SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

NOTE: We are currently only accepting short stories for the anthologies and cannot accept full-length novel manuscripts at this time.

** Please put the anthology you're submitting to, and the word count of the story, in the subject line of the email. **

** If your story is a reprint, please put the previous publication/year in parentheses under the byline in your document. **

Payment for accepted stories will be $5 USD per 1000 words for all current anthologies. Payments occur via PayPal, so please have a PayPal account into which we can pay you. We will also provide you with a digital copy (epub and pdf) of the finished manuscript. Paperback and hardcover editions will be available via Amazon.

We're looking for speculative fiction across all anthologies (unless otherwise specified). That includes everything from high fantasy to hard sci-fi and anything in between.

We do accept reprints, simultaneous submissions, and multiple submissions, though these may slow down our response time.

Story lengths should be anywhere from flash-length to about 12k words, but we have at times made exceptions. We know a story is complete when it's complete, and arbitrary word-count requirements are not always helpful. If you have an amazing story that exceeds 12k words, let us know. We may be able to make special accommodations. :)

With regard to copyright, we request the non-exclusive right to publish your story in the anthology to which it was accepted. You retain the rights to your individual story to do with as you wish. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Note: We do have long lead times with our anthologies because we want to ensure quality work gets included. Once the deadline has passed, however, we move very quickly toward publication so we can get the book into your hands. Thanks for your understanding.

Formatting a manuscript is always a pain. Every publication has its own rules—headers, spacing, font, file format, required information, and so on and so forth.

We want to make it simple. Our submission guidelines are:

The main things to keep in mind:

• Include your name. (You'd be surprised how many forget.)
• As mentioned above, include the name of the anthology you're submitting to in the subject line, along with the word count. We get so much mail that things can easily get lost in the shuffle without this.
• Let us know if the story is original, a reprint, or a simultaneous submission. If it's a reprint, please put the previous publication and year in parentheses following your byline in the story document.
• A "short query" is probably fewer than 200 words/a couple of sentences, but use your best judgment. We know some people don't like writing queries, but please just give us an idea what the story is about. This can save us a lot of time and help us get back to you more quickly.
• Give us a quick rundown of how your story fits the theme of the anthology you're submitting to. This may be clear from the story description, but just in case it isn't, it helps us get submissions into the right project queue.

Without these things, we can't promise we'll be able to get back to you. That said, if 90–100 days have passed since you submitted to us, please query. Stories do fall through the cracks from time to time, and we absolutely don't want that to be the reason your story isn't included.

We won't/can't read anything in a format we can't open or a language we can't read.

Microsoft Word .doc/.docx files are always a safe bet, and Apple's Pages is also okay. If you're an OpenOffice user, please save as a Rich Text File or similar.

We reserve the right to reject a manuscript or query for any reason, including but not limited to criminal neglect of creativity, first-degree murder of the English language, adverbial abuse, possession of cliché with intent to distribute, and pathological telegraphing. :D

Usually, however, it's just that we didn't think your work was a good fit, and that's all. Nothing sinister.

Keep in mind also that in the process of creating a master manuscript, we will make some edits to fix minor errors and adhere to a uniform style throughout.

Taking a line from the great Clarkesworld magazine on this, and listing a few story elements we'd prefer writers didn't submit:

• Sexy vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc.
• Stories about your RPG character.
• Stories containing rapes or rapists, child abusers, or cannibals.
• Stories that rely on gratuitous gore, torture, or graphic violence for shock value.
• Stories punching down at or demonizing members of oppressed groups, including gender, orientation, mental/physical health or disability, body size, skin color, etc. (Side note: Avoid describing skin color using foods.)
• Stories containing details about killing women in gory ways. Murder mysteries are one thing—kill fantasies are quite another.

Everything else, we're happy to have a look at. We're also not inflexible, and if you have a story you are certain is amazing and contains one of these elements, let us know in the query and tell us why you think we should make an exception. :)

As the landscape of writing and publishing continues to evolve, we want to take a moment to clarify our position on the use of AI-assisted tools. We understand that this is a complex and often heated topic, and our aim is to approach it thoughtfully rather than reactively.

Concerns around new technology in creative fields are not new. From the advent of photography to digital art tools, each shift has prompted debate about value, ease of reproducibility, craft, quality, and authenticity. While the tools change, the core question of what makes a work meaningful remains the same.

Human-created work is strongly preferred, and the heart of any submission should be the author's own voice, creativity, and intent. That said, we recognize that tools such as LLMs can, in some cases, be part of a writer's process. Limited use of such tools can be acceptable depending on how they are used, and we do not require authors to justify their use of AI tools. We view LLMs as one of many potential tools in a writer's toolbox, and the issue is too nuanced to warrant a blanket rejection policy. As always, our primary concern is the quality, originality, and integrity of the work itself.

For the sake of transparency, we also make occasional, practical use of such tools ourselves—for example, to troubleshoot formatting issues, refine technical workflows, or assist in visual concepting that may then be further developed. At the same time, we continue to commission and pay artists for original work, and we deeply value the role of human creators in everything we publish.

We also understand that not everyone shares this perspective, and that's entirely fair. We encourage authors to submit where they feel most comfortable and aligned.