Dark Moon
Digest
Is looking for quality short stories for future issues of our
publication. Any genre
will be accepted as long as it is in the horror genre. There are no
deadlines to this call for submissions as stories will be selected for future
issues of Dark Moon Digest, so submit at your leisure.
This contest is
open to all writers, published or unpublished.
The story style
does not matter. It can be anything from a slasher type story
(although we have to admit right up front, those are not our
favorites) to a humorous tale or anything in between. But most
importantly, it must be an entertaining horror short story. We must
want to turn that page to see what happens next in the story and how
things end. Oh, and don’t forget scary. That is, perhaps, the most
important consideration.
Here are the rest
of the rules:
DEADLINE: There is no submission deadline. Stories will be
reviewed as they are submitted for future issues of Dark Moon
Digest.
PAYMENT:
Authors will receive $10.00 and a copy of the issue of DARK MOON
DIGEST
in which their story appears. (Authors entering contests should read
specific contest rules, guidelines and prizes. This applies to all
short stories and articles, but does not apply to flash fiction and
micro-fiction submissions. See those specific pages for details
regarding those categories.)
ENTRY FEE:
There is no entry fee for short story submissions.
All short stories must be submitted by the author holding the
copyright. (If your short story is not copyrighted, don’t worry.
Copyright laws protect your work from the moment you started writing
it. Check
here
for more information on copyrights.)
Your horror short story must be previously unpublished in print
format unless you still hold the copyright. (You must inform us if a
story has previously been published and where it was published so we
can verify who holds the copyright.) Online publication is okay as
long as you hold the copyright and are not bound by exclusivity to
any person, party or website.
By
submitting your horror short fiction work to this contest, you are
giving us First North American Serial Rights and the permission to
possibly publish the work in our annual anthology. (Dark Moon
Books plans to publish a yearly anthology which will contain the
best stories published in Dark Moon Digest.) You
keep all other rights including the original copyright.
Stories published in either the magazine or the anthology will carry
notices which stipulate the copyright resides with the author.
(NOTE: If your submission has previously appeared in another
publication or anthology, we will discuss publication rights with
you.)
All submissions should be a minimum of 1,000 words and
should not
exceed 4,000
words. This is not a strict guideline, but anything
differing from these figures should be the exception rather than the
rule.
Remember, your story could be rejected simply because it is
excessively long. (Flash fiction should not exceed 500 words and
micro-fiction should not exceed 50 words.)
You may withdraw your short story from consideration at any point,
but this request must be made in writing (e-mail acceptable).
Entrants selected for publication will be contacted prior to
publication with further instructions. There are some instances in
which we might ask the author for a re-write (with suggestions) if
we think it would improve the story and its chances of being
published.
We also edit stories selected for publication, but send edited
stories back to authors for final approval of edits.)
HOW
TO ENTER:
Submit all stories via e-mail to
HorrorQuarterly@gmail.com
as an attachment in either Word (.doc) or rich text format. Please use
“Horror Short Story Submission” in your subject line.
No queries are required.
Include your
name, address, phone number and e-mail address on the first page of
your short story and in your e-mail. Do not use headers or add
page numbering.
Please use a
serif type to format your short story. (i.e. Times Roman, Georgia,
Garamond, Courier).
