The Dark Fiction Spotlight

*SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED UNTIL OCTOBER 1st!

Guidelines:

We want horror, we want the exotic, the schizophrenic, the nude, the undead, the surreal, the stomach-jerkers, and more. We are open themed. Make us think, or puke, surprise us with poetry, purple prose; suck us into the reality of your dream worlds. Do it with flare, do not make us stare. The Dark Fiction Spotlight accepts all dark fiction and its sub-genres, as well as horrotica, extreme horror and LGBT. We are extremely open unlike other markets out there. And we hope to expand to other places when the time is right. We want new and established writers, maybe a ghoul or two.

ALL are welcome and best of all we are a paying market! That’s right, the best of the best will win a token prize! First place wins $50, second place wins $25 and third place wins $15.

All payments sent via paypal.

We will consider reprints as long as you supply all of the information of when and where it was published, and as long as it has been out of e-zine publications for over 6 months. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Fresh stories are preferred.

And lastly we only request one time electronic rights for your story, after the issue ceases you may use your work wherever you choose, but we will archive your work for up to 1 year. If your story makes it into the print anthology we ask for first print and electronic rights for up to 1 year. After that have fun sending your work elsewhere. We will issue the writer a contract.

*Note:

For the October issue we will be seeking some Halloween type stories. No this isn’t a call for Halloween stories in total, but we would like to feature 1 or 2 stories with that theme

*The Basics:

We are now accepting stories between 2,000 – 6,000 words (2,000 – 4,000 preferred), 1.5 inch spaced, 12 point Courier or Times New Roman with 1 inch margins. Please put author name, story title and page number IN the upper right hand corner as a header and author’s information IN the upper left hand corner from full name (and pen name) to address and so forth. Please type author bios IN your manuscript directly at the end of your story. Please have your last name, story title and page number on every page in the upper right hand corner by using the header/footer option in Microsoft word. Do not simply type it in, that is a formatting nightmare! If you don’t know how to do it, don’t worry, just don’t make a half attempt and then we are stuck with that terror. Thanks.

Authors may submit up to 2 stories.

Click here to see what standard manuscript format looks like. We’re a tri-monthly magazine and will accept stories only during reading periods. They are as follows:

*For the July Edition – Accepting stories between April 1st and June 1st

*For the October Edition – Accepting stories between July 1st and September 1st

*For the January Edition – Accepting stories between October 1st and December 1st

*For the April Edition – Accepting stories between January 1st and March 1st

All stories are due by Midnight of the last day. We will check the sent times on the e-mail.

*The Annoyances:

Please, please, please and please again, make sure your story is complete when sent to us. We will of course take care of SOME small line editing and such, but if it comes to the point where we need to rewrite the entire story, we would have to pass it along, even if it was shortlisted by us for publication. Time is the enemy as you all know and TDFS does not have enough free time to perform a triple bypass surgery on your story. Send us your best and most finely tweaked works. Then we can all be friends.

*Where to send it:

Please send your short story as an .doc or .rtf attachment to: tdfspublication.subs@gmail.com and put “TDFS SUBMISSION” in the subject line of the e-mail. Remember the basics and annoyances! Pry open your mind and let the oddities flow off of your fingertips.

*Poetry:

TDFS will also be accepting the darkest poetry around. Give us a lot in a little and make macabre meet that node in your heart that keeps it ticking. If it’s not dark poetry then have it toned, or overcast in it! Put your poetry in the body of the e-mail and send it to: tdfspublication.subs@gmail.com with “POETRY SUBMISSION” in the subject line.

*Spotlight Showdown:

The spotlight showdown is for writers to get at one another throats. We want writers to battle it out and have readers and other writers vote for the best, the most bad ass, the most eloquently spoken stories to all who can man up to the challenge. Can you rise to the challenge rounds?

But here is the catch…FLASH pieces only up to 666 words! And each round is two weeks long! Send all showdown pieces to: tdfspublication.subs@gmail.com with “SHOWDOWN SUBMISSION” in the subject line. Spotlight winners shall win a token prize of $10. But be warned, you must be a reigning champ, meaning your story must stay atop in at least two consecutive rounds.