Funicular
This Canadian magazine publishes “quality fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles us. Maybe all of those things in a single piece.” They primarily publish Canadian writers, and also publish international writers. Pieces selected for online publication only are unpaid.
Deadline: 16 August 2022
Length: Up to 3,000 words for fiction (or up to 3 flash pieces, 1,000 words each), up to 3 poems
Pay: CAD25/poem and flash piece, CAD10/page for short fiction, up to CAD100
Details here.
(And Epoch Magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and art – they accept online submissions in August, for which they charge a fee, and postal submissions from August to March, for which there is no fee. Pay depends on funding, and currently is $100-500. Details here.)

Craft Literary
This magazine publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, essays on writing craft, critical essays, and book annotations. They also accept completed interviews/hybrid interviews, or pitches.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Up to 1,000 words for flash fiction and CNF, up to 6,000 words for short fiction and CNF, 1,500-2,500 for craft and critical essays
Pay: $100 for flash fiction and CNF, $200 for short fiction and CNF, $50-100 for craft essays
Details here.

PseudoPod
This is an online horror magazine and podcast from Escape Artists. They are scheduled to read submissions for 10 days in August. They have extensive guidelines, including, “We’re looking for horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. We publish highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction. … Originality demands that you’re better off avoiding vampires, zombies, and other recognizable horror tropes unless you have put a very unique spin on them. What matters most is that the stories are dark and compelling.” They also accept reprints.
Reading period: 12-21 August 2022 (see schedule; and open for Anthologies and Collections from 2022 reprints till 5 August, see their Moksha submission system)
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

Tiny Tales
Their website says, “Tiny Tales is a biweekly short story podcast spanning fantasy, horror, comedy, and everything in between.
Tales are under 30 minutes, perfect for daily commutes or quick story breaks.” They want fantastic, bizarre, and enthralling fiction, and the stories typically have some kind of fantastic element.
Deadline: 7 September 2022
Length: 500-1,200 words
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.
(A couple of other speculative fiction markets open briefly for submissions in August are:
— Cirsova; their tagline is “A Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense” – they have a list of the kind of stories they’re looking for, including raygun romance, space cops, sword & planet, south sea adventure, lost world, occult detective/mystery, mad science – they pay 1.25c/word for stories of 2,000-7,500 words, deadline 7 August 2022, details here;
— Fusion Fragment, a Canadian magazine of science fiction or AF-tinged literary fiction, pays CAD3.5c/word up to CAD300 for stories of 2,000-15,000 words, deadline 7 August 2022, details here;
— And Cosmic Horror Monthly wants submissions of dark speculative fiction, widely defined, for their anthology – Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic: An Anthology of Hysteria Fiction. They want submissions
“from anyone directly at risk as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, defined inclusively.” Pay is $0.06/word up to 5,000 words. The deadline is now 8 August 2022. Details here.)

Frontier Poetry
For New Voices, submissions are free, and open year-round; they want work from new and emerging poets only, with “no more than two full-length published works forthcoming at the time of submission—email us about self-published works”. They also have fast free response for BIPOC writers. They’re open now for a prize too, which has an entry fee.
Deadline: Ongoing for New Voices
Length: Up to 5 poems
Pay: $50/poem, up to $150
Details here.

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

You can get a feel for the books they publish here. They have excellent covers. They don’t disclose their distributor but because they’ve had books featured in major reading program’s in the UK, I assume that the distribution within the UK is good.

All submissions must be made via email. They only publish adult novels, generally of the literary variety. They ask that you send the first three chapters and a synopsis. They try to respond to all submissions within 24 weeks, but if you have not heard from them during that span of time, they are not interested. Do not submit your work for consideration unless you think it is a good  fit.

To see their submission guidelines visit their about page, and scroll down.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

Querencia is always seeking full-length manuscripts and chapbooks for publication. They also periodically accept submissions for their print anthologies. Previous anthologies have contained work from around 60 contributors, and have been sold on Amazon. Right now through August 15, they’re seeking submissions for their Fall 2022 edition.

Poets may submit up to five poems for the upcoming anthology. Authors of fiction, nonfiction (including memoir), and hybrid writing may submit up to three pieces, 2,000 words or fewer each.

Authors may also submit full-length manuscripts and chapbooks to Querencia. They’re looking for chapbooks in any genre with at least 20 pieces or at least 1,500 words. Submissions over 45 pieces or over 30,000 words will be considered as full-length manuscripts. There is no word limit for full-length manuscripts.

Querencia accepts previously published writing, as long as the rights remain with the author. They also allow authors to keep the rights to writing published by Querencia.

Querencia does not charge a fee for submissions. They do not pay for anthology publications, but they do offer a competitive royalty contract for manuscripts. Because they have not been actively publishing for over a year, their manuscript publishing imprint does not qualify for a review from Authors Publish, according to our guiding principles.

Querencia accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They do accept simultaneous submissions.

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

If you would like to learn more or submit to Querencia, 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.

It’s impossible to overstate how important your opening line is. It’s your first opportunity to introduce readers to your story and motivate them to keep reading, meaning the pressure is on to make that first line stand out.

You’ve most likely been told to “hook” your readers — to get them asking the right questions and deciding that your story’s worth reading. They need to know that something interesting is happening to the protagonist, that there’s something interesting yet to be revealed, and that it’s all going to unfold in an interesting way. If your opening line doesn’t deliver that hook, it won’t be as effective and you’re more likely to lose readers’ attention.

There are several tricks to ensure you’re making the most of your all-important opening line, but they ultimately boil down to a few key points. Here are the best tips on how to write a great opening line.

1) Present the core theme/principle of the story.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice has one of the most recognizable opening lines in all of fiction. What makes it so iconic is that Austen begins not by introducing her main characters or immediate pressing stakes, but by stating the core assumption that drives the entire story forward. By identifying this principle in the first line, Austen helps readers understand a large facet of her characters’ motivations, as well as a prominent aspect of the society the story is set in.

To apply this to your own writing, consider the things your characters either know or accept to be true about the world they live in. Do any of them offer insight into your protagonists’ motivations or the story as a whole? By presenting these themes in your opening line, you can set the stage for readers and easily segue into a scene in which your characters are acting on or responding to this theme in some way.

2) Lay down some stakes.

“Dellaria Wells had misplaced her mother.” — C.M. Waggoner, The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry

This particular opening line is from the story’s first chapter, itself titled “Wherein Dellaria Hunts About for a Wayward Relation, Is Not the Recipient of Maternal Warmth, and Is Presented with an Opportunity for Gainful Employment.” These two things working in tandem create a story opening that presents interesting stakes and the promise of intrigue yet to come. In this first line, Waggoner offers an immediate conflict to be resolved as readers begin the story.

Stakes are an easy way to make it clear that something interesting (read: distressing) is happening to your protagonist. The stakes you create in your own opening line don’t have to be major — in fact, they don’t even have to be happening in the moment. The goal is to convey to readers that the protagonist must either take action or risk the problem growing worse. The drama that decision creates makes for an effective hook that will keep them reading well past the first scene.

3) Showcase your writing style.

“In the myriadic year of our Lord — the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the Kindly Prince of Death! — Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.” — Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

There’s a lot of information to be gleaned from the first line of Gideon the Ninth. From this line alone, readers can ascertain that Gideon lives in a religious society overseen by a highly respected, immortal god with heavily implied connections to necromancy, she has only a few precious belongings that matter to her (including a sword and some nude magazines), and that she’s being held somewhere mysterious against her will. There’s great characterization and world building present, but the main appeal is the style itself. Muir’s word choice — including such gems as “myriadic,” “Undying,” and “escaped” — hints toward the dark, precise, and somewhat irreverent tone that’s present through the entire story.

That’s a lot to accomplish all at once, but it’s deceptively easy. Ideally, you’ll use your opening line to present crucial information about your story, whether that’s through characterization, world building, or tone. Your approach to each of these factors is a major part of your signature writing style, and can go a long way toward catching your readers’ attention. In other words, you can hook readers simply by showing off how uniquely suited you are to telling this particular story.

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Opening lines don’t have to be difficult and stressful to write. Knowing what you’d like your first line to say about your story and communicating that with your unique personal style is a sure-fire way to start your novel off strong.