Smart Search List of the Day

Fee-Free Horror Fiction

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Today's Smart Search List of the Day is: Fee-Free Horror Fiction. Check back tomorrow for a new list.
Color Coding: Purple indicates a Wildcard, Green indicates a paying publication, and Blue is everything else.

Edge & Busby

Edge & Busby is an independent press publishing horror that takes its characters as seriously as its scares. We publish fiction where the dread comes from people: what they want, what they hide, what scares them, and what they're capable of when no one is watching. We're drawn to books where the worst things happen between people. Serial killers between killings. Stalker stories told from the wrong side. Communities turning on one. Obsessions that wear a friendly face…
Genres: Horror.
Lengths: Novella, Fiction Collection, Novel.
Payment: + Unknown advance. Unknown royalties.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 17.1 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 10.0% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Flame Tree Press

Flame Tree Press is the trade fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing, with editorial offices in both London and New York. We’ll publish globally in the English language, in print and ebook formats, with a focus on excellent writing in horror and the supernatural, crime and mystery thrillers, and science fiction and fantasy. Our aim is to explore beyond the boundaries of the everyday, finding new pathways for the imagination, with tales from both award-winners and original voices…
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery/Crime, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Novel.
Payment: + Unknown advance. Unknown royalties.
Avg. Response: Slower than average responder. 146.5 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 4.6% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Flash Phantoms

Flash Phantoms is dedicated to bringing you the best HORROR stories of 1,000 words or less. Make them edgy right from the get-go and end with a bang. We don't like to be bored with a lot of exposition. We also accept MICRO HORROR fiction of 100 words. We don't care who you are, we don't discriminate. Send us your best, your worst, your weird.
Genres: Horror.
Lengths: Flash Fiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 2.4 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 41.5% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Frost Zone Stories

Frost Zone Stories will publish dark literary, quiet horror, or literary horror stories.
Genres: General, Horror.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: to Pays occasionally, up to Token. Free copy(ies). Details: CAD $20, or $15 and 1 copy, or no payment and 2 copies.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 20.3 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 15.8% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Hell Itself

There’s a bit of advice we give to writers: “Keep submitting your story until hell itself won’t have it.” (I first heard this advice associated with The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, but I sadly do not know its true origins). The unfortunate truth is that there are more humans out there producing great short stories than there are venues to publish them. And, thus, Hell Itself was born…
Genres: General, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: Token. Details: USD $5 per story.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 15.1 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 6.5% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Iron & Salt Press

Iron & Salt Press is a digital publication of speculative fiction. We publish mysteries, horror, crime fiction, and thrillers, separated into sections so you always find what you’re looking for.
Genres: Horror, Mystery/Crime, Suspense/Thriller.
Lengths: Flash Fiction, Short Story.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 18.2 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 30.8% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Kaleidotrope

Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. (Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all.)
Genres: Open to all/most genres, including: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novelette.
Payment: Semi-pro. Details: USD $0.01/word.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 11.1 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 2.3% of fiction submissions accepted.

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MetaStellar

MetaStellar is an online publication focusing on horror, fantasy and science fiction, launched in September 2020, founded by a dozen speculative fiction writers, editors and artists from around the world.
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novel Excerpt.
Payment: to Pays occasionally, up to Professional. Details: USD $0.10/word for original flash fiction submitted during specific periods; no payment outside of that.
Avg. Response: Slower than average responder. 86.3 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 12.1% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Raw Blood and Nerve

What kind of stories do we publish? The first anthology we published had stories about: a man who kills himself so his family gets his life insurance payout; a woman hallucinating (or maybe actually seeing) the rat manifestations of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; an over-industrialized town in which people cannot die until a new priest is appointed to the village church; a several-thousands-year-old horse transporting a boy back in time to see the horse’s many bloody murders; all the petroleum…
Genres: Horror.
Lengths: Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novelette.
Payment: to Semi-pro to Professional. Details: USD $0.01/word or $50, whichever is greater; $100 bonus for "exceptional work."
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 9.6 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 4.0% of fiction submissions accepted.

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Walnutport Review Wildcard

Walnutport Review was born from a simple belief: Great stories deserve a home, and the best judges of fiction are those who have spent a lifetime living inside books. We aren’t just editors; we are lifelong readers. Our mission is to bypass the “gatekeepers” of traditional publishing and provide a platform for bold, new short fiction that speaks to the human experience…
Genres: Fantasy, Horror.
Lengths: Flash Fiction, Short Story.
Payment: to Token to Semi-pro. Details: USD $25/$15/$10.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 49.9 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 18.2% of fiction submissions accepted.

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