Anthology Submissions |  Dark Scribe Magazine Submissions |  Novel Submissions

Anthology Submissions

Desire – the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state.

What happens when human desire twists, bends, warps, mutates? What happens when desire is fed? Starved? UNSPEAKABLE HORROR 2: ABOMINATIONS OF DESIRE, the sequel to the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology, will explore the dark underbelly of desire – whether contained and constricted or unleashed and unrestricted. We are looking for stories that stress the force of physical appetite or emotional need, tales that explore the strong, envious longing for the unattainable.

Horror built around sexual desire:

• Unrequited love;
• Repressed lust that, when unleashed, crosses lines into the unfathomable;
• Fear of the bedroom creeping into the boardroom. Think sexual underground creeping into everyday suburbia;
• Exploration of satyriasis, nymphomania, and fetishes that consume and their effects upon the individual and/or those around them;

Horror built around extreme longing:

• Craving or coveting something that comes into conflict with societal norms;
• Quests for power or control, wealth or material objects

What we want:

• This is an LGBT/horror anthology. Stories must have a strong, central gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender focus/slant/theme.

• Stories with a strong, literary feel and crafted with language that captivates

• Stories with a strong sense of atmosphere

• Stories that shock and/or provoke – but for the right reasons. We want that shock and provocation to sneak up on us versus clobbering us over the head. We want material that elicits an emotional response of some kind and leaves us with our jaws hanging open upon conclusion.

• If pursuing the sexual desire angle, we want provocative yet edgy stories – not graphic pornography for the sake of titillation. Any erotic or hardcore elements need to be germane to the tone, theme, and story itself.

What we don’t want:

• Straightforward erotica

• Stories that confuse LGBT sexual orientation with pedophilia

• Science fiction

• Zombies, werewolves, and vampires will be a hard sell unless you’ve got something singular to offer.

Tips from the submissions process for the first volume of UNSPEAKABLE HORROR:

• It doesn’t take an authentic gay person to imbue a work with an authentic gay POV. It takes talent.

• There’s a difference between seamlessly weaving keen political commentary throughout the fabric of a story and dropping a political rant into the middle of it. Save the political speeches for Barack Obama – chances are, he’s better at them.

• We want to experience terror from the stories – not suffer nightmares from the grammar. Line edit, proofread, line edit some more, proofread. Repeat until verb tenses agree, the punctuation doesn’t upstage your characters, and sentences enjoy self-actualization.

• The stories that blew our socks off the last time around were the ones with a strong sense of setting and mood. Avoid the clichéd gay bar scene unless you possess the extraordinary talent to bring something mind-numbingly unique to the table.

• Please. We beg of you…no psycho trannies or lesbian revenge tales in which someone’s unmentionables are chopped, eaten, or otherwise lopped off.

• This is a gay-themed horror anthology. We’re looking for horror tales with a strong queer subtext – not straight horror stories with a gay character or two thrown in to meet a quota.

• Horror sometimes demands a suspension of belief – not a suspension of logic.

• Click here for additional tips from our readings for the first anthology.

How to submit:

First, unless you are one of the 7-8 authors invited to be part of this project, do not send us your stories. As with the first anthology, we require a well-crafted query first. Please note some helpful email query guidelines here. As with all Dark Scribe Press calls for submissions, your query represents our first impression of you and your story. Avoid rattling off an abstract to us in an informal email – chances are we’ll pass. We’re looking to see that writers have given thought to their story and have the ability to articulate those thoughts.

Email queries to Submissions(at)DarkScribePress(dot)com beginning April 1, 2011. Response time to queries is within 30 days. Once a query is greenlighted, the deadline for actual submissions is June 30, 2011. Response time to submissions is 30-60 days. Please put “Query / Unspeakable 2″ in the subject line of all emails to help us efficiently route your emails. Kindly note that queries with attachments will be deleted – again, do not send your story until you have queried us first. Once we have reviewed your query and responded indicating our interest in considering a submission, please adhere to the following format:

• Send as Word attachments only – do not send submissions in body of email
• Use Courier, 12-point font
• Double space body of story
• 5-space indent at beginning of new paragraphs
• No manual page breaks
• No extra spacing between paragraphs – the 5-space indent will tell us where a new paragraph begins
• Use 1-inch margins – this includes top, bottom, left and right
• Working title of story center on first page – may be all caps, no quotations
• No headers or footers
• No page numbers
• At the top of the first page in the left-hand corner, single-spaced, please include the following information:

Name
Street Address
City, State, Zip Code
Email Address
Word Count (body of submission, excluding title)

Terms: Pays $0.05 (five cents) per word upon acceptance for First World Anthology and First Electronic Rights.

No simultaneous submissions and no reprints.

Anthology is slated for 4th quarter 2011 publication – subject to change.

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Dark Scribe Magazine Submissions

Dark Scribe Magazine is a virtual publication that focuses exclusively on the creative forces behind horror, suspense, thrillers, and other dark fiction and non-fiction works. While the thrust of the magazine is on writers, we maintain a strong secondary focus on editors, artists, screenwriters, retailers, short story fiction markets, and Internet sites that support dark genre literature. Our target audience includes readers of horror, suspense, thrillers and other dark genre fiction, genre authors, publishers, retailers, and webmasters, aspiring writers, and bibliophiles. Dark Scribe Magazine is freelance friendly and welcomes outside submissions. We are committed to the quality of the material in our magazine; the publication track record of our writers is of secondary interest. Our goal is to establish solid working relationships with our writers and the writing community at large. To that extent, we are endeavoring to offer competitive pay rates as defined by recognized professional writers associations (i.e. HWA, SFWA). As the creative forces behind the magazine are writers themselves, we have attempted to create submission criteria that are clear and concise, yet detailed enough to avoid ambiguity and wasted time.

Recognizing that time is money for both publisher and writer, we will respond to queries in as timely a manner as possible, which usually means within (30) days or less. Final decisions regarding queried submissions will be made within 60-90 days upon submission.

Payment will be made to writers (or to a writer’s agent upon request) within (30) days of electronic publication.

These are Dark Scribe Magazine’s current needs:

Interviews: With authors, artists, editors, screenwriters, and other notable professionals involved in some aspect of dark genre literature.

Tips: While standard profile pieces are acceptable in certain cases, we are looking for interviews with strong angles or themes. Be sure to convey the angle(s) or theme(s) of your proposed interview when pitching an idea to us.

Status: Currently closed to freelance submissions.

Terms: $0.05 (five cents) per word

Non-Fiction: Must pertain to some aspect of dark genre literature. Examples of current interests include: publishing trends, collecting trends, reports on author and publishing events (awards programs, conventions, etc.), profiles of iconic figures in dark genre literature, comparative analyses between the works of different authors (both modern and classic), and essays pertaining to dark genre literature and related topics.

Tips: We are looking for engaging pieces that will be of interest to a broad cross-section of our readership – think literary but not academic.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with proposals before submitting. State availability of photos.

Terms: $0.05 (five cents) per word up to 3,000-word maximum word count; byline given w/ photo.

Reviews:

Book Reviews – horror, suspense, and thriller fiction and related non-fiction only, but will consider works of science fiction with a horror slant. Word count not as important as presenting a well-written, objective critical analysis of the work. Reviews should include positive and negative aspects of the work, written in professional language that focuses on the book rather than the cleverness of the reviewer. That said, we welcome well-integrated color, wit, and personal style. Our interests include primarily reviews of new titles, however we have a secondary interest in catalog reviews of authors with multiple works.

Tips: If the review contains the words “I liked/disliked this book because…” chances are it will not be considered. Likewise, if the reviewer’s personal feelings about the author (the person – whether real or perceived) make it into the review, the review will subsequently not make it into our magazine.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with name of title you’re interested in submitting.

Terms: $20 per review; byline given – no photo

Short Fiction Reviews – Dark Scribe Magazine wants to offer compact reviews of individual works of short fiction published in dark genre print journals and literary magazines. Reviews of short works of horror, suspense, and other dark genres should be succinct, critical analyses of works that are thoughtfully evaluated against short story criteria. Looking for reviews of short fiction published within the 6-month window preceding issue street date.

Tips: We’re devoting space in the magazine to spotlight the short fiction format. Short stories appearing in novel or novella-length books should be reviewed within the context of the anthology or collection in which they appear; see above for full-length book review submission guidelines.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with name of short story you’re interested in reviewing. Kindly include the name of the publication in which the story appeared and the date of publication.

Terms: $10 per review; 300-word maximum; byline given – no photo

Submission Guidelines for Dark Scribe Magazine:

Send all queries to: submissions(at)darkscribepress(dot)com

Please remember that first impressions count. Your original query is important. For some useful tips on submitting email queries and our preferred format, please follow the guidelines offered here.
Queries with any kind of attachment will be deleted without being read.

State availability of photos in your query for interviews and feature pieces. Writers who go the extra mile in securing images to accompany their own pieces will impress us. Lacking the manpower of mainstream publications, writers who make our jobs easier in this regard will be strongly favored for an encore appearance in our magazine.

Once we have reviewed your query and responded indicating our interest in considering a submission, please adhere to the following format:

Send as Word attachments only – do not send submissions in body of email

Use Courier, 12-point font

Double space body of article

5-space indent at beginning of new paragraphs

No manual page breaks

No extra spacing between paragraphs – the 5-space indent will tell us where a new paragraph begins

Use 1-inch margins – this includes top, bottom, left and right

Working title of article center on page – may be all caps, no quotations

No headers or footers

No page numbers

At the top of the first page in the left-hand corner, single-spaced, please include the following information:

Name
Street Address
City, State, Zip Code
Email Address
Word Count (body of submission, excluding title)

Photos and other images will be requested once an article has been accepted for publication. When sending these, only high-resolution jpeg attachments will be accepted. A separate Word file with well-written captions and any photo credits must be included.

Novel Submissions

Dark Scribe Press is not accepting queries for novel submissions at this time. Please check back regularly for updates.