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5 Magazines Accepting Horror Short Reprints

Top 5 magazines and podcasts for horror short story reprints for writers who need more exposure.

By Kris LelielPublished 4 years ago 6 min read
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Starting out as a dark fantasy writer myself with one self-published horror short under my belt, I just want to get some exposure. Wherever we submit our horror shorts, rejection is inevitable and writing the ideal piece for a magazine that has specific requirements and dislikes reprints takes time. All the more reason to keep our heads high as we put our completed work out there, somewhere, and keep writing. The golden rule for having your reprint published is "always check for nonexclusivity”, which means the platform will just publish it, not own it. Some platforms, however, will ask for exclusivity, especially online, for a period of time. It's understandable as to why some platforms in the horror market don’t accept reprints, but here are five magazines that respect the golden rule and want to help you out.

THE DARK

Scary Clown (3D) by denissimonov from The Dark Magazine

The Dark is a monthly online magazine accepting horror fiction and artwork. They also have a podcast. Their magazine is available on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Weightless. Their submissions page requests this prompt: “Don’t be afraid to experiment or to deviate from the ordinary; be different—try us with fiction that may fall out of 'regular' categories. However, it is also important to understand that despite the name, The Dark is not a market for graphic, violent horror.”

Fiction must be 2000-6000 words. They pay $0.06 per word for original works that haven’t been published yet and $0.01 per word for reprints. If you think your horror or dark fantasy reprint meets their parameters, send away.

NIGHTMARE

The Nightmare magazine cover

John Joseph Adams is the lead editor of Nightmare, a dark fantasy and horror magazine. It has its own podcast and is available as an ebook. Nightmare’s content is quite diverse including, “fiction podcasts, nonfiction articles, book and media reviews, feature interviews, and Q&As with our authors that go behind-the-scenes of their stories. Our current publication schedule each month includes two pieces of original fiction and two fiction reprints, along with a feature interview or review and our monthly column about horror, ‘The H Word.’”

Fiction must be 1500-7500 words, but the editor prefers stories less than 5000. $0.06 per word for original works and $0.01 per word for reprints. Make sure you include a cover letter.

Additionally, here is a clause from their reprint agreement:

The Author grants the Publisher a six month period of online exclusivity to the Work, starting on the date of this Agreement, ending six months following the date of publication in Nightmare Magazine. During this exclusivity period, the Work may not appear elsewhere online. This clause pertains only to online (i.e., material freely available on the internet) publication; no ebook exclusivity is granted. Any previous online appearances that are still available online are exempted; this clause is only intended to prevent new online publications from appearing during the exclusivity period.

This means if your short story is accepted by Nightmare, it must not be published online again for six months. If you published your story beforehand online or as an ebook or anywhere else, it’s okay. I believe that’s incredibly fair. Even though Nightmare isn’t accepting stories at the moment, check their website periodically.

GALLOWS HILL

By Medena Rosa on Unsplash

Gallows Hill is a magazine that publishes quarterly and is also a review journal. They enjoy publishing, “horror fiction, nonfiction, book and movie reviews, and genre news… [Gallows Hill loves to] blend great fiction with stories and interviews that drive to the truth behind some of the biggest horror tropes. From riveting interviews with exorcists and cult survivors to spotlights on awesome slivers of the horror community, Gallows Hill brings it to the light.” It looks like their submissions are open and when it comes to horror fiction reprints, they pay $25 and are often considered as an online exclusive. The word count max is 12,000 for online publication, but if you plan to make an original for their print magazine, keep it at 6,000 words.

CREEPY PASTAS - CHILLING TALES FOR DARK NIGHTS

Chilling Tales For Dark Nights logo from chillingtalesfordarknights.com

Creepy Pastas are my favorite! If you haven’t heard of them, I can only assume you don’t live on the internet like the rest of us. Imagine your horror work read by an amazing narrator (seriously, Jason Hill is wickedly good) who not only brings your work to life with fantastic ambience or music added and makes sure to plug all your information as well. That’s how Creepy Pastas roll along with their affiliates Chilling Tales for Dark Nights and Simply Scary Podcast Network. Their submission guidelines are long, but the good news is that your reprint is safe to submit. Even though they don’t ask for it, I suggest mentioning that it’s a reprint and make sure that if your work is accepted, you stay in contact with them. As for word count, make it more than 500 words and well edited.

PSEUDOPOD

from pseudopod.org

Pseudopod is a horror fiction podcast that has brought out gruesome stories for over a decade. They are certainly not squeamish, which means they’re probably wanting more originality and nothing cliché. As a genre-audio magazine, here’s what they’re looking for:

“We’re looking for horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. We publish highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction. We don’t split hairs about genre definitions, and we do not observe any taboos about what kind of content can appear in our stories. Originality demands that you’re better off avoiding vampires, zombies, and other recognizable horror tropes unless you have put a very unique spin on them. What matters most is that the stories are dark and compelling.”

When it comes to reprints, they’ll only buy nonexclusive audio, text rights, and electronic rights. Originals are $.08 per word and reprints are given a flat rate of $100. If your story is flash fiction (less than 1500 words), the flat rate will be $20. Any short story submission should be 1500 to 6000 words and they consider 4500 words to be the most decent length). I love that regarding reprints they say: “We do not discriminate between previously published and unpublished works. We’re an audio market, and we buy nonexclusive rights, so it doesn’t hurt us if a story has previously appeared in another market.” Clearly, they’re cool with reprinters like us, so just make sure you follow their preferred format and have a solid cover letter.

Thanks for Reading

I hope that helped you find a place where you can submit your hard work and build your readership. If you love horror and hate narcissists, you’ll like my horror short “Autonomy Bleeds Black” (Available on Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Scribd, and more). If you’d like to discuss the horrors and wonders of short story publishing or wish to share a story you’ve written, contact me on my website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.

By Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

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About the Creator

Kris Leliel

Kris Leliel is a strange writer who posts about the occult and spirituality, goth stuff, horror, creative writing, mental health, and her own creative ventures. She has a Masters in Liberal Studies and a BA in English & Psychology.

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