The most popular question I see asked on Twitter and other social media platforms is, “Where should I submit my work?” It’s something I struggled with when I first started out trying to sell my stories. If you’re a writer of horror or any dark speculative fiction, two great sites to check for open submissions are:
Dark Markets – https://www.darkmarkets.com – @darkmarkets
and,
Horror Tree – https://horrortree.com – @HorrorTree
The people who run these sites work hard to keep submission callouts up to date and have an extensive catalogue of places to submit, websites to check out, and anthologies to get involved in.
Before you submit:
- Always, ALWAYS read submission guidelines carefully before you submit.
- Submit work in standard manuscript format unless the guidelines say otherwise.
- Check if you can submit via an online submission form such as Moshka or Hey Publisher etc.
- Two services for finding places to submit to and tracking submissions are https://duotrope.com/ and https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/. Duotrope costs but is much easier to use.
- Add a great cover letter and short bio including your contact details, email, website and social media links.
While this is in no way an exhaustive list, here are some of my top (usually) paying markets to submit to:
Allegory – https://www.allegoryezine.com – SF/F/H
Apex – https://www.apex-magazine.com – @apexmag – SF/F/H
Black Static – http://ttapress.com/blackstatic/ – @TTApress – H
Breach (NZ/Australian writers) – https://www.breachzine.com – @breachzine – SF/H/dark fantasy
Clarkesworld – http://clarkesworldmagazine.com – @clarkesworld – SF/F
Fireside – https://firesidefiction.com – @FiresideFiction – SF/F/H
Flametree – https://www.flametreepublishing.com – @flametreepress – F/Gothic
Nosleep – https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep – @NosleepPodcast – Realistic Horror
Pseudopod – http://pseudopod.org – @Pseudopod_org – Horror
Podcastle – http://podcastle.org – @PodCastle_org – Fantasy
Escapepod – http://escapepod.org – @escapepodcast – SF
Strange Horizons – http://strangehorizons.com – @strangehorizons – SF/F/H/fantastica
The Dark Magazine – http://thedarkmagazine.com – @thedarkmagazine – H/Dark Fantasy
Three Crows – https://threecrowsmagazine.com – @MagazineCrows – SF/F
Uncanny – https://uncannymagazine.com – @UncannyMagazine – SF/F
Unnerving – https://www.unnervingmagazine.com/ – @UnnervingMag – Horror & suspense