Hi to all the writers out there. For those of you who do, thanks for supporting my Patreon. If you're just looking, that's cool -- luck with your submissions! This is the August anthology listing, including open anthologies with deadlines between 31 August and 1 November.

Occasionally a promising anthology will be missing some key info, or something will be confusing; I'll include the book in this list and e-mail my question to the editor. When/if the editor gets back to me, I'll update the book's entry and the new version will be included in the next month's post. There'll be [a note from me] in the entry, indicating that there's an outstanding query. (Or for any other notes I add.)

Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, while "Always Open" and "Until Filled" markets (if any) are at the bottom.

Markets open only to writers in a limited demographic are marked with a [NOTE:] from me, in italics, right after the main header.

There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.

NOTE that Burly Tales has closed to submissions.

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31 August 2020 -- Spawn -- ed. Deborah Sheldon; IFWG Publishing Australia

NOTE: Submissions are open to Australian writers only (citizens, residents and ex-pats).

Payment: 6c per word for original stories, 2c per word for reprints (Australian currency)

Publisher: IFWG Publishing Australia (co-published in North America through the IFWG Publishing International imprint)

Note: Open to Australian writers only (citizens, residents and ex-pats)

To be edited by award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies will comprise stories from Australian writers obtained via commission and open callout. The commissioned writers are the multi-award-winning and bestselling authors Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren and Sean Williams.

On-spec submissions are welcome from Australian writers of every persuasion including non-parents. Ideally, stories should be between 1500 and 5000 words, give or take. (Stories significantly longer than 5000 words would have to be outstanding.) Reprints will be considered, but must not be available for free anywhere online—the anthology will have only a small number of reprints, regardless. Artwork by commissioned Australian artists will complement selected stories.

The anthology will be a visceral, frightening read. Each story must nominally tick the box of "body horror" but there is no restriction on subgenre: anything from sci-fi to fantasy to gothic to supernatural to psychological and beyond will be given equal consideration. Feel free to play with the theme and not take it too literally. Ideally, your story should make the reader feel uncomfortably aware of their physicality, morbidity or mortality.

While graphic violence and swearing are acceptable, submissions must have a literary bent.  Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies aims to deliver an elegant—and elevated—anthology of body horror.

What to avoid:

== Gratuitous gore used purely for shock value.

== Familiar tropes, such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Handmaid’s Tale, the face-hugger/chest-burster from the Alien film franchise, Martians kidnapping and impregnating female Earthlings, and so on.

== The submission of first drafts, often indicated by spelling and grammatical errors.

Required rights:

== First worldwide electronic and print rights in the English language, exclusive for one year, and non-exclusive rights thereafter.

== For reprints, non-exclusive rights apply.

== If the story is subsequently reprinted, please credit  Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies (IFWG Publishing Australia) as the original publisher.

How to submit:

== Your story must be in a Word document, double-spaced, Times New Roman in 12pt.

== Your name, contact details and word count should be on the first page above the title.

== Use double-quotation marks, single space after full stops, first-line indents, page numbers, and Australian-English spelling. No tabs and no double-returns between paragraphs.

== Send to Deborah Sheldon at [email protected] with the story title and your name as the Subject heading.

== In the body of your email, provide an author bio of about 100 words (give or take), and include your Australian citizen/resident/ex-pat status.

== If your story is a reprint, provide the full details of its first publication in the body of your email, with links if possible.

== You can submit more than one story. Submit each story in a separate email.

== Stories that require anything more than line editing or adjustments for house style will be rejected. Please submit only polished work of a high standard.

== No simultaneous submissions, which means do not submit your story to another market at the same time.

== Give yourself the best possible chance—please do not ignore these guidelines.

Response issues:

== All acceptance and rejection emails will be sent by 31 October 2020.

== No feedback will be offered for rejected stories. Please don’t ask.

== Do not resubmit a rejected story, even if you have made substantial changes.

== Accepted writers will receive payment via PayPal or bank transfer within 30 days of the contracts being signed, rather than on publication.

== Accepted writers will also receive an ebook and one complimentary paperback.

Important note about the publication date:

Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies was originally slated for release in February 2021. In response to the economic turndown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, IFWG Publishing Australia has decided to delay release of every upcoming new title. Therefore,  Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies will be released later in 2021, with a strong likelihood of a mid-year publishing date.

Crowd-funding for a hardback edition, which would include illustrations for each story, is also being considered.

IFWG Publishing Australia will provide further updates on the anthology’s publication schedule in due course.

***

30 Sep 20 -- Funny Queer -- Qommunicate Publishing

[NOTE: this is an extended deadline. The original deadline for this book was 30 June 19.]

Seeking humorous original work by and/or about LGBTQ+ people and lives. This is a positive publication celebrating the LGBTQ+ community through the lens of humor. Only pieces supporting this mission will be considered. No homophobic, transphobic or hateful material will be considered.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please read the following submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work to Funny Queer. If you have any questions not answered below, please write us at [email protected] and we will be happy to answer.

Theme:

Humor by and/or about LGBTQ+ people. The only criteria is it makes us laugh!

Genres:

Anything meeting the theme, including:

== Fiction.

== Nonfiction.

== Jokes.

== Comics/graphic shorts (black and white only).

== Poems.

== Short scripts.

We will NOT consider:

== Erotica

== Work written for children

Length:

== Prose: up to 3,500 words

== Poetry: Up to 3 pages

== Comics & Scripts: up to 10 pagesThese length recommendations are flexible.

Formats:

== All submissions must be typed. No handwritten submissions will be accepted.

== If you send your submission in, please do NOT mail us your only copy of your work. We can not be responsible for returning submissions.

Multiple Submissions:

== Multiple submissions (submissions of more than one work) are fine. Send us what you’ve got!

Simultaneous Submissions:

== Simultaneous submissions (submitting work you’ve already submitted–or are planning on submitting–elsewhere) are fine too.

== Please just be sure that if your submission gets accepted elsewhere, you contact us at [email protected] to withdraw it from consideration for Funny Queer.

Reprints:

== Reprints will NOT be considered.

Rights:

== We are seeking First English Anthology Rights and First World Anthology Rights in print and ebook formats.

== NOTE: These rights only allow the material to be used in the anthology and its reprints, and the writer retains all rights to their work not specified here (i.e. in the contract), including copyright to their work.

== We are also seeking, for all material, Non-exclusive Excerpt Rights (for the purposes of promoting the Anthology on the website).

Compensation:

== Contributors will receive, as a humble token of our appreciation, $5 per printed page, and contributors of art will receive $15 per piece.

[NOTE: There's no way to tell exactly how many cents/word they'll be paying; it depends on the size of the pages, the size of the typeface, and the density of the writing on any given page. (A page with many short lines of dialogue will have a lot fewer words than a page full of long paragraphs of description or narration.) A standard manuscript page is counted as approximately 250 words, which works out to about 2 cents per word. I'm assuming a "printed" page will be less than twice that, which means this market squeaks in just past my guidelines, to give them the benefit of the doubt. Keep this in mind, though, when you decide whether to sub here.]

What to Submit:

== Your submission

== A brief bio telling us something about you and (if applicable) any publishing experience

== At least one form of contact information (phone number, email, or mailing address. Please do not give a social media account handle as your only form of contact information.

== IMPORTANT: Pen names are acceptable. However, for contractual purposes, all submissions must also include the author's legal name.

Where to Submit:

Submissions may be emailed to us at: [email protected]

or mailed to us at:

Qommunity 201 Lancelot Lane Becket, MA 01223

AGAIN, MAILED SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE RETURNED

Response Time:

== We do our best to respond to all submissions within 3 months of receiving them. If you haven't heard from us in that time, please feel free to reach out.

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1 Oct 20 -- Bludgeon Tools -- ed. K. Trap Jones; The Evil Cookie

Bludgeon Tools, inc. will be expanding their sales and distribution  lines. The company will be accepting applications for employment and  looking for creative employees with excellent customer service.

• 3,000 word max
• Must have elements of Splatterpunk.
• This is a “Tool” themed anthology.
• NO REPRINTS
• No simultaneous submissions
• No violence/sex  towards children or religious plots.
• Pay: 3c per word paid through Paypal + (1) print contributor copy
• 1-year exclusive rights
• Send as a .DOC or .DOCX attachment to [email protected] with the subject line: TOOLS SUBMISSION: Title by Author Name
• Do not copy/paste story in body of email.
• Include a very brief bio just to break the ice.