10 Calls for Short Stories – $50 to $600 Per Story

These markets pay $50 to $600 for short stories. A few accept other genres too, like non-fiction and poetry. Deadlines are approaching quickly. – S. Kalekar

Night Shift Radio: The Storyteller Series
This podcast has The Storyteller Series and they choose two stories to publish each month. One story will be chosen for the Full Cast Audiobook treatment; that author will receive $50 for audio rights and non-exclusive print rights. A second piece will be chosen for their mid-month print only piece. The author of that piece will be offered $25. They publish fiction, non-fiction, memoir – anything that reads with tension and excitement. They usually open submissions for a week (see guidelines for upcoming open periods).
Deadline: 28 August 2020
Length: 7,000-10,000 words
Pay: $25, $50
Details here.

Fecund
They are looking for fiction, essays, criticism, screenplay excerpts, fashion writing, poetry, visual art, video, fashion photography, and photo essays. Their guidelines say, “Although we don’t conform to one aesthetic, we tend to respond to work that challenges traditional forms or embraces liminality.” They have published an issue online, and are now reading for their Fall 2020 issue.   
Deadline: 1 September 2020
Length: Up to 10,000 words for prose, up to 10 poems
Pay: $50
Details here.

Uncanny Magazine
This award-winning speculative fiction magazine is open now for fiction submissions (they are not accepting poetry in this window). They also encourage Black writers to send essay pitches.
Deadline: 9 September 2020
Length: 750-6,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.10/word for fiction; $75 for essays
Details here.

The Puritan
This Canadian literary magazine publishes fiction, non-fiction – interviews, essays and reviews – and poetry from all over the world. Deadline: 25 September 2020 for Fall issue; reads year-round
Length: Up to 10,000 words for fiction, up to 4 poems; various for non-fiction (see guidelines)
Pay: $200 (Canadian) per essay; $150 for fiction; $100 per interview or review; $25 per poem (or page, capped at $80)
Details here.

Other Worlds Ink: Fix the World
This is their first fiction anthology. They want stories that depict a (near) future Earth that’s somehow better than this one. Their guidelines say, “Show us a world post-climate change, where we made peace with the planet. Or a world where we moved past racism and into a broader understanding of the connectedness of all the races of humanity. How about one where gender no longer matters? Or where borders are no more. We’re not looking for preachy. We want realistic depictions of the Earth that could be, even it it’s not perfect. Whatever fix you choose does not have to be the main plot – in fact, it’s probably better if it isn’t. But it should be very clear in the story – how we got from here to there.”
Deadline: 30 September 2020
Length: 5,000-15,000 words
Pay: $75-125
Details here.

Underland Arcana
This magazine is published four times a year. Their guidelines say they want “short fiction that veers into the numinous, the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird. We like these stories to be mildly speculative, fantastic, mysterious, and/or horrific (if you prefer genre tags). We’re not terribly keen on stories that splash through gore, but we don’t mind the grotesque. We prefer character-driven pieces, but will pause and admire works that are exceptionally experimental in tone, style, and presentation.”  If they also publish the work after it is on the website – as an eBook or collected print edition – they will also pay royalties.  
Deadline: 1 October 2020
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.01/word for work published on website
Details here.

Air and Nothingness Press: The Wild Hunt; Upon a Once Time
They are reading submissions for two themed speculative fiction anthologies.
— The Wild Hunt: They want stories in any genre about the Wild Hunt (Grimdark and New Weird are encouraged). The Wild Hunt occurs in European folklore and typically involves a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters passing in wild pursuit, and seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it (see guidelines for details). The accepted genres are Grimdark, New Weird, SF, Fantasy, and genre bending/breaking.
— Upon a Once Time: This is an anthology of new fairy tales for a modern audience. For this call, writers should mash up two fairy tales and a genre of their choice (for example, Snow White and Three Little Pigs as Detective Noir, or Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk as a Grimdark Fantasy. The accepted genres are Grimdark, New Weird, SF, Fantasy, Dying Earth, and genre bending/breaking.
Deadlines: 28 February 2021 for both anthologies
Length: 1,000-3,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (Twitter call about The Wild Hunt) and here (Twitter call about Upon a Once Time); and this is the press website.

Nightlight
This is a podcast for Black horror writers. They accept fiction, occasionally flash fiction, and reprints that have not previously appeared in radio format from Black writers.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Flash up to 3,000 words; short fiction of 3,000-10,000 words
Pay: $125 for short fiction, $75 for flash
Details here.

Three-Lobed Burning Eye
This is a magazine of speculative fiction – horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Their guidelines say, “We’re looking for short stories from across the big classifications and those shadowy places between: magical realism, fantastique, slipstream, interstitial, Weird fiction.” They like voices that are “full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental.” They do not want extreme horror. They welcome translations. Their issues include audio readings.  
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 1,001-7,500 words
Pay: $30-100
Details here.

Infinite Worlds
This magazine publishes science fiction. They publish comic/graphic novel shorts (4-10 pages) as well, and artwork.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 1,500-5,000 words for fiction
Pay: $100 for fiction, negotiated rates for short graphic fiction
Details here.


Author Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

 

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