Future House focuses on publishing “adult science fiction and fantasy, as well as middle grade adventure books that embrace community, liberty, and family”. All of the work is clean, free of excessive violence. You can get a feel for what they publish here.

They prefer to work with authors that have plans for a series of 3 or more books. They are represented for TV and Film development by Kaplan Stahler Agency. Foreign Rights are represented by DropCap Rights Agency.

Future House has excellent distribution through Workman. You can read more about them in Publishers Weekly.

They describe themselves as a “family-friendly publisher”. This means that they do not publish anything with excessive profanity, sexual content, or graphic violence. They will not consider work with that sort of content. Adult manuscripts should be between 70,000-90,000 words. Middle grade submissions should be between 40,000-60,000 words in length.

They ask that you submit using a Google Docs form.

To learn more, go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2020 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

Periwinkle is published online and as a print-on-demand journal. Since launching in October 2019, they’ve published four issues. Before submitting, it’s a good idea to read the latest issue of Periwinkle to get a sense of their style.

Now through May 30, Periwinkle is seeking submissions for their upcoming edition, themed “High Tea.” Poets may submit up to five poems. Authors of fiction may submit up to three stories, 5,000 words or fewer. Authors of nonfiction may submit up to two pieces, 4,000 words or fewer. Authors may submit in more than one genre.

Periwinkle aims to showcase a wide variety of voices, including those of marginalized authors. They also work with authors to polish pieces that show promise but aren’t publication ready.

Periwinkle accepts submissions via email, not by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, but they ask that authors note these submissions in a cover letter and withdraw work published elsewhere. They do not accept previously published work.

Periwinkle only accepts submissions that follow they guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Periwinkle, please visit their website here.

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

AGNI
They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translations, and essays. They are interested in personal essays, think-pieces, memoir, prose poems, formal poems, blank verse, free verse, short stories, and short shorts; they do not publish academic essays or purely journalistic writing. All work submitted to them will be considered for print and online publishing.
Deadline: 31 May 2021
Length: No word limits – one essay or short story; up to five poems
Pay: $10/page of prose, $20/page of poetry, up to $150
Details here.

One Story
They publish one literary fiction story per issue, which can be of any style and on any subject. Their guidelines say, “We are looking for stories that leave readers feeling satisfied and are strong enough to stand alone.” Regarding reprints, if a story has been published in print (not online) outside of North America, it will be considered. They also accept translations. Apart from cash, they also give 25 contributor copies as payment.
Deadline: 31 May 2021
Length: 3,000-8,000 words
Pay: $500
Details here.
(Teenaged writers might be interested in One Teen Story, which accepts fiction via a competition; submissions will open in fall 2021.)

Scare Street: Night Terrors
They want short horror stories with a focus on ghosts, the supernatural, paranormal, monsters, and dark tales for their Night Terrors anthology. They want work that is dark and literary.
Deadline: 31 May 2021
Length: 3,000-7,000 words
Pay: “$10 per 1,000 words” ($0.01/word)
Details here.

(Another anthology that seeks supernatural fiction is Railroad Tales, by Midnight Street Press; they want stories “that involve the supernatural in connection with railroads, railways, or any aspect of rail travel or location. The stories should be set at any point in the past and be historically accurate where appropriate.” Send stories of 2,000-10,000 words; pay is £50, and the deadline is 31 May 2021.)

Escape Artists: Escape Pod
This is an online and audio science fiction magazine. Their guidelines say, “We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (we’ll delve into superheroes or steampunk on occasion) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center on science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things intersect with people.” They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 31 May 2021
Length: 1,500-6,000 words (longer for reprints)
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (guidelines) and here (schedule).

(An associated market, PseudoPod, is also open. They want reprints of horror fiction. Pay is $20 for flash reprints, $100 for short fiction reprints; the deadline is 31 July 2021.)

Uncharted
This is a new magazine. They will debut in August 2021. They are reading crime, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and thriller short stories. Their website says, “Uncharted Magazine is the newest platform from the team behind The Masters Review, CRAFT Literary, Fractured Lit, and The Voyage Journal. Using the skills and expertise we developed to bring those magazines to life, we hope to uplift writers of the stories that we always fall back upon when we seek a thrilling escape, a surprising new world, or a brain-twisting mystery.” They plan to read stories throughout the year.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 1,000-5,000 words
Pay: $200
Details here and here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

Rupert’s Snowman is my dyslexic friendly picture book for children aged 2-6 published in September 2020 by the all-female publishing house Purple Butterfly Press. It is based on a true story about a boy who refuses to leave his snowman behind after a snow day spent with his mummy. The heart melting story gives children a chance to lose themselves in a winter wonderland, meet woodland animals and to explore a central message of empathy.

The book launch had hundreds of influencers sharing an avalanche of posts about the book. The energy was incredible and although I was alone, recording a live Facebook launch instead of signing books at my local bookshop, Harts, my entire Instagram community showed up. The book was launched into the wild but it felt like sending a child to school with its loyal friends!

I have run a children’s after-school activity club for 10 years and as an early-years educator, wanted to ensure that the positive messages within the book could be translated into fun activities to engage even the most reluctant of readers.

Ten months ahead of my book launch I set up the Instagram account @ruperts_snowman. I wrote a lesson plan of just 10 activities connected to the themes of the book and added them to my website as a free printable PDF. I asked my son to complete the activities and then I posted the results on Instagram and shared details of how to download them, thus driving people to the website.

A favorite activity is my Look Through The Snowman Lens, It’s a simple snowman shaped template to cut out and take outside. A prompt in each corner asks the child “What can you hear, smell, see?” through the hole and importantly, “How do you feel?” I was able to take my lens outside throughout the year in the build-up to the launch and post pictures to the Instagram account of my son, tracking the sight and sounds of the changing seasons. I was essentially marketing a Christmas tale during the hottest months of the year, so it was a handy visual tool to remind people of Rupert’s Snowman whilst showing lovely images of a rural setting in the Spring and Summer.

Concentrating on just one social media platform was key to the book’s successful launch. During the 9 months before the launch, I engaged in a meaningful way to a dedicated audience. Using the hashtags #activitieswithkids, #bookishplay, #bookishactivities, #readandplay, #playathome, and #homeschool, I built a community of teachers, bloggers, parents, librarians, and carers.

The most active members of the audience were the people crafting activities around children’s picture books and there are thousands of them on Instagram. Most would complete a simple activity from the PDF and tag me, others would recreate the entire story with puppets that I was able to share over multiple days. Crafts included story spoons, snow globes, meringue snowmen, hot chocolate recipes, 3D paper snowmen templates, story baskets and story trays, and more.

Below are puppets made by influencer @Iggle_and_co

I started to send out PDFs of the book in exchange for a craft idea using the hashtag @ruperts_snowman, which resulted in hundreds more fantastic children’s activities and book sales. [SAYS ‘USING THE HASHTAG – SHOULD IT HAVE # INSTEAD OF @ ?]

Scene created by a story crafter:

Rupert’s Snowman uses the dyslexic friendly font Blockhead Unplugged chosen by the illustrator Grace Ward. It’s a playful font with plenty of space between the letters and words to allow them to breathe. Using the hashtags #dyslexiaawareness, #dyslexiafriendly, #succeedwithdyslexia, #dearfordyslexia, and #reluctantreaders attracted a new community to my account and I’m now in discussion with a number of dyslexia organizations and bloggers about how to make my next picture book even more appealing to reluctant readers and those with dyslexia. Ideas include using the font Century Gothic in addition to Blockhead Unplugged and to use tinted pages rather than a white background upon which the words can appear to dance and be difficult to read; even using off-white can make a difference.

My downloadable Empathy Goggles template to cut out and make are a fun resource for children and teachers to make with their children and pupils and wear whilst reading the story. They encouraged the young reader to try to imagine how the main characters feel, for example “How do you think Rupert felt when he had to leave the snowman behind?” I photographed my son wearing them and used the hashtags #empathyaroundtheglobe, #globalempathy, and #empathy. This brought new followers to my account and I was able to engage in genuine conversations with these influencers, who were starting to spread the word about my book and crucially, committing to sharing a picture of the book on launch day.

Rupert enjoyed wearing the empathy goggles.

Seven months later, that community – having bought the book – are still engaged and have posted reviews. My next book is with the illustrator and I’m considering placing the activities at the back of the book, although having them as a downloadable PDF does drive people to my website. Here they can access the blog, see the stockists, read the reviews and watch the videos people have made for me.

See all activities @ruperts_snowman, and learn more about my work here.