Mainstream Fantasy Short Stories

Biome is a Speculative Fiction podcast aiming to share incredible stories with listeners around the world. We are looking for stories that center on life, ecosystems, and organisms in all their dazzling variety on Earth or beyond it. You’re welcome to approach this idea in the broadest possible sense, just make sure the biological element is key (and not incidental) to the story…
Genres:   Fantasy, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: Semi-pro. Details: USD $0.01/word.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 1.1 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in fiction.

The goal of speculative fiction has always been to examine the real world through the lens of the imaginary. By considering what could be, we gain a better understanding of what is. The Colored Lens strives to do exactly that. By publishing four to five short stories and serialized novellas a quarter in genres ranging from fantasy, to science fiction, to slipstream or magical realism, we hope to help our readers see the world just a bit differently than before they came to our website…
Genres:   Fantasy, Science Fiction.
Lengths:     Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novelette, Novella.
Payment: to Token to Semi-pro. Details: USD $10 for flash; $20 for stories; for novellas, $20 for first 10,000 words, and $1 per 1,000 words over that.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 6.2 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 1.8% of fiction submissions accepted.

No description available.
Genres:       General, Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery/Crime, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: Professional. Free copy(ies). Details: USD $0.07/word for originals; $0.01/word for reprints.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 3.7 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 65.5% of fiction submissions accepted.

Haven Spec is a speculative fiction magazine featuring stories for a 21st century audience. We love stories with a sense of adventure, stories that teach us, that touch us, that leave us wanting more. We publish six issues every year, two of which (the DRY Issue and the WET Issue) are focused exclusively on the climate crisis and themes of displacement (very broadly defined)…
Genres:   Fantasy, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: Professional. Details: USD $0.08/word.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 23.5 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 1.1% of fiction submissions accepted.

Welcome To The Shadows. . . … where the inky darkness that exists in every corner of all realities awaits a distraction to pull you under. The stories contained within our issues explore all these dark places: from the woods outside your bedroom window, to the basement of a fairy’s treehouse and everywhere in between. “What was that bump in the night?” “Did that shadow just move?” “Is anywhere safe anymore? We invite you into our pages to find the answers to these questions, and many more…
Genres:    Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths:   Flash Fiction, Short Story.
Payment: to Token to Semi-pro. Details: USD $10 per story.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 18.7 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 14.3% of fiction submissions accepted.

Not One of Us is a hardcopy zine about people (or things) out of place in their surroundings, outsiders, social misfits, aliens in the sf sense—anyone excluded from society for whatever the reason. We want to explore “otherness” from every possible angle.
Genres:     Open to all/most genres, including: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths: Short Story.
Payment: Token. Free copy(ies). Details: USD $0.0025/word, with a minimum of $5.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 13.1 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 2.9% of fiction submissions accepted.

PodCastle is looking for fantasy stories. We’re open to all the sub-genres of fantasy, from magical realism to urban fantasy to slipstream to high fantasy, and everything in between. Fantastical or non-real content should be meaningful to the story. We are an audio magazine. Our audience can’t skim past the boring parts. Ideally, fiction should have strong pacing, well-defined characters, engaging dialogue, clear action, and still be beautiful…
Genres: Fantasy.
Lengths:   Flash Fiction, Short Story.
Payment: Professional. Details: USD $0.08/word for first publication; $100 flat rate for reprints over 1,500 words; $20 for reprints under 1,500 words.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 22.1 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 0.8% of fiction submissions accepted.

There is a moment in every good story when certainty begins to fail. A familiar truth reveals a crack. A comfortable answer no longer explains. What once seemed obvious becomes strange. We are interested in that moment.
Genres:     General, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction.
Lengths:   Short Story, Novelette.
Payment: Token. Royalties. Details: USD $10.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 11.7 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 4.5% of fiction submissions accepted.