The provided source material focuses on horror fiction magazines and anthologies that offer free content or paid submission opportunities for writers. The information is derived from articles published in 2024 and 2025, detailing publications that are open to submissions, their payment rates, and specific submission windows. There is no information regarding free physical products, samples, or promotional offers for consumers, such as free magazines or branded merchandise. The content exclusively addresses the landscape for horror writers seeking to publish work.
Free Digital Content and Subscription Offers
One publication mentioned in the source material offers a free digital subscription to consumers.
- Cosmic Horror Monthly: This publication offers a "Cosmic Horror Monthly Lite" subscription that provides free digital magazines. Subscribers receive PDF and EPUB files of the magazine. The service requires an email address to deliver the digital issues. The publication notes that they try to feature the best in cosmic horror and weird fiction. They advise subscribers to add their email address to contacts to prevent issues from going to spam. This is the only specific freebie or promotional offer identified in the source data for consumers. The source material does not mention any other free physical products, samples, or brand freebies for consumers in the horror genre or any other category.
Paid Submission Opportunities for Writers
The majority of the source material details horror magazines and anthologies that pay writers for fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions. These are not consumer freebies but rather opportunities for creators.
Open Submissions and Payment Rates
Several publications are identified as being open for submissions or having announced future windows.
- Nightmare Magazine: An award-winning magazine of horror and dark fantasy. They pay $0.08 per word for fiction up to 7,500 words. Their submission window for all types of writing was scheduled to open from January 14-20, 2024, with an extended window for BIPOC-identifying writers from January 21-27, 2024.
- Cosmic Horror Monthly: This publication pays $0.03 per word for stories up to 5,000 words, with a maximum payment of $150. They have two annual reading periods: January 1-7 and July 1-7.
- Moonstruck Books (Nightmare Diaries): An anthology seeking dark fiction, including short stories, fairy tales, flash fiction, and novellas. They pay $0.10 per word for stories between 500 and 10,000 words.
- Apex Magazine: This publication pays $0.08 per word for literary genre fiction (horror, science fiction, fantasy) up to 9,000 words. An additional $0.01 per word is paid if the story is podcasted. They also run a monthly flash fiction contest.
- Midnight & Indigo: This publication is specifically for Black women writers and accepts speculative and literary fiction and essays. For speculative fiction of 2,000-7,000 words, they pay $0.07 per word. Speculative fiction is accepted on an ongoing basis.
- Spooky: This publication focuses on "cozy horror, fun horror, classy horror." It accepts fiction and haiku, though specific payment rates are not detailed in the provided text.
- The Other Stories Podcast: This podcast accepts themed fiction submissions of up to 2,000 words. They pay £15 per story. Upcoming themes included Bleeding Hearts (deadline November 1, 2024), Found Footage (deadline December 1, 2024), Weird (deadline January 1, 2025), and The Workplace (deadline February 1, 2025).
- Ill-Advised Records (The Dark Door): A new print and digital magazine publishing short horror fiction, art, and music. They pay $15-50. While there is no maximum word count, submissions should be "short fiction."
- DBS Press (Dracula Beyond Stoker): This publication focuses on fiction featuring characters from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For a theme focusing on Jonathan Harker, the submission period was November 1 to December 31, 2024. They pay $0.05 per word for stories of 1,500-5,000 words.
- Small Wonders: This publication specializes in speculative flash fiction and poetry. They pay $0.10 per word for original fiction (up to 1,000 words) and $0.01 per word for reprints (up to 1,100 words). Poetry is paid $60. At the time of writing, they were open to reprint submissions only.
- The Dark: This publication wants horror and dark fantasy fiction, encouraging experimental works. They pay $0.05 per word for stories up to 6,000 words and also accept reprints.
- Etherea Magazine: This publication accepts fantasy and science fiction, from flash to novelette length, though payment details are not specified in the source data.
Publications with Specific Submission Policies
Some publications are noted for their specific operational policies.
- BENDER: A GB-based magazine founded in 2023. It is fee-free and responds to submissions within 14 days. It does not accept simultaneous submissions but is open to some previously published works. Submissions are made via email. It accepts fiction, flash, nonfiction, and poetry.
- Dark Matter Magazine: A US-based magazine founded in 2020. It is fee-free, pays writers, and responds within 60 days. It accepts simultaneous submissions and some previously published works. It publishes dark sci-fi and horror fiction, paying $0.08 per word.
- Seize the Press Magazine: A GB-based magazine founded in 2021. It is fee-free, pays writers, and responds within 30 days. It accepts simultaneous submissions via email. It accepts fiction (paying $0.03 per word) and nonfiction (paying a flat rate of $50).
- The Colored Lens: A US-based magazine founded in 2011. It is fee-free, pays writers, and responds within 7 days. It does not accept simultaneous submissions. It accepts speculative fiction, paying a flat rate of $20. It is noted as being in the top 10% of most popular magazines on Chill Subs.
- Infinite Horrors Magazine: A US-based magazine founded in 2022. It is fee-free, pays writers, and responds within 90 days. It accepts simultaneous submissions via email and publishes fiction.
Educational Opportunities
The source material also mentions one educational opportunity for writers.
- From Frights to Film: A Horror Screenwriting Intensive: This intensive was scheduled to run from September 27th to October 18th, from 8 PM to 10 PM EST. The course aimed to teach participants about tropes in horror screenwriting.
Conclusion
The provided source material offers a detailed overview of the horror fiction publishing landscape for writers, focusing on magazines and anthologies that are fee-free and offer payment. It identifies numerous publications with varying payment rates, submission windows, and genre focuses. For consumers, the only freebie identified is the digital "Lite" subscription from Cosmic Horror Monthly. The material does not contain information about free physical products, samples, or promotional offers for consumers in the horror genre or any other product category.