NIGHT SHADES

Night Shades is a fiction magazine that publishes four speculative stories per month.

For Writers

Night Shades opens at the end of every month, and selects four stories for publication the following month. The dates of the submission period and the deadline will be posted here.

Each story should be no more than 500 words, and Night Shades pays $65 USD for stories (minimum $0.13/word). Please only submit one story per open period.

Prose stories only, no poems.

To submit, email your story as a word document, formatted regular style . In the body of the email, include the title of the story, the name you want to publish under, a 100 word bio, and a one-sentence "cover letter." I don't care about your other publications or your degree. Submissions dated after the posted deadline will be deleted with no reply.

nightshadesmagazine@gmail.com

More guidelines than actual rules:

Generally, any speculative fiction is fine. I like sci-fi best, but I also like horror and fantasy that's light on magic. I also like slice of life or less plot-driven stories that create a world. Urban fantasy is going to be a really hard sell for me.

Things I hate and will not publish: stories about aliens or robots who wish to become human. Stories about robots giving birth or procreating in human ways. Stories that have "girl" in the title.

This is a woke publication. I reserve the right to delete your submission without comment if I find it offensive and block your email.

Absolutely NO AI SUBMISSIONS.

Payment and Rights:

If your story is selected for publication, I'll email you about payment and we can choose a method. You'll be paid before your story is posted. All stories regardless of length pay $65, so you will be paid a minimum of $0.13/word.

I'm just a guy, I don't want your rights. If your story is published here, you can publish it wherever else you want, whenever you want. Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let me know if you need to withdraw. If you want to do something copyleft like Creative Commons, just put that in your email and we'll make it happen.

I'll copy edit each piece, but I won't do any development or line editing. I also cannot offer rejection feedback.

Other Stuff

This is sort of an impulse, which is why it's hosted on my personal website. If things take off, I'll likely migrate it to something freestanding.

I'd also like to explore publishing physical zines of Night Shades stories. This is something I'll work with you on if your story is published here.