The following is a list of 5 short story publishers currently seeking submissions. All of these publishers have upcoming deadlines in January. All of them pay their authors. Payment rates vary, from a maximum of $210 to $1,060.
1. Crystal Lake Publishing is currently seeking submissions for Tales from the Lake: Volume 4. They want “Non-themed short horror stories that arrests readers and leave them haunted for months to come.” They pay 3 cents per word, up to 7,000 words. The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2017. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
2. Deep Magic aims to be “the dominant magazine for clean fantasy and sci-fi stories.” They pay 8 cents per word for the first 5,000 words. Payment is capped at $1,060 per story. They don’t want stories with graphic violence, sex, vulgarity, etc. They want good clean sci-fi and fantasy. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
3. The 2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide is currently seeking submissions of sci-fi stories aimed at a eight to twelve year old audience. They want stories “of adventure, space, science. Give us rockets, robots and alien encounters, and we’re pretty happy. Steampunk, time travel, weird west and alternate history are all fine.” They pay 6 cents per word, up to 6,000 words. The deadline for submission is January 31st, 2017. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
4. Liminal is currently seeking submissions of short stories. They’ll “‘ consider stories from every genre. While some genres are more likely to suit us in terms of tone, we’re open to being surprised.” They pay 6 cents per word, up to 6,000 words. The editors have published in a variety of sci-fi and fantasy magazines. The deadline is January 15th, 2017. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
5. Ride the Star Wind: Cthulhu, Space Opera, and the Cosmic Weird is a forthcoming anthology by Broken Eye Books. They want “tales that combine space opera with cosmic weird horror, either set within the Cthulhu Mythos or inspired by it.” They pay 8 cents per word, up to 6,000 words. The deadline is January 31st, 2017. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
