Update 04/04/2024: Submissions OPEN for "Weird Horror"
Submissions for our "Weird Horror" call will close on April 21st. We're working on our summer reading schedule. This is what we know so far:
May 1st -- Open for REPRINTS, all genres
May 1st -- Opening a special call for "RURAL FANTASY" (details to come)
July 1st -- Open to ORIGINALS, all genres, all themes
All summer submissions calls will be free to submit.
GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We are looking for complete 500- to 1000-word stories with crisp prose, well-developed characters, compelling plots, and satisfying resolutions. We want stories that engage our minds and emotions.
We publish across many genres, including speculative (science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and horror) and literary fiction. For more information on the type of stories we enjoy, please read a few issues and check out our "What We're Looking For" page.
SUBMISSION WINDOW: The Weird Horror special call will be open until April 21st.
FORMATTING: Please format your submission in a double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman or other serif-type font (NO Courier), with standard 1" margins and black font on an unadorned, white background. No PDF submissions. No Images and no graphics.
ANONYMOUS SUBMISSIONS: Do not include your name, address, email, or other identifying information on your manuscript (header, byline, file name, etc).
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: We will accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us and withdraw the story as soon as you learn that it has been accepted somewhere else.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: For our "Weird Horror" submission call, please wait for a determination on your first submission before submitting another.
AI-GENERATED SUBMISSIONS: We are committed to publishing stories written and edited by humans. We reserve the right to reject any submission that we suspect to be primarily generated or created by language modeling software, Chat GPT, chat bots, or any other AI apps, bots, or software. We reserve the right to ban submissions from accounts, emails, or users who we believe or suspect have submitted AI-generated content.
QUERIES: You can check on the status of your submission at any time via your Submittable account. If, after 8 weeks, your submission is still marked as "in-progress," you may email flashfictiononlineeditor@gmail.com with QUERY in the subject line for an update on its status. (Submissions sent to this address will be deleted unread.)
COMPENSATION: Our 2024 rate is $100 for each original story.
We are unable to provide personal feedback or critiques.
We do NOT accept resubmissions of stories previously rejected by Flash Fiction Online, unless requested by the editorial team.
We will NOT consider stories that promote or affirm hatred, prejudice, or violence toward any group of people based on age, race, nationality, religion, sex, gender, political affiliation, disability, neurodiversity, or other social identity.
Love what we publish? Flash Fiction Online is funded entirely through the generosity and support of our readers! Check out our Patreon here.
Flash Fiction Online is currently seeking submissions for our “Weird Horror” issue, scheduled for October 2024. Guest editors for this issue are Avra Margariti and Eugenia Triantafyllou.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: Weird horror is all about stories that engage with the unexplained and the unexpected, often through an esoteric lens of mysticism and metaphysics. A lot of the time the genre features circular or disjointed narrations, and endings that make readers reconsider the beginning. The mundane becomes taboo or absurd through a manipulation of the readers' perception.
Weird horror is not just scary or terrifying, it is wrong in some way that’s not easily identifiable. Something or someone exists or comes into this world and doesn’t belong. A misshape piece of a puzzle that will never be complete. What you know about reality is now somehow broken, a lie. When you read this kind of story and then take a look at the reality around you, you feel a deep sense of unease. You feel uncomfortable because now you can see what lies beneath.
But sometimes weird horror is less subtle than just a sense of wrongness. Sometimes you have to accept the surrealism of the premise from the start. Maybe this world has hideous monsters now. Maybe human bodies function in impossible and grotesque ways. Deal with it. The focus of the story isn’t the grotesque itself. It is how it interacts with a society that might appear normal but turns out to be absurd in its own hidden and/or over-the-top way. A mockery of itself. When you come back from such a story you look at your own self with distrust. Because now you know what you are capable of.
Great example of weird horror include:
- NO MATTER WHICH WAY WE TURNED - NY Tyrant
- Skitterdead - Nightmare Magazine (nightmare-magazine.com)
- In the Tree’s Hollow, a Doe - Lightspeed Magazine
- So Sings the Siren - Apex Magazine (apex-magazine.com)
- Sometimes Boys Don’t Know - Nightmare Magazine (nightmare-magazine.com)
- 3LBE Magazine - Issue 37: A Girl Explodes by Ruth Joffre (3lobedmag.com)
- The Forgetter - Nightmare Magazine (nightmare-magazine.com)
- Strange Horizons - The Poltergeist Rose: An Instructional Guide By J.G. Lynas
- Ponies - Reactor (reactormag.com)
All stories submitted through this page must fit the theme!
If you have a story that doesn’t fit this theme, please submit during one of our regular submission calls.
WORD COUNT: 500-1,000 words. Because we are focused on flash fiction, this word count is firm.
ANONYMOUS SUBMISSIONS: Do not include your name, address, email, or other identifying information on your manuscript (header, byline, file name, etc). This allows our First Readers to evaluate your story based on the work alone.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: Authors may submit ~*separate*~ stories to the special call for Weird Horror and our regular submission call. Please do NOT submit the same story to both places. Please do NOT submit stories that have been previously rejected by Flash Fiction Online. If your first submission for the Weird Horror call is rejected, you can submit another, different story, but please wait until we have processed your first submission. There is a three story limit per person for the Weird Horror submission period.
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: We will accept sim subs for this special call. We ask that you withdraw the submission as soon as you learn that it has been accepted elsewhere.
SCHEDULE:
Submissions will be open from February 1st through April 21st, with a possible extension if needed.
Submissions will be evaluated concurrent with other open submission calls. FFO reviews stories in two stages – a slush stage and a winnowing stage. In the slush round, first readers vote on stories to be passed forward. These top-tier stories are reviewed once a month in our Winnowing round. Final decisions on these second-round stories are generally made within 8 weeks from the date of submission.
PAYMENT & RIGHTS FOR ORIGINAL FICTION: For original (previously unpublished) fiction, Flash Fiction Online pays $100 per story for first electronic rights, with six months exclusivity, as well as a non-exclusive one-time right to publish the stories in an anthology. The author retains all other rights. Original stories must not have been previously published anywhere, including a blog or on Patreon. Payment is made via PayPal (preferred) or mailed as a check.