Easter Contest 2021

Guidelines

Theme: Rebirth

Submissions are currently

CLOSED

and will open on 1 February 2021

What we're looking for

We're looking for original and previously unpublished fantasy and horror short fiction of maximum 1500 words, written in English. While we don't officially have a minimum word count, we have found that shorter stories must work harder to convince us.

The theme, fitting for the season, is Rebirth. Send us your stories featuring vampires, revenants, zombies or phoenixes or anything else - good or evil - that has come back from the dead.

We particularly love straight stories where someone is trying to get something and meets an obstacle, but we can also appreciate a story that touches us purely emotionally.

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(also check our Extra Tips section for a special advantage)

The legal stuff

The winner of the contest will receive £300 (payment currently made only through PayPal). This is for exclusive first world electronic rights (stories published on our website) and for nonexclusive reprint rights in our yearly magazine (published on Amazon as paperback and ebook). We reserve the right to archive work on our website to keep it available to our readers.

We will also mention two shortlisted stories on our website, but we will not publish them. Hopefully, that will give those two something to add to their bio. It will definitely allow them to still submit their stories to other magazines.

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• All decisions regarding the winner are final

• No contest entry fees will be returned

• By submitting, you are agreeing to all contest rules

• Contest rules are subject to change

How to submit

To submit your story, please fill out the form below. Please upload your story/stories in the standard manuscript format (you can download a template here) and in .doc or docx.

As we had a few questions about this, a little clarification: if you don't feel comfortable giving us your full address, we understand. Please include at least your country. This will help us with statistics.

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We charge the following submission fees:

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£7 for the first story

£5 for every additional story

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We accept multiple submissions.

We don't accept simultaneous submissions.

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In the event that you want to submit more than four stories or if you want to add another story later or if you have a question about the submission process, please send us a quick message via the Contact Us form first.

What happens next

We will announce a winner and two shortlisted stories on our website and our Facebook page on 1 April 2021.

We will try our best to respond faster to stories we haven't picked.

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The winning story will be published as our monthly story on the 15th of April 2021.

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We will send an email to acknowledge receipt of your story within three days. If you haven't heard from us by then, please send us a quick message via the Contact Us form. Please also check your spam folder.

You can use the Contact Us form if you have any general questions about the contest as well.

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Don't forget to check the website for upcoming stories or follow us on Facebook.