Writer's Guidelines

Submission guidelines for Weekly Articles (reviews) and Monthly Flash Fiction (original work).

PLEASE NOTE: WE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY NEW FLASH FICTION SUBMISSIONS UNTIL MARCH 2010! (In the meantime we will respond as quickly as we can to all current outstanding submissions. We are overflowing with great dark fiction and we thank all the authors for their continued patience!

Weekly Articles

We’re looking for recommendation articles on any material that is simultaneously disturbing and well crafted; movies, books, comics, art, objects, games, and more—Not simply horror!  Excellent unsettling content is hidden in many different genres and we’re interested in all of it.

We’re also looking for people to review events that feature disturbing and well crafted content; film fests, conventions, and gallery exhibitions.

Guidelines

  • All articles should be 300 - 500 words in length.  Longer will not be considered.  Our reviews are bite sized and should not contain spoilers, in depth study, or drawn out psychoanalysis.
  • No negative focused articles.  We review only the things we enjoy, endorse, and want to promote.  This does not mean that occasional faults cannot be mentioned, but we do not accept ‘trash’ reviews or anti-recommendations.
  • We are currently a non-paying market for weekly articles, but will happily endorse our contributors by linking to a website or product.
  • We like both ‘timely’ and ‘timeless’ material.  Feel free to dredge the past for forgotten frights and long lost terrors.  Reviews on new material right out of the gate are also appreciated.  Please mark any submissions that are pre-release or date sensitive as ‘timely’ in the subject line.
  • If the subject of your article has a website, please include links to it.
  • If it is an event or something you attended we would appreciate a selection of pictures as well (.jpg or .bmp format).
  • We only accept electronic submissions.  See below for our formatting guidelines.

Monthly Flash Fiction

Technical Guidelines

  • All stories are published in two formats: first - posted to the website and available for viewing for one month, second - put into a collection anthology at the end of the year.
  • We ask for Electronic Rights for one year from time of online posting and One Time Rights for one year from time of anthology publication and utilize a contract to ensure this.
  • All stories must be no longer than 1000 words in length.
  • We currently pay $5.00 per piece and one contributor copy of the annual anthology. We will also happily endorse our contributors by linking to a website or product.
  • We only accept electronic submissions.  See below for our formatting guidelines. We take our formatting guidelines very seriously and advise you do so as well.
  • We do not want to see simultaneous submissions. Reprints are ok as long as you own the rights to it. Multiple submissions are fine, but please limit them to three and send them attached to a single email.
  • Submissions will be responded to with an auto-email. If you do not get this email, please resubmit.
  • We have a 12 week response time. Feel free to query if you don't hear from us in 3 months.

Content Guidelines

  • Genre is not incredibly relevant as long as the material is disturbing and well crafted.  Typically crime, horror, and supernatural are the sorts of things we go for but we would not rule out sci-fi, fantasy, etc... if it's compelling enough.
  • We are interested in stories that get to the point, single scenes, tip of the iceberg sort of thing.  One supercharged dramatic moment of conflict. It need not be an entire story.
  • Too much gore is not an issue, surprise us!  Profanity is also not an issue, but keep the word count in mind. 
  • We’ve seen a lot of material.  The further from typical horror the more likely the story will get our attention.  We’d like to see more realistic sociopaths.  We’d love to see more creative supernatural threats.  We have no desire at all to see any more vampires.  We’re similarly not really excited by anything with pointy ears or wings.
  • We get a lot of torture and revenge stories. We like these, but it's not all we're looking for. Stories should do horrible things to more than the deserving and the helpless.
  • Put us in the action; don't tell the story, show the experience.
  • We're not opposed to strange and disturbing forms of humor. Laughter and fear work well together.

  • This is flash; make every word count!

Formatting Guidelines.

  • Do not send submissions in the body of an email.  These will be disregarded.
  • We only accept submissions as attachments in a “stripped down” format.  Please use NotePad, or a similar simple format (.rtf preferred).  This makes text transfers into different formats possible without errors.
  • Place your full name and contact information in the upper left of the first page.
  • Place the total word count of your submission in the upper right of the first page.
  • In the center of the first page, half way down, place the title of your piece with your name as you would like it to appear beneath it.
  • Please add a 20-50 word bio with any submission.  Place this after the submission.  If there is a website you would like us to link back to you, put it here.

Contacts

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