger offerings. I can't hit the vibe yet.

SUBMIT HERE

Cripple Punk Magazine

LIT -Open now - $10 pay - 300-1000 words - takes reprints - Seeking: Essays, criticism, news and reviews, literary nonfiction, fiction, rants and raves, comics, and beyond - My Insight -Interesting that a bunch of magazines are springing up on Substack. It is run by “Merlin Sabal, a disabled writer, artist and organizer”.

SUBMIT HERE

I’ve subbed 13 stories so far in 2025!

Here is my list…

Some good news hit my inbox today.

I HAVE AN AGENT!

My cowboy romance will be going on sub shortly! What a wonderful way to start 2025.

BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE.

After 6 years of trying, I’ve finally sold my 2nd story to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Happy New Year to us all, and may all our writing dreams come true!!!!