Selling Stories to Diabolical Plots

An Interview with David Steffen

Diabolical Plots

Speculative - NOT open now - probably open this summer - 10c a word - 3500 word max - ANON subs - reprints NO - sub sims YES.

I personally have 7 rejections from this market, zero holds.

Diabolical Plots typically opens for general submissions once a year, often in July. For instance, in 2023, they held a submission window in July, during which they received over 1,400 submissions and accepted 25 stories.

The Submission Grinder is THE source for finding open markets in the speculative short story world, and Diabolical Plots is one of the most desired magazines to score a sale.

Diabolical Plots has been around since 2008 and is one of the highest-paying pro markets at ten cents a word. I’ve never made a sale there (yet) but I never miss a chance to submit, including hitting the window that was open for two weeks in July and closed on the 31st.

The Submission Grinder is a tool that not only finds markets but also tracks submissions for writers and analyses response times. It’s free to sign up, and a rather large addiction for many writers I know.

WHAT IS DIABOLICAL PLOTS LOOKING FOR?

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.

And yes, we really mean it has to have a speculative element. If you submit a serial killer story with only mundane elements, even though that could be a horror story it’s not a speculative horror story and it will be rejected regardless of quality.

Things that we tend to really like:

• Weird fiction

• Sense of wonder

• Strong character and plot arcs

• Strong worldbuilding, hinting at more to see around the edges of the story

• Philosophical food-for-thought

• Straightforward, easily readable style

• Religion, where the story does not try to convert the reader, nor does the story demonize religion

• Platonic friendship between men and women

David Steffen runs this remarkable resource and this is my second interview with him. The first was published on the Horrortree blog in August 2023.

AF: Diabolical Plots is an amazing name for a magazine. Do you look for stories that literally have Diabolical Plots? What kind of stories do you tend to buy?

DS: The name of the magazine is not prescriptive, the stories may or may not contain diabolical plots. The very rigorous criteria I apply boil down to: "do I want to publish this story more than I want to publish all the other stories in the submission queue" and since we added other editors, broadened a bit to "do any of us want to advocate to publish this story more than all the other stories in the submission queue".

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!

AF: What kind of stories do you see too much of?

Historically we used to see way too many of the variety of "the protagonist's spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend is mildly annoying and the entire goal of the protagonist is to murder them for being mildly annoying". This seems to have tapered off a bit since we added notes about it to our guidelines thankfully! The main thing I'd currently like to see less of is generative-AI works which we see despite them being prohibited by the guidelines.

AF: Any advice for writers hoping to up their short story game, or any resources you recommend?

Find a critique group of other writers where you can exchange feedback on your stories. There is no better way, IMO, to learn to write than to examine other people's writing.

But also keep in mind that your story is YOUR story and not anyone else's. Critique groups can be amazing, but they can also cultivate Big Fish In Little Pond attitudes for some people who decide they are monarchs and that are correct about everything. But if you don't think it feels right for your story, that's your choice to make no matter how they say it. Also, try to avoid being the Big Fish In Little Pond person yourself.

AF: The last time I interviewed you, you were struggling to find time to write your own stories. Has that changed? What's new in the world of David Steffen?

Still struggling to find time, or perhaps motivation, to write. I have written a couple things in the last couple of years, but oddly they are both non-speculative humor pieces and I don't know what to do with them, LOLsob.

AF: How do you market your magazine and Submission Grinder? Is there any profit for you in either? What are your plans for the future?

I don't really do much marketing for either, most people who hear about them hear about them through word-of-mouth from users/readers who are excited about what we do.

The company as a whole, which includes both SG and DP and some other things like Long List Anthology, are financially in the black. It's hard to say at this point exactly which part contributes more to that since much of our income comes from donations where people don't say whether they want to support SG or DP specifically. Generally most of the funds produced are put back into buying more stories and things like that.

Plans for the future are mostly to keep on what we're doing and keep publishing more stories, add more SG features. I want to lay groundwork to make sure Submission Grinder in particular can keep going longer than I can, make sure other people have the access and knowledge to do the maintenance work, make sure someone else has access to the code base, that kind of thing.

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