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- Video - Author and RYA instructor KC Grifant on how and why to craft a chilling opening hook for your horror short story.
- Markets and contests with submissions open or opening soon.
- November 14 - Sellable Short Stories: What Editors Want (And What To Avoid) led by award-winning author, KC Grifant. Discount code!
- Apex Magazine's Kickstarter is ending soon. Help ensure that important indie publishers like Apex Magazine are here for the speculative fiction community. [The link has been corrected this week -- apologies for last week's error!]
- NEW newsletter segment: This Week's Prompt. An interesting item from the news to provide you with fodder for your creativity. This week, "Why You Can So Often Sense When Someone Is Looking At You Even If Your Back Is Turned" from the controversial researcher, Rupert Sheldrake.
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Markets and Contests
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Many thanks to Scribophile for sponsoring this week's open submissions. Scribophile is a free welcoming community of writers where you're guaranteed to get solid critiques on your work. You can also get 20% off your first purchase using coupon code APEX20.
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- 🚀 Inner Worlds is open to submissions of speculative short stories between 500 and 2,500 words until October 31st. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🚢 Flame Tree Publishing is expanding their popular mythic anthology series with a volume on the notorious OG femme fatale: Helen of Troy. Who was Helen, really? Find out in between 3,000 and 4,000 words by November 9th. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🌱 Phylum Press is open to submissions of stories, essays, and poems inspired by the theme “Corkscrew Willow”. Send them up to 5,000 words of prose writing or up to five pages of poetry before October 31st. They’re also open to submissions of full-length manuscripts for their new press offerings. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📈 Thema is open to submissions of short stories and poems on the theme “Today’s Onerous Task.” Send them short fiction of up to 20 pages or up to three poems before November 1st. Note that for writers in the US, they prefer hard copy posted submissions; for writers elsewhere in the world, they accept submissions via email. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📚 North Atlantic Books is open to submissions of full-length nonfiction work on a range of topics including spirituality, social activism, and psychology. Send them a detailed proposal, marketing plan, and three sample chapters. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📕 Glass Poetry Press is open to submissions of poetry chapbooks between 15 and 25 pages until October 31st. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📗 Orison Books is open to submissions of full-length novels, novellas, short story collections, and nonfiction books. They’re primarily interested in literary fiction. Send them an author bio and complete manuscript before October 31st. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🖍️ Quibble is open to submissions of stories, essays, and poems on the theme of “Pastel”. Send them up to 2,000 words of prose writing or up to three poems before October 31st. No submissions fee!
- 🩸 Bloodletter is open to submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that fits their “ritualistic, aestheticized, and wild n’ feral” aesthetic. Send them up to 15 pages of prose writing or up to five poems before November 1st. No submissions fee!
- 💀 Trace Fossils Review is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Send them up to 4,000 words of prose writing or up to three poems before October 31st. No submissions fee!
- 🤒 Creation is open to submissions of stories, essays, and poems on the theme of “Fever”. Send them up to 5,000 words of prose writing or up to five poems before November 1st. No submissions fee!
- 🗞️ The Paremphasis Magazine is open to peculiar and surrealist fiction and poetry. Send them stories of up to 3,000 words or up to three poems before November 1st. No submissions fee!
- 🎙️ The Poetry Vessel Podcast is looking for submissions of poems to be read and discussed in audio form. Submit up to three standard-length poems, or up to 10 haiku. No submissions fee!
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Out of hundreds of stories in the slush pile, what makes an editor say “yes” to just a few?
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Learn what elements you can control (and which you can’t) to maximize your chances of publication. Ideal for writers of horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres, this workshop offers insights on how to rise above the slush pile and grab an editor’s attention while staying true to your story.
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You’ll learn what red flags can garner instant rejections from editors, practical techniques for honing your tales, and efficient strategies for submitting to markets.
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- A behind-the-scenes, detailed look at the selection process from slush pile to publication from an editor’s point of view
- Common and not-so-common pitfalls in openings and endings, and how to fix them
- How to use—and subvert—familiar genre tropes to make your work stand out
- Efficient techniques for self-editing
- A deep dive into trending markets and industry best practices
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You’ll walk away with practical tools to elevate your short fiction, as well as a roadmap for getting your work into magazines, anthologies, podcasts and more.
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FROM THE KICKSTARTER PAGE: This Kickstarter allows Apex to pay our authors a pro rate of $0.08 per word for original fiction. We also pay for cover art, reprints, and nonfiction. Plus, website and other technical fees.
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In addition, we feel the work of our hard-working editorial team needs to be compensated in some small way. While no one on the Apex team is making a living wage through our work with Apex, it is important to us that our editors are paid for all of the time they give to bring our readers new issues.
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Our initial Kickstarter goal of $20,000 will give us the funds to publish four issues of Apex Magazine.
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Support independent publishers whenever you can :)
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This Week's Prompt
Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 100 technical papers in scientific journals and nine books. But that's a tame description, really. Sheldrake's work exists on the edges of hard science, primarily focused on consciousness. He's controversial, and therefore, he's a great source of inspiration. This piece in "The Guardian" is from 2023 but is based upon work he's been doing for a decade or more.
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Thank you so much for being a newsletter subscriber. We love our supportive, weird, and wonderful community. Don't hesitate to reply to this email if you have something to tell us. I read every email and will respond.
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