out of ruins features dark, weird fiction ranging from 1,000 – 4,000 words, and related artwork/comics.
What is dark weird fiction? Well, it`s probably whatever you think it is. It can be any genre; fantasy, SF, detective, suspense, adventure, etc.., as long as it`s dark and weird. Think Haruki Murakami, China Mieville, Mark Danielewski, Steven Hall, Michael Marshall Smith, Neil Gaiman, H. P. Lovecraft, Mervyn Peake, and the like. Stories of madness, slipstream stories, parallel dimensions, experimental stories, straight genre stories with a twist, they`re all welcome here.
Any similarly dark and weird artwork/comic submissions will be very welcome. Payment from $5 (a single exclusive work) to $20 (for a comic series) and exposure.
Payment for fiction is a quarter cent a word, up to a maximum of $10 for 4,000 words. And of course exposure.
out of ruins does well for exposure, since it is not only a fiction zine. A good number of people read this site because of the wide variety of ruins photography show-cased on it. The dark fictions and art get sandwiched in between ruins photography posts, and broadly appeal to the same audience- people interested in the dark and the weird.
The site has around 700 RSS subscribers, and gets about 2000 page views a day. Both of those figures are growing- hopefully your submission will help the site grow, in turn getting more exposure for yourself and everyone.
Legalese- Upon publication/display of your work I can do no other than take your First Electronic Publishing Rights, if you’re submitting a fresh story/artwork to me. If it’s a reprint I get one-use rights.
submit here – CONTACT FORM
with- 1,000 – 4,000 word dark weird fiction stories
pay- a quarter cent a word up to $10 for 4,000 words. $5 for single artworks, up to $20 for a comic series.
want- anything dark, weird, experimental, slipstream, madness, twist, spooky, etc…
cover letter- appreciated, nice to know a bit about you
format- plain text (remove any formatting before you cut and paste), no tabbed indents, no smart quotes, something like an asterisk * between chapter/scene breaks
spelling, grammar- as correct as you can make it
response time- probably within 4 weeks
simultaneous- I can’t stop you so wouldn’t try, but please don’t end up with your story live at my site and another site at the same time
modifications- I might request some fixes to a story, or I may make them myself with your approval
contract- if your story is accepted we’ll both digitally sign a contract basically saying you gave up your First Electronic Publishing Rights- that is if it’s not already a reprint, and I’ll pay you by Paypal upon publication
archives- I’d like to archive your story/artwork indefinitely, but will take down if you so request after a 6 month period
That’s it. Best of luck with your submissions!
MJG.
on Ruin of a Japanese WWII Shipyard on Writing Blog #8 tapestry narratives on Writing Blog #7 the engine of fiction
