Reader Beware Magazine MATURE CONTENT

Permanently Closed: This project is permanently closed to submissions (May 2025). We provide the following information as an archive.

About

Reader Beware was started in 2021 by Lark Rodenbush and DS Oswald as an on-campus literary zine at Emerson College. We had a simple goal in mind: we wanted to publish the type of stories that the "literary fiction" magazines on campus would reject. The pulp, the gore, the shlock, the unapologetically indulgent. As horror fans and horror writers ourselves, we wanted to provide a publication that appreciated the horror normally seen as "less than." As a team of two, we started small: we put up a few posters around campus and waited for submissions. And after a successful first issue, we decided to make Reader Beware a yearly publication! We graduated in May of 2022 and published our last on-campus-only issue of Reader Beware in July. In 2023, we made the jump to accepting submissions from the general public.

Country of Publication & Year Established

United States

Established in 2021

Publication Medium & Frequency

Electronic Publication Electronic Publication: Published 1 x per year

Collapse section Fiction Closed

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Genres:

Horror Open to all/most Subgenres

Lengths:

Flash Fiction: Up to 1,000 words; Unknown number of pieces.
Short Story: 1,000 - 5,000 words; Unknown number of pieces.

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Dark, Mainstream, Pulp, Surrealist, Transgressive.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Other: May vary.

Payment:

Semi-pro payment (1-4.9 US cents per word) Semi-pro payment. Details: USD $0.01/word.

Submissions:

Method: Email.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Unknown.
Media: Text.

Collapse section Poetry Closed

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Genres:

Horror Open to all/most Subgenres

Lengths:

Poem: No line limits known; Unknown number of pieces.

Poetry Forms:

Open to all/most Forms.

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Dark, Mainstream, Pulp, Surrealist, Transgressive.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Other: May vary.

Payment:

Token payment (under US$5 per poem) to Professional payment (US$50 or more per poem) Pay ranges from Token payment to Professional payment. Details: USD $20 + $0.05 per line for up to three pages of poetry.

Submissions:

Method: Email.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Unknown.
Media: Text.

Collapse section Visual Art Closed

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Lengths:

Graphic Narrative: Up to 5 pages; Unknown number of pieces.

Art Media:

Cartoon/Comic strip.

Art Styles:

Open to all/most Art Styles.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Other: May vary.

Payment:

Token payment (under US$10 per piece) to Semi-pro payment (US$10-49 per piece) Pay ranges from Token payment to Semi-pro payment. Details: USD $10 per page of comics.

Submissions:

Method: Email.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Unknown.
Media: Image.

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

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Reader Beware Magazine Submission Statistics

The statistics in this section are compiled from submission reports sent to us through our submission tracker. They are not provided by the publication's editors/staff or by Duotrope's admins. Information in this section is updated a few times per day. Learn more about the statistics.

This listing is inactive and does not have any submission reports for the past 12 months.

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Always read the full guidelines provided by the publisher.
Try to read at least one previous publication to get a better idea of what the editor would like to see.
Unless the publisher's guidelines state otherwise, always use industry standard manuscript formatting.
Be professional, patient, and persistent.

Dates

Last Updated: 22 May 2026