Where To Submit

1. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The granddaddy of them all and still going strong, this is the world’s most prestigious venue for short-form crime and mystery fiction. They pay 5 to 8 CPW, but can take a year or more to review your submission.
2. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The sister publication to Hitchcock’s, this is equally prestigious for short crime fiction. They pay 5 to 8 CPW, and review rather faster, but have less tolerance for the ghoulish or supernatural.
3. Writers of the Future Contest. The most influential contest in the industry, this is open only to people who have three or fewer professionally published stories.
4. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. F&SF is the godfather, the brass ring. They pay up to 12 CPW, up to 25,000 words. Sweet spot is between 3,000 and 7,500. Link to writer guidelines is toward the bottom of the main page on the right side. Slow turnaround.
5. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. “The world’s leading science fiction and fact”, Analog has been around forever. Hard sci-fi only, with stories revolving around the science (think “Frankenstein”). They pay between 8 and 10 CPW for short fiction up to 20,000 words. They also consider serialized novels up to 80,000 words, for which they pay 6 CPW.
6. Clarkesworld. They get 1200 submissions per month and accept less than a dozen. They pay 10 CPW for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or whatever. Submission guidelines on top menu. Fast turnaround for rejections.
7. Asimov’s Science Fiction. They pay between 8 and 10 CPW for short fiction up to 7,500, and then 8 CPW for anything over that length. Fast turnaround for rejections.
8. Apex Magazine. Apex pays 8 CPW for stories up to 7,500 – fantasy, sci-fi, and anything in between. The editors tend toward darker, more disturbing work but stop short of horror. They also hold a monthly themed flash contest.
9. Uncharted Magazine. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller, Crime, Mystery — Uncharted buys it all, $200 per story. 1000-5000 words; one-month cooldown between submissions. Reprints considered.
10. Uncanny Magazine. Rarely open for submissions, they pay 10 CPW, 750 on up, genre-fluid. You’ll find the link to the submission guidelines in the dropdown menu under the “About” tab.
11. Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. Paying 6 CPW this isn’t quite a pro ‘zine, but Now paying 8 CPW, it’s well worth the effort. They want intelligent (but absolutely vegetarian) stories in the science fiction, fantasy, myth, fairy tale, and ‘eldritch’ sub-genres. The submissions link is in the banner at the top of the home page. 1st and 2nd of any given month.
12. Beneath Ceaseless Skies. They’re looking for “literary adventure fantasy: stories with a secondary-world setting and some fantasy feel”. Rate of pay is 8 CPW.
13. Old Moon. Dark fantasy, preferably eldritch. 8CPW, 1000-6000 words, two issues annually.
14. Diabolical Plots. Run by David Steffen of Submission Grinder fame, they pay 10 CPW with a firm 3500-word max for horror, fantasy, or sci-fi. Their submissions windows are not often open. Publication is largely online, with periodic anthology print edition releases.
15. Strange Horizons. SH considers fantasy stories, SF, and weird tales of every kind. While there’s an official word limit of up to 10,000, they prefer stories under 5,000 words. They pay 10 CPW.
16. Escapepod. Both print and audio. They accept original stories and reprints. Originals pay 8 CPW, 1500-6000 for short stories. Reprints pay $100, 1500-7500 / 7500-18000. There’s a link to submission guidelines at the top of the home page. Also available are PseudoPod, Cast of Wonders (YA), PodCastle, and CatsCast (Cats, obviously).
17. Cast of Wonders. YA short stories and flash fiction, 8 CPW. Detailed guidelines under the submissions tab at the top of the page.
18. Lightspeed is prestigious with a broad remit (different calls on the first week of every month, including flash). Fantasy Magazine (CLOSING! rarely open except to BIPOC anyway) and Nightmare can be reached from the top banner, making this a three-fer.
19. Zooscape. All things Furry, whether fantasy or sci-fi. 8CPW.
20. The Fabulist. Broad remit for short fiction, but only a $25 honorarium. However, in Nov 23, they launched the Fabulist Flash at $100 per story.
21. Sci-Fi Shorts. This outlet for sci-fi flash fiction provides one new story per day weekday, target: 1000 words. They operate on a shares basis, with writers splitting the take with the magazine and dividing it between themselves on a percentage contribution basis. They pay $10 per story, with a monthly contest for $100.
22. Orion’s Belt. New outlet; 8 CPW up to 1200 words. Fast response time; almost no production content.
23. Small Wonders. They’re new, but they pay ten cents a word (or one cent for reprints). 1000 words; fantasy or sci-fi. Submissions link is in the top menu bar.
24. Flash Fiction Online. Name says it all. 1st-21st of each month; $80 for a 500-1000 word piece. Cross-genre or plain literary fiction. Closed every June.
25. Frozen Wavelets. Speculative flash fiction, including reprints; pro rates. 750 words or less for original (no minimum) and 500-1500 for reprints. Irregular acceptance periods; seasonal release.
26. Factor Four Magazine. Fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, supernatural, speculative. Shorts, max 1000 words. Pay is 11 CPW, plus royalties from anthologies.
27. Nature. Believe it or not, Nature is a market for flash sci-fi in their Futures section. $130 for a 850-950 word story. Generally, near-future hard sci-fi.
28. SmokeLong Quarterly. Pay is $100 for flash. Literary and strange is their remit.
29. Fractured Lit. Pay is $50 for micro (400) and $75 for flash (1000). They also run for-pay contests.
30. Short Editions. This venue has an online magazine but primarily distributes short fiction by means of dispensers, located in transit hubs and waiting rooms around the world. Payment is by annual royalty, with a 100 Euro advance due upon acceptance. 7500 character maximum for fiction, which equates to about 1350 words.
31. CRAFT Literary. Flash is $100, short fiction $200, creative NF, essays on the craft of writing $50-100, occasional contests. Broad remit, including speculative and slipstream, but pure horror, mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi are probably not their ideal. Long submission.
32. Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. $50 per acceptance, 600 words. Loose definition of “compressed” and puns on “matter”. Biannual submissions period, spring and fall. Option for paid editorial response.
33. Metastellar. This is an online-only publication with periodic print anthologies that relies largely on unpaid contributions. Twice a year (March and October) they open for a month for 1200wd Flash submissions, for which they pay 8 CPW.
34. Taco Bell Quarterly. The Paris Review’s bastard stepchild, they take anything so long as it’s cool and contains a Taco Bell reference. Shoehorn a bean burrito in and they’re happy. Flat pay of $100, short pieces preferred, like 500-1500 words.
35. Apparitions Literary Magazine. The submissions link is in the banner menu; they pay 5 cents per word. While publishing in the supernatural sub-genre, they state they want stories with “enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. We’re looking for proactive characters and beautiful language”. Each edition is themed and has a limited window. They also do reprints and flash fiction.
36. Tree and Stone. All genres, including soft speculative. Flash, $20; otherwise, 2 CPW. Solid pay for art. Soft warm-fuzzy preferred, with a heavy leaning toward Queer and BIPOC.
37. Three-Lobed Burning Eye. A fantasy market with a broad remit; so they also publish horror and SF. Publishes online bi-annually and issues a print anthology every second year. They pay a flat fee of $100 (US) for fiction.
38. The Deadlands. Ten cents per word up to 5000. They aren’t horror, exactly; their remit is all things deathly. A suicide fixation is definitely in their line.
39. The No Sleep Podcast. You won’t see your work in print with this horror venue, but it will be published as an audio recording read by a skilled actor. They pay $100-125 (US) for short stories. The submissions link is in the menu at the top of the page. Note that they have their own unique requirements, such as no tabs, Calibri 14, and so on.
40. The Dark Magazine. The editors want dark fantasy and borderline horror, although they shy away from graphic horror and gratuitous violence. They pay 6 5 CPW.
41. Grimdark Magazine. Patreon-based publication, semi-irregular. They want grimdark in a medieval fantasy or sci-fi setting. 7CPW AUD for original (up to 4000 words), and 1CPW reprint (up to 10k). Dark characters, morally gray decisions.
42. Abyss & Apex. 8CPW up to $80, 10k words max. Anything speculative. Closed submissions until mid-2024.
43. Translunar Travelers Lounge. They focus on fun F&SF stories up to 5,000 words. They pay 3 CPW. Hover over the “About TTL” tab and select the submissions link form the drop-down menu to get the details. Calls are twice a year, beginning September and March 15th.
44. OnSpec. The Canadian sci-fi mag. They like trendsetting stories, and will pay $100CAN for a short-short (2000 words max) or 5CPW for up to 6000.
45. Pulp Literature. Despite the title, they’re not looking for ‘pulp fiction’. They want literary speculative fiction. Payment is 5 to 8 CPW. To get to the guidelines, go down to the bottom left of the footer and click the link there.
46. Sci Phi Journal. They want idea-driven rather than character-driven stories. Based in Belgium but open to submissions worldwide, they pay 3 CPW (EU) for original work up to 2,000 words.
47. Air and Nothingness Press. Anthology publisher that pays pro rates and has 4-5 calls per year.
48. Interstellar Flight Press. Annual calls for flash in the fall; periodic seasonal other calls. 8CPW 1250 wds, 3 entries. Online mag plus anthology.
49. Zombies Need Brains. An anthology imprint with multiple projects per year, and also a Patreon-based magazine with three submissions the first week of each July. Pro rates.
50. The Archive. Sans Press accepts submissions of short works of all genres, up to 2000 words, for occasional brief periods. They want “the weird, the unexpected, the completely new”, for which they pay a flat €50. In exchange they claim non-exclusive rights for two years. They also run periodic contests, for which they pay rather more.
51. Gothic. Classic horror plus reviews, news, and features. They pay a flat fee of $60 (US) per story. The link to the submissions guidelines is down in the footer.
52. Third Flatiron. Does themed anthologies, between 1500-3000 words. Flash humor also accepted, 600-1000 words. 8 CPW.
53. The School Magazine. For children, fantasy stories under 1,500 words. Professional rates. To get to the submission guidelines, first click the ‘Contribute’ tab at the top of the homepage, then choose ‘Writers’.
54. Little Blue Marble. The editors are looking for “speculative fiction that examines humanity’s possible futures living with anthropogenic climate change.” They’re not interested in dystopian fiction or tales of abandoning Earth. Positive outlooks and bright futures are their stock in trade. They pay 11 CPW (CA). The link to submission guidelines in hidden way down in the footer.
55. The Fairy Tale Magazine. Four issues per year, brief submissions windows usually in the spring. $50 flat compensation, 1000-5000 words.
56. Dark Matter Magazine. STILL OPEN FOR ANTHOLOGIES. 8 cents a word for originals, 2 cents for reprints, 1000-5000 words. Dark sci-fi, horror, weird, and sci-fi horror. They do seven issues per year plus the occasional anthology; open call times strongly favor BIPOC/LGBTQ+ writers.
57. Cosmass Infinities. CLOSING. Once only open to LGBTQA+ and BIPOC authors, they recently opened their doors to anyone and everyone — for one week every October. Science fiction and fantasy stories. 8 CPW. The submissions tab is in the top menu bar.
58. Dark Moon Digest. APPEARS DEFUNCT. A quarterly published in eBook and print editions, this is a popular venue for traditional horror writing. They pay 3 CPW. Scroll down the home page to find the green text link to the submission guidelines.
59. The Lark. DEFUNCT. Pays their writers “something” and is non-genre-specific.
60. The Dread Machine. CLOSED. Dark fiction, slipstream, sci-fi, and so on. 5 CPW.
61. Centropic Oracle. APPEARS DEFUNCT. They want “science fiction and fantasy stories that make you feel and think” between 1,500 and 6,500 words. The payment model is an upfront fee of 1 CPW (CA) plus a royalty based on reader donations made on your story. They also pay a 33% royalty on profits from the audio version. There’s a big, bold, submissions link right on the landing page.
62. Boneyard Soup Magazine. EXTENDED HIATUS. Boneyard Soup accepts most horror sub-genres apart from excessive gore and gratuitous sexual content. They pay 5 CPW. Submission link is in the header.
63. The Arcanist. APPEARS TO HAVE CLOSED. 10 CPW for flash, micro, or nonfiction. Once per week deliveries to your inbox.
64. Lamp Light. APPEARS TO BE OUT OF PRINT. Dark Fantasy. “Stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling.” 3 CPW up to a maximum of $150.
65. Black Static. CLOSING. Horror. Payment varies, up to 8 CPW for short fiction max 10,000 words.
66. Deep Magic. CLOSED. “Gripping stories that don’t rely on sex, swearing, and graphic violence”. Quarterly; pro rates.
67. Constelación Magazine. DEFUNCT. Bilingual, English and Spanish. Speculative fiction. 8 CPW.
68. Daily Science Fiction. DEFUNCT. They also publish fantasy etc. Pay rate is 10 CPW. Flash fiction up to 1500 words.

Other Venues

1. Yankee Magazine. The down side is, they buy all rights, so if you were ever planning to publish an anthology, write more. Submissions are by email; they accept pitches, informative writing, and so on. Essays about the New England Experience should be 600-800 words.
2. Down East Magazine. Decent rates for reporting; My Maine section pays a flat $400 for 800-1500 words of non-fiction. No fiction is accepted; sentimentalism is preferred. Submissions emails are listed under the Contact Us menu item.
3. The Threepenny Review. Pays professional rates for short fiction up to 4,000 words. They prefer shorter pieces. 2,500 words is a good average, for which the payment is a flat fee of $400 (US). The submissions link is in the tiny, almost illegible strap menu under the header.
4. Cricket. A well-established and highly respected publication for young readers between 9 and 14 years old. The competition is fierce, so be especially careful to follow the guidelines and submit only your best work. You can find the submissions guidelines in the drop-down menu under the “more” tab. The website is a general hub for Cricket Media and you must click through again to the magazine for which you want to write. At 25 CPW, this is an excellent market.
5. Baltimore Review. This publication styles itself as “a literary hub of diverse writing”. In addition to open submissions, they also run competitions from time to time. Guidelines and submission details are under the “Submit” tab at the top of the page. Low pay.
6. The New Yorker. Look, it’s The New Yorker, what do you need to know? Get your short fiction published here and you can expect not only handsome payment but a big boost to your writing career. For the guidelines, you’ll need to scroll all the way down to the small print in the imposing black footer. Click on the “Contact Us” link. Scroll down to the fiction section.
7. Brevity. Nonfiction essays, 750 words max, $45.