10 Publishers Seeking Short Stories – $100 to $600 Per Story

These markets pay $100-600 for short stories, and one pays significantly more. Some accept other genres too, like non-fiction and poetry. Deadlines are approaching quickly for some outlets. – S. Kalekar


Sylvia
This is a new British literary magazine and it is open for submissions of fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry from all over the world. They are reading for their inaugural issue. Their guidelines say, “For our first set of pieces, we would love to see work that can help our readers to make sense of the world right now. We are not currently expecting to restrict the themes of work although we would like it to reflect the world around its writer, whether that be an internal world or the seasons outside of your window.” They also accept pitches for essays or lifestyle pieces.
VERY TIGHT Deadline (Sorry!): 11 September 2020
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose,
Pay: £0.25 per word for prose, £1.75 per line for poetry
Details here.

Nightmare Magazine
This award-winning horror and dark fantasy magazine announced on Twitter that they would be open for two brief submission periods during September; one submission period is for BIPOC writers only, and the other is for general submissions. They want work for ‘The Horror Lab’ (experimental horror – poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction), as well as short fiction. They also accept pitches for ‘The H Word’ (horror essays).
Reading periods: 7-13 September for BIPOC authors; 14-20 September for general submissions
Length: 1,500-7,500 words for short fiction, less than 1,000 words for Horror Lab submissions
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $40 per poem, $75 for H Word essays
Details here (guidelines) and here (submission portal).

Flame Tree Publishing: Two anthologies
They are reading work for two fiction anthologies; one is open to submissions by all writers, and the other is open to work by Black writers.
–– Terrifying Ghosts:
This anthology is open to all writers. Their guidelines say, “Ghastly castles, haunted mansions, shadowy forests and long, dark corridors… This new addition to the Gothic Fantasy series will be packed with tales of terror, bringing together the new and the familiar, the unusual and the unexpected.” They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 20 September 2020
Length: 2,000-4,000 words are most likely to succeed; will read slightly outside this range
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

–– Black Sci-Fi Anthology: They want work by Black writers for this science fiction anthology. Their guidelines say, “Dystopia, apocalypse, gene-splicing, cloning, colonization and much more can be explored here – in fantastic stories, whether informed by the black experience or not. The selected submissions will be combined with writing of an older tradition (by authors such as Martin Delany, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins and W.E.B. Dubois) whose first-hand experience of slavery and denial created their living dystopia.” They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 21 September 2020
Length: Approximately 2,000-4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

Reckoning 5: Environmental Justice
They want creative writing about environmental justice. Their guidelines say, “Fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art leaning away from the pulpy heavily towards the political. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth.” They actively seek work from Indigenous writers and artists, writers and artists of color, queer and transgender writers and artists, and anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world. Their website has specific details of the kind of work the prose and poetry editors want for this issue. They also welcome writing in Spanish, French or Swedish for potential translation, and work already translated into English, for which they pay the same rate to both author and translator.
Deadline: 22 September 2020
Length: Up to 20,000 words for prose; 3-5 poems
Pay: $0.08/word for prose; $30/page for poetry; minimum $25/piece of art
Details here (overall guidelines) and here (submission portal).

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
This magazine publishes sword and sorcery, both as fiction and as poetry.
Deadline: 30 September 2020
Length: Up to 10,000 words; can serialize up to 50,000 words; up to three poems
Pay: $25-100 for fiction, $25 for poetry; Tolkinesque (really long) poetry will be paid like fiction
Details here.

Ombak
This is a magazine of Southeast Asian Weird fiction. Authors must be, have lived in, or descended from the region of Southeast Asia. Stories need not overtly have tones, themes, or aspects of the region, but is encouraged. Submissions may close earlier than expected if submission volume demands.  
Deadline: 1 October 2020
Length: Up to 4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

WordFire Press: Unmasked
They want short stories of unmasking, to include a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror, alien, magical, witchcraft, AI, and romance elements – see guidelines for further details, and potential ideas for stories. Stories must be appropriate for a PG-13 audience.
Deadline: 15 October 2020
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here.

Antioch Review
This literary magazine opened its submission period on 1 September. They accept fiction, non-fiction and poetry. For fiction, it is “the story that counts, a story worthy of the serious attention of the intelligent reader, a story that is compelling, written with distinction. Only rarely do we publish translations of well-known or new foreign writers.” They also accept a chapter of a novel, but only if it can be read complete in itself as a short story. Submissions have to be sent by post.   
Deadline: 31 May for prose, 30 April 2021 for poetry
Length: Accepts up to 5,000 words of prose; can accept no more than 8,000 words
Pay: $20/page (about 425 words)
Details here.

The Dark Magazine
They publish horror and dark fantasy, though not graphic, violent horror. The editors ask writers to try them with fiction that falls out of regular categories and welcome experimental works.   
Deadline: Open now
Length: 2,000-6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here.

New Welsh Review
They accept fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and pitches for articles.  
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 2,500-3,000 words for fiction, occasionally publish shorter; up to 6 poems
Pay: £28 per poem, £100 for fiction, £170 for essays and creative non-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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