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Markets for Short Horror Stories

edited November 2011 in Writing
Hi everybody.

I have a couple of short horror stories I'm hoping to sell. I've found two anthologies that seem promising. One of them pays £5 per 1000 words and a copy of the book, the other pays a fixed rate of £9.99 and a copy of the book.

I know I'm not going to get rich from writing short horror stories but I somehow expected more than that. Do I simply have to accept that short horror stories are not fashionable and that this is the going rate? Or does someone know of a more lucrative market?

Comments

  • Anthologies never seem to pay very much.

    You could try entering them in competitions - if they don't win (or maybe even if they do depending on the submission guidelines) you can submit to the anthologies later.
  • Hi Onlinegenie

    I'm afraid that's not bad - many are exposure only. Have you looked at Duotrope.com?

    Some better-paying markets (that only accept a limited number of stories and can take up to six months to reply) include:

    * http://darktales.co.uk/
    * http://www.chizine.com
    * http://cuttingblock.net/submissions.html#hl5
    * http://eviljesterpress.lefora.com/
    * http://www.fangoria.com/ (though I've never had responses from them, or to my enquiries)
    * http://horrortree.com lists paying and non-paying markets
    * http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com
    * http://pseudopod.org
    * http://www.shocktotem.com
    * http://www.shroudmagazine.com

    Good luck!
  • [quote=LilyC]* http://www.shroudmagazine.com[/quote]

    This one isn't open to submissions at the moment. From their submissions page:

    WE WILL BE OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS FROM MARCH 1ST THROUGH APRIL 30th, 2011. We have created this reading period to help us better respond to submissions. Unfortunately submissions that come in outside of those periods will not be read. Again, we are only doing this in order to better serve our writing community.
  • Those are good rates, Online. Who are the publishers?
  • [quote=LilyC]* http://www.chizine.com[/quote]

    This one is no longer accepting submissions either.
  • Of course there's always One Buck Horror too. They want good horror up to about 3000 words at 5c p.w. That's a good rate and it has a good readership too.

    http://www.onebuckhorror.com/submissions
  • [quote=Onlinegenie]Or does someone know of a more lucrative market?[/quote]

    There's a list of markets here, categorised by the amount they pay:

    http://horror.fictionfactor.com/fiction.html
  • OOOOOHH! Many thanks for these lists, I shall duly send off some horror stories when I've got time.

    Good luck to anyone who submits.
  • The ones that aren't accepting subs at the moment do close from time to time - as do many magazines. I just thought they were worth including so anyone interested could bookmark them. That's what I do, and sub when they re-open. Both Shroud and Chizine were represented at FantasyCon 2011 - quality and respected publications.
  • I'm interrested in this too. I found Dark Tales which is more of a competition than anything else. Edge magazine the third alternative but I cant remeber if they are still listed.
    I had to look into this for my course back in january im nowehre near sending any stories out jsut yet.
  • The links are all american listings. are there any in the uk?
  • Don't get the Edge magazine Jen mentioned confused with the interactive gaming magazine of the same name...
  • ... or confused with that guitar player in U2, although I do realise that is a horror story in itself, but .....
  • That reminds me of my favourite Movie Dingbat from the 1990's. It was a cryptic clue to a film of the era-

    To Bono, me again, weather nice, wish you were here.


    film was obviously 'Postcards from the Edge'
  • Apologies for my delay in replying - it's been a very busy few weeks.

    I've submitted one of my stories to Screaming Dreams and Noose & Gibbet for their anthology "The Year" which is due to be published in 2013. The website with details of the book is at http://theyearanthology.blogspot.com/ .

    The other publisher I found is Mortbury Press, publisher of The Black Book of Horror. [email protected].

    I decided to try books rather than magazines first as I feel that being published in a book offers a form of permanence: people are more likely to keep a book than a magazine. It's nice to think that people may still be reading my story when I'm dead.

    I'll try to become a more frequent visitor to this forum and look forward to talking with you shortly.
  • Glad to hear you've made some progress OG, and good luck with your submissions.
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