Submission Guidelines

General Guidelines

Story: 5,000 to 10,000 words.

Genre: Psychological horror

Original work.

Please don’t send multiple pieces.

Include your submission in the body of an e-mail. Ensure that the subject line is formatted “SUBMISSION: Title”

If you cannot submit in the body of an email, please submit the document in .rtf format with the following:

1) A title page separate from the body of the text, with your Name, word count, story title and contact information in the top left corner. You may include a synopsis of your story, but it is not required.

2) Make a page break ()

3) Then the body of your text with the title at the top and centered.

Use industry standard manuscript formatting. (See this page for more details)

Email all submissions to abattoir@flyingislandpress.com

What we are looking for in a story -

We have had some most excellent guest posts on what psychological horror means. I commend you to read Paul Cooley’s take as well as Taylor Kent’s. Both are in line with what we are looking for here.

It could be argued that all horror is “psychological”. I want stories that make my flesh crawl or make me want to look over my shoulder constantly. I want you, the writer, to pull that off by building characters up that we care about and creating situations that rely, not on jump scares or buckets of gore, but on that which is unseen. Make me as the reader use my imagination. The masters of cinematic horror managed that for decades.

Feel free to include aspects of the supernatural, science fiction or fantasy. We are lovers of genre crossovers. If you make that choice though, we ask only that you challenge us as a reader. Tweak tropes. Avoid cliches. We believe that the word count we are seeking will allow you to explore a bit and introduce us to your world.

A word about sex and strong language. It is our feeling that our audience will be made up of primarily adults. Explicit sex and strong language are staples of most creations in this genre. Where it serves the story, there is no problem with that here. Still, we are not looking for and will not accept what we view as erotica or pornography. There are venues for that and they shouldn’t be hard for you to find. Admittedly, these decisions are entirely subjective on our part.

What We Buy -

Abattoir purchases exclusive electronic text and audio rights for 90 days, and a non-exclusive perpetual license thereafter. What that means is, Abattoir gets to be the only place your story is appearing online for 90 days from the first date of publication, and after that if you want to post it anywhere else, or sell it to anyone else, you’re free to do so. We aren’t buying any print rights at this time.

Audio Versions

If your story is accepted for publication, we will give you the option of recording your own story for inclusion in the audio version, or allowing one of our staff to perform the story for you. If you have no experience recording audio, or you’re not comfortable reading your own story for publication, don’t worry. We’ll find a voice for your story, and take care of the recording and inclusion on our end.

WHAT WE PAY

We have what we feel to be a unique model. We will deliver the podcast version of your story for free. We will charge $1.49 for the electronic text version and you, the artist, will receive seventy-five percent of the proceeds (minus any fees taken out by third party retailers such as Amazon). We make no guarantees as to a minimum amount that you will receive, but at the same time there is no cap. Terms and scheduling of payment are subject to contract. We view ourselves as less of a magazine publisher and more of a chapbook or novelette publisher and hope this pay model will serve you better than a simple, one-time payment.