Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror
As the name betrays, we’re looking for short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format.
SUBMISSION WINDOW:
April 1st -- June 1st
WORDCOUNT:
2,500 -- 7,000
PAYMENT:
$0.01 per word 1 paperback and 1 eBook copy.
WHAT THEY'RE SEEKING:
From Jacob Steven Mohr and Crystal Lake Publishing comes Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror, a new anthology set to debut (tentatively) February of 2024.
As the name betrays, we’re looking for short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format—meaning, stories written as letters, journal entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts, newspaper clippings, text messages, etc.
Furthermore, each story should include some mention of how its manuscript was “discovered.” A letter found in a historian’s archive, for example. Or emails saved as part of a missing persons investigation. Or an audio file recovered from a dead podcaster’s PC. Push boundaries and play with the format—and above all, be scary!
COMPARABLE TITLES:
Dracula, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Carrie, House of Leaves, and World War Z.
REPRINTS: [YES/NO]
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: [YES/NO] Allowed. But please promptly withdraw your story if it is accepted elsewhere.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: [YES/NO]
EXTRA INFORMATION:
We will be accepting approximately 10-15 stories from this open call. Accepted tales will appear alongside original yarns from invited authors, who include Gemma Files, Ai Jiang, Red Lagoe, J.A.W. McCarthy, Scott J. Moses, and Gordon B. White.
FORMATTING GUIDELINES:
Stories should be formatted in 12 pt. Times New Roman, double spaced.
SUBMITTING:
All submissions should be sent to deadlettershorror@gmail.com (Word files only, please do not paste your story in the body of the email). Please make your subject line: SUBMISSION – “Story Title” – Author Name – Word Count.
ESTIMATED RESPONSE TIME:
We aim to finalize the table of contents by August 1 of 2023.
RIGHTS REQUESTED:
Exclusive First Worldwide Publication, Print and Electronic Rights for 1 year (from date of publication), and non-exclusive rights thereafter.
This looks like an amazing call from Crystal Lake Publishing!
Feel free to leave a little hint in the comments below as to what you'll be working on for the call.
And let us know, what is your favorite example of epistolary horror?
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