The Word Cloud

Is it just me or does anyone else find that duotrope has an abundance of 'amateurish' publishers/agents?

I've found that the majority of them run their websites through blogs. I've also never heard of any of their authors...

Has it just been a bad coincidence or are all of the listings the same?

Being a horror writer I can't really afford to be choosy. However, I can't help but feel reluctant to submit my work to a publisher that uses Wordpress to run their business.

Anyone had any positive experiences using duotrope?

Hi E,
Duotrope can be very useful but it takes time to search through the listings. There are so mnay places to get published and Duotrope comes up with just about everything, everywhere! You can do an advanced search for print magazines or paying mags only and that will narrow it down.

Thanks Nashelle.

I think I need to stop being so picky. I might just narrow it down to the money thing.

If they're willing to pay me, who am I to judge right?

Yep, if they pay you be grateful! There are loads of places to submit horror.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&pwst=1&sa=X&ei=vB3ITr2jDsrH8gOZnuxx&ved=0CBsQvwUoAQ&q=horror+magazines+who+pay+for+submissions&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=4e27c52877d99b4e&biw=1280&bih=650

Thanks Nashelle. The only problem is that not many magazines will consider a full length novel :(

Useful for my horror shorts though!

Have you heard of Dead Star Publishing? They consider novels.

http://www.deadstarpublishing.co.uk/

Wow, you really are a mine-field of information aren't you!

I'll go and have a look at that site now.

Thanks Nash!

Just for your info, I recently emailed Weird Tales, and they said they weren't taking any submissions (if i remember rightly, there was mention of a take-over). Dark Moon are, however (I emailed the guy who runs it to make sure, and they take on both short stories and novels: http://www.darkmoonbooks.com/ I will be submitting some short stories to them soon - they accept more than one submission at a time, but ask for them in individual emails.

Thanks Elysia, that's a great help.

I'll check out their site now.

Good luck with your shorts!

I'm contacting various mags and small publishers at the moment (mainly ones who have 'submissions are closed until June 2011', and then no updates since then...), so if I get any more responses as to the sate of play with them, I will let you know here - so far, Weird Tales and Dark Moon are the two that got back to me quickest - although it does concern me that Weird Tales, the biggest publisher of horror / sci fi short stories, isn't accepting stuff right now; they launched literally hundreds of horror and sci fi writers careers, so if they're in trouble, then it doesn't bode well for anyone else!

Yeah I know what you mean. It's hard enough to get anything published nowadays and even harder if you're a horror/sci-fi/fantasy writer.

In today's climate, publishers are even less likely to risk their money on new authors... Bad times.

Yeah if you can let us know what you find, that would be great. If I come across anything myself I'll post on here.

As promised: http://darkmarkets.com/

They seem to have a good few magazines and publishers for horror writers listed here - and what makes it even better is that they *seem* to be up to date!

Personally, I'm mainly interested in Lore, Penumbra, Burial Day and Samhain Publishing. Along with Dark Moon Books, that gives me 5 publishers / magazines to approach... just got to get the tales whipped into shape now ;-)

That's brilliant Elysia!

I completely forgot about this post. I will definitely bear that site in mind for future projects.

Thanks!

Here's another one: http://lovecraftzine.com/submissions/

It's quite specific being Lovecraft based, but since Lovecraft themed horror is what I write, it's perfect for me... ^^D. The nice thing about Lovecraft is that his themes pretty much permeate most supernatural horror, so as long as you're not writing about dappy vampires or hot werewolves, you can probably try your luck.

I've sent a short story to Dark Moon, One Buck Horror and Lovecraft ezine so far, mainly because these are the three that accept simultaneous submissions - all the others was exclusive submissions, which means submitting is going to take AGES. I have no idea how successful this endeavour is going to be, but he who dares wins, right?!

* were exclusive submissions... sorry, currently living on 4 hours sleep and it is killing me.

That's great, I'm influenced by Lovecraft as well so it might be something I consider.

I've reviewed One Buck Horror on my blog http://erebushorror.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/one-buck-horror-volume-one/

The stories are pretty good quality and the guys behind it seem swell so you can't go wrong with them.

You're completely right. He who dares - As Del Boy would say...

Good luck with your submissions and keep us updated :)

Just to let you know that the markets are alive and well - Dark Moon Digest has accepted one of my short stories, and I am just awaiting their suggested edit before it is published. So all is not lost!!