They will be accepting original, unpublished speculative fiction novellas that are between 17,500 to 40,000 words in length. They will pay $.10 per word (including audio rights), which is a professional rate. If you are unsure that your novella counts as unpublished, please query first.

All stories must be submitted through their Moksha submission system and must follow the following rules:

 All stories should be in Modern Manuscript Format and attached in .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX formats. Please feel free to include your pronouns (optional) along with your name and email address in the upper left corner of your manuscript. Note, you do not need to add your mailing address or legal name to your manuscript. We will only ask for that information if your story is chosen for publication.

Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your significant publishing history and awards, and information that might be relevant to that specific submission.

Please do not send multiple submissions at once.

They try to respond to all submissions within 30 days, and welcome queries after that point.

They will also be open to short stories (750-6000 words) submissions from May 16 to May 30.

To learn more, please visit their submission guidelines here.

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.

We’ve reviewed Sourcebooks before here, and their Romance imprint here. Their Horror imprint is now a few years old and they have published a lot of books under that imprint now, although it’s hard to know exactly how many because they still do not have a formal Horror section on the site. Their book covers for this imprint are really well done. They have published many of Darcy Coates books, and they all appear to have sold well. The search function has been improved and searching the site for horror, can now bring up a lot of options that are actually in that genre.

They are actively seeking agented and unagented submissions of horror fiction between 80,000 and 100,000 words in length. They are looking for “strong writers of all ethnicities, races, sexualities, gender identities, abilities and ages, whose stories have something fresh to offer in the Horror genre.​”

All submissions must be made via email with word attachments. Include a 1-3 page synopsis which discloses the ending, a short query letter in the email itself, and if you have a track record include your sales history. You should also attach the full manuscript. They try to respond to all submissions within 8-12 weeks.

To learn more and to see their full submission guidelines, go here.

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.

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I’ll always remember the expression on the teacher’s face when I told him I wanted to be a writer. It was a look of amusement and mild shock, with maybe a touch of sympathy. Years later, it dawned on me that he probably thought I was being sarcastic. I wasn’t. I was deadly serious. Being a writer is the only thing I ever wanted to do, but people from the economically deprived valleys of south Wales don’t usually write for a living.

Admittedly, I wasn’t the best pupil in the world. Like many others, I felt I just didn’t fit into the neat little box the education system wanted to put me in. As a result, I left school at 16 with no qualifications and went to work at a local factory. It was hard, physical work with minimal career prospects, and it didn’t take long to work out I didn’t want to do it forever.

I decided to channel my frustration into making good on my long-held dream of becoming a writer. The problem was, I lacked all the necessary skills. I wasn’t computer savvy, I couldn’t even type, and I had no concept of the business side of writing. But I wasn’t going to let little things like that deter me, and set about researching and writing what would eventually become my first book. I chose a topic, Welsh history and folklore, that I was already passionate about, and saw the project primarily as a learning exercise.

Having only a limited amount of free time in which to work on it each day actually helped me. I devised a routine whereby I would write religiously for an hour a night, and time management became critical. I would spend most of the day at work stringing words together in my head and making notes when my supervisor wasn’t looking. By the time I could actually sit down and write I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

It was a slow process. But even slow progress is progress. There was a lot of research involved, which usually meant trips to various museums and libraries as a lot of the information I sought wasn’t digitized.

Time went by, and eight years later, I was in a position to approach publishers. The first thing I did was use the latest edition of The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook to compile a list of twenty or so traditional publishers with a proven track record in my genre. Naturally, I put the larger, better-established publishers at the top of the list and submitted to them first, then waited a few weeks before moving on to the next. I tailored and personalized each proposal, and made sure to mention it was a simultaneous submission. If this was a deal-breaker, so be it. I, like most people, couldn’t afford to wait around for six months or more while someone somewhere took their time making a decision. In today’s climate, I find publishers are generally much more flexible and understanding in this respect.

Predictably, the first few publishers I approached weren’t remotely interested in my book. Some offered constructive feedback, most didn’t. A few didn’t even reply. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but as I worked my way down the list my hopes began to fade.

Then, at around the midway point, I contacted a small press called Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. The name, derived from a local landmark called Carreg-y-gwalch (meaning ‘Falcon Rock’) doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but a little research told me they could be a great match for my book. They had good distribution links both online and in bricks-and-mortar book shops, with a large slice of their business coming from the tourist trade. I signed my first publishing contract, and soon after, Into the Dragon’s Lair: A Supernatural History of Wales became a minor hit.

I can’t explain the euphoria of finally seeing eight years’ work in print and the sense of pride that comes with it. Additionally, the book opened more doors than I ever thought possible. It was instrumental in winning me a bursary that enabled me to study for a degree in journalism which became the cornerstone of my career. I am living proof that if you work hard enough, your dreams really can come true.

I only wish that teacher of mine was around to see it!

Bio: Chris Saunders has written over a dozen books and currently writes for a special interest magazine in the UK. Find out more here: https://cmsaunders.wordpress.com/

We selected the recipient of the fund using a random number generator. We are announcing the winners of the April, May, and June funds today. Due to a high rate of non-responses from literary journals that have applied for the fund, we’ve started to send out acceptances on a quarterly basis. The following wonderful journals are recipients of this quarters fund:

Fiery Scribe Review is an online literary journal created to amplify passionate voices internationally, through poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. It is run by undergraduates who see the need to embrace any compelling piece of art, except hardcore contents. Fiery Scribe Review is not a paying magazine, but they make their tri-annual issues freely available to the public in downloadable PDF. Browse their general submission guidelines here.

Black Poppy Review is a literary arts journal featuring free verse poetry, flash fiction, and mini-chapbook collections (Poppy Dreadfuls) of a darker nature. “All is not as it seems at Black Poppy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Find the key. Unlock the creaky gate on rusted hinges. Explore the dilapidated, mossy grounds. Discover hidden paths and nooks which lead to words that linger and haunt–poems of abandonment, folklore, ghosts, isolation, magical realism, nature, weathering, wonder, and the otherwise forgotten.” You can get a feel for what they publish here.

We will announce our next recipients in the summer. Thank you to everyone who has applied.

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.