Selling Stories to Fraidy Cat Press

An Interview with Robert Helfst

Fraidy Cat Press defines itself as:

Fiction that goes bump in the night.

They look for stories that revolve around themes and are open for seven-day windows.

There are only 2 more days left to submit to the theme of “Paranoia” (January 1-7)

The next upcoming theme is “Growth” which will be open from April 1-7.

Rage: July 1-7

Gnaw: Sept 1 - 7

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.

I asked the editor a few questions to help us sell to his magazine:

AF: Tell us more about the inspiration and creation of Fraidy Cat Press?

RH: A friend and I got serious about writing and submitting in 2022. Since then, I've seen so many great outlets for dark and horror fiction shut down that I grew frustrated about the thinning field of possible spaces for publication for new horror authors. I was impressed by the experience of publishing in C.M. Muller's Come October Anthology, and recognized his great press and editorial work with Chthonic Matter as a one-person operation. I found it inspiring that one person could create a positive impact for so many authors in an underserved and highly competitive space.

Previously, I co-edited an undergrad literary magazine, did slush reading for my grad program's journal, and ran a small and short-lived online-only lit journal with a friend over a decade ago, so I'm not a stranger to the editorial side of things. After some discussion with my wife and creative director, Lillian, we decided we would give it a shot - be the change you want to see in the world, and all that. We formed an LLC, opened for submissions, and managed to publish four volumes of cosmic horror in seven months for 2024 that we're incredibly proud of. Our goals are to keep a space open for new and rising voices in indie horror and to provide a great experience for authors, artists, and readers.

AF: What do you look for in a story that you buy? What advice do you have for authors?

RH: For Fraidy Cat Quarterly, we're focused on horror stories with a literary bent to them - we've described ourselves as the A24 of short horror fiction, and we try to bring that distinctive focus to our editorial work.

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.)

For example, "Home Safe" by L.R. McGary in Fraidy Cat Quarterly: Volume 4 is about the horrific implications to the narrator AFTER a life-altering event takes place, and I maintain it's one of the scariest things we've been lucky enough to publish.

AF: What do you do for a living when you aren’t swimming through scary stories?

RH: I work as a marketing director overseeing digital ads management and budgeting for clients in a few different industries.

AF: What kind of writing do you do yourself?

RH: I like to think of myself as an author of literary horror with a focus on the cosmic and slipstream subgenres. I've been lucky enough to place stories in Come October: An Anthology of Autumnal Horror and Gamut Magazine and have work forthcoming from Chthonic Matter Quarterly and Twin Pies Literary later in 2025. I'm excited to keep working on new short stories and have some longer-form work cooking too.

AF: What is in the future for Fraidy Cat Press?

RH: For 2025 we're focused on reaching more new readers with our volumes as we work to increase author pay for our quarterly. We have plans for 2026 involving themed anthologies to benefit charities as well as single-author works in either chapbooks or novellas that we're looking forward to finalizing details on soon! Our goal remains the same regardless of the format though: to give a great experience in indie cosmic horror publishing for authors, artists, and readers.

If you are a fan of dark short stories… check out my collections.