Sub/Contest Ops

Atom Jack Magazine has an open call for The Butterfly Effect, a SF e-anthology of "alternate future fiction." According to the site: "These are stories that ask questions like what would the colonization of the moon be like if the Nazis had won? What would first contact be like if the Confederates had stomped the Yanks? How might the negation of the extinction of the dinosaurs affect the zombie wars of 2059 and 2170? Change an event in the past and see what the future holds for mankind (or apekind, in the case of however the hell Planet of the Apes works.)" Now there's someone who never suffered through the originals.* Payment: Poem / Flash - $15 (<1000 words or 100 lines); Short story - $30 (1000 words to 10K words.) No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines page for more details. Deadline: May 31, 2009.

The 2009 Al Blanchard Award Contest is now open for submissions; prizes: $100.00, publication in an antho, and admission to the New England Crime Bake Conference. Stories must be by a New England author or take place in a New England setting, 5K or longer, and should be in the mystery, thriller, suspense, caper, or horror genres. (No torture/killing of children or animals.) No reprints, see guidelines page for more details. Deadline May 31, 2009.

Niteblade Horror and Fantasy Magazine has an open call for their as-yet-untitled print anthology #2. Looks like you have to get accepted by the mag first, then their readers vote for whoever gets into the print antho. Looking for SF, fantasy and horror fiction and poems, Pays $1 + contributor copy, length 10K or less, no reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines page for more details.

ReviewFuse has kind of an interesting monthly contest going; evidently you submit short stories but you win the contest for $50.00 by giving the best critiques of the three finalist stories selected by the staff. That's definitely different. No fee, but you must submit a select number of crits as per their guidelines. This could be fun for those of you who give good crit -- check out the guidelines page for more details.

Rymfire Books has an open call for horror stories for an anthology titled Vermin; they're also looking for novella submissions by single authors for e-books. Reading period for both is April 15, 2009 through June 15, 2009. Anthology subs: Payment $3.00 per story plus possible royalties, lengths: 2.5-7.5K, stories should be about "those tiny, menacing feet inside the walls, creatures watching you from the darkenss of the halls at midnight... you tell me, and make it creepy! And PLEASE no generic 'rat-creature in the attic, kills the exterminator, etc.' tales... be original!" reprints okay. Novella subs: Payment $25.00, lengths: 25,000 - 65,000 words, genres preferred: Horror, non-fiction Heavy Metal-themed, query on reprints, electronic subs only. They've also got another open-call anthology with a reading period beginning May 15, 2009; see guidelines page for more details on all three.

Who says you can't get paid to be a twit?** The first Twitter-only market I've found, Thaumatrope, has reopened to submissions for stories and serials. Serials: "Tell us a Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror serial (which will be published over the course of one month, approximately 30-45 tweets) with each entry being under 140 characters. Other than that, we’re just looking for good stories." Stories: "Tell us a Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror story in under 140 characters. Other than that, we’re just looking for good stories." Payment: "We pay $1.20 per entry—which equates to a minimum payment of approximately 5¢/word (considering a “word” to be 6 characters)" -- and this applies to both stories and serials. Evidently they're a little ticked that they're not considered by SFWA as a professional market***, but que sera, guys. No reprints, must submit via online form, see guideline pages for more details.

*That was not an insult.

**That was.

***You have got to be kidding me. Twitter? Not a pro market? Say it isn't so!

All of the above market and contest listings were found over at Ralan's place.