Submission Guidelines

As of May 19, 2025, we are again open to submissions ONLY for Horrific Scribes. We are NOT yet accepting submissions for standalone publications such as novellas and novels (please see our plan for such things).

That said, Horrific Scribes is open for submissions!

Horrific Scribes is an expanding online archive of dark short fiction (and some poetry) by various authors who share the Horrific Scribblings imprint’s dedication to the provocative, scary, and strange. The best way to know if your work fits with the archive is to read what we’ve got, which you can do for free, so why not take a look?

We want dark fiction, mostly horror (all subgenres, bloodless to extreme, nothing off limits as long you really have a good story not driven by hate, e.g. racism, homophobia, etc.) but also the horror-adjacent, e.g. dark fantasy, dark sci-fi, and surreal and experimental work with dark edges. However you’d classify it, it should be unconventional, challenging, and worth thinking about.

To get the sticky part out of the way, we pay $25 for an accepted submission. One of publisher Horrific Scribblings’ goals (described in the plan) is to start publishing anthologies that pay a proper $.08/word. I’ll sell those and hopefully make lots of money, but Horrific Scribes is free to readers and doesn’t sell ads. That means it creates debt, not income. We’re all getting paid at least partially in exposure. So, for now, it’s $25 for an accepted submission. You’re certainly worth more!

So, what goes into a submission?

Submissions are via email, and the subject line should include the author’s name and the story’s title: “Author Name, ‘Story Title'”. Emails are nicer with a salutation, so write to Andrew, or if you are more comfortable being formal, write to Dr. Cooper. In the body of the email, explain any relevant credentials and past publications and provide a brief description of the submission, enough to situate it in terms of genre and form and whet the appetite, not a complete synopsis (don’t spoil it). Include the word count. Feel free to include any biographical notes of interest.

Attach your submission as a single file, .doc, .docx, or .rtf ONLY. Other file formats might be deleted unread.

What should be in your attached file? Most likely, an original (no reprints, no AI), well-polished short story that fits the above description. Stories may range from 1,500 to 5,000 words. Pay is the same regardless of length. Some wiggle room is allowed, but stories significantly outside the stated length range may be deleted unread. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please let us know if your submission is accepted elsewhere so we can delete it. Multiple submissions are not okay: one submission per author at a time, please.

You may include a small group of short poems or a couple of mid-length poems in a single submission. Prose fiction is what Horrific Scribes emphasizes, but good dark poetry is good dark poetry.

What are your chances? During our first open submissions period, we accepted about 12% of the hundreds of submissions we received from all over the world. We expect to accept fewer in this new period simply because we started with a need to lay a foundation—and we now have a great one—but who knows? Whenever we can, we accept submissions that match our priorities. Submissions stay open until we’re overwhelmed.

When will you hear back? During our first open submissions period, our response time ranged from two weeks to about six weeks when we were most behind. We closed submissions when we saw that our response time was nearing a month. We include updates on submissions progress in our newsletter (sign up on this site!). Also watch our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/horrificscribblings

We don’t offer feedback on submissions. Again, Horrific Scribes doesn’t make money, so hiring the staff to provide the work hours for writing feedback is unrealistic. Sorry.

So where do you submit? horrificscribsubs@gmail.com