Submission Guidelines 

Last updated 2/1/2021

Dread Imaginings is currently closed to submissions.  I plan to re-open sometime in May.  Please check back for updates in the spring.  Thanks! 

What I don’t want:
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Artwork
  • Multiple or simultaneous submissions
  • Resubmissions of previously rejected MS (if I am interested in seeing a revision of something, I will specifically request it)
  • Reprints  
 
What I want:
  • Stories up to 4000 words (firm), previously unpublished in any form or medium.
  • Stories that are fast.  Don’t bog the tale down with unneeded explication.     
  • Stories that succeed by using concrete detail to show what happens and convey why it is important, rather than trying to tell the reader why.  Resist the urge to explain. 
  • Stories in which the action unfolds as part on a single, continuous scene rather than skimming along through the protagonist’s entire biography.   
  • Stories set in the contemporary world, rather than historical fiction or tales set in fantasy or science fiction landscapes
  • Stories that vividly present your protagonist’s encounter with the horrific, disturbing, uncanny, weird, macabre, and/or grotesque.  
  • Stories that are built around character.  That aforementioned encounter should have an impact upon your protagonist’s outlook and/or actions as the story unfolds.
  • Stories that showcase your originality.  Creature-features are welcome, but your own monsters will be an easier sell than vampires, zombies, werewolves, et. al.    
 
How I want it:
  • Please use standard MLA manuscript format, presented in twelve-point Calibri or Times New Roman
  • Send your submission as an attachment in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format to dreadsubmissions@gmail.com.  Documents sent in other formats will be deleted unread.
  • The subject line of your submission email should be: SUBMISSION: Your Name, “ Story Title” (word count)  
  • In the body of your email, tell me a little about yourself and your publication history
 
What I plan to do with it:
  • I pay a penny a word (US).  Payment is upon publication and only via Paypal.
  • With that payment, I am buying first electronic rights of your previously unpublished work.  I ask that you not publish the piece elsewhere (in any form or medium) during the first six months it is published with me.     
  • I plan to publish one (and only one) story a month, each and every month.
  • The plan is to keep each story available on the site for a year from its original publication date.
  • Copyright and all other rights remain the property of the author.
  • I have no intention at this time of archiving materials online past the one-year publication period.  If that intention changes, this will be subject to author approval.
  • If in the future there is interest in publishing a print anthology collecting material previously published on the site, I will contact authors to discuss the acquisition of additional rights.
  • Generally speaking, my response times have been running approximately one month.