Submission Guidelines

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES


Scare Street is accepting submissions for short horror stories with a focus on ghosts, the supernatural, paranormal, monsters, and dark tales.



Unpublished short stories must be 3,000-7,000 words and will be included in our Night Terrors anthologies consisting of ~65,000 words each. These stories will be published in e-book, print, and audio formats in English within 6 months after the submissions close date. Based on reader reception, we may also publish them in e-book, print, and audio formats in German and Spanish.




WHO ARE WE?
Scare Street is a horror publishing company dedicated to helping fellow horror lovers experience sleepless nights. We’ve been around since September 2015 and have published 200+ e-book and paperback titles along with 150+ audiobooks (and counting!).


WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Get visibility from thousands of horror readers. We will promote your work on our email list (12,000+ subscribers), Facebook Page (30,000+ followers), Facebook Group (13,000+ members), Pinterest (nearly 300k+ monthly views) and the rest of our social media channels.

Afterwards, thousands of readers on Amazon and other retailers will organically find your stories. Our first few volumes clenched the top 3 new release spots in horror anthologies category and continue to be found on the first page of various horror categories.

Work with an experienced publisher. We’ve been publishing high-quality manuscripts, non-stop for 5+ years. We’ve ironed out the kinks and know what it takes to bring stories to the masses, operationally. And we know a few things about getting your stories read, too!


Distribution in e-book, print, and audio formats, in various languages. You’ll also receive a complimentary digital e-book and audio formats when they’re published. We will definitely be publishing the e-book and print formats in English.  The English audio format, along with German and Spanish e-book, print or audio formats will be produced based on reader reception.

Note: Upon receipt, these cannot be distributed without written permission.

Straightforward payment. We pay $10 for every 1,000 words prorated, $50 for every 5,000 words prorated, and so on. Payment will be sent by the e-book publication date. There’s no waiting for royalties to trickle in, or confusion over whether you’ll get paid and for what amount.


RIGHTS

Scare Street will have the following rights for selected stories:
1)  6 months exclusivity for English e-book rights starting from the date of publication (target  publication date is within 3-6 months after the submissions close date), then non-exclusive e-book rights after the 6-month period. During the e-book exclusivity period, the story must NOT be available anywhere else in written digital format.

2)  Non-exclusive English language print and audio rights.

3)  Non-exclusive translation rights granting the ability to translate to German and Spanish language for production in e-book, audio, and print formats.

We believe in purchasing non-exclusive rights so you can continue to sell those same stories to other publishers. Our sole exclusivity requirement is 6 months for the English e-book rights starting from the date of publication. Print, audio, and translation rights are non-exclusive from the start and can be sold elsewhere immediately after signing with us.



WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR


  • Unpublished short stories with 3,000-7,000 words (we will consider stories that are slightly outside the word count range)

  • Manuscript must be written using American English spelling and terminology

  • We go for stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling

  • Stories with clever, but logical twists at the end

  • New ideas and unusual writing styles, but without falling into traps of contrivance and cliché

  • Stories showing more of the action rather than just telling the reader what happens

  • Believable dialogues and minimal use of dialects/slang



WHAT WE’RE NOT LOOKING FOR


  • Reprints or stories that were already published elsewhere

  • Shorts with a lot of spelling and grammar errors

  • Stories that are not horror, dark fantasy or some form of disturbing fiction

  • Fan fiction

  • Sex is fine, but total erotica and torture porn are not

  • Stories that include intolerance of a person or group’s race, religion, nationality, physical or mental ability, gender identity, or sexual orientation

  • Gratuitous gore and violence with no purpose – blood and guts are fine as long as there’s something deeper

  • Stories that glorify, minimize, or inaccurately represent child abuse, animal abuse, or sexual assault

  • Extreme use of foul language. Use of foul language must be minimal as it loses its punch if over-used


DEADLINE
Submissions will be accepted from February 11, 2022 through March 13, 2022 11:59PM PST.
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SIMULTANEOUS & MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
Simultaneous submissions (submitting the same stories to other publishers at the same time) are allowed. Please let us know as soon as possible if submission is accepted or published by another publisher. To withdraw your submission, email us at [email protected] with the subject line “WITHDRAW SUBMISSION: [Title of the story you’re withdrawing]”. If we select your story, please remove the work from consideration elsewhere immediately. We accept a maximum of 2 stories per author per submission period. Additional stories will be left unread.

Note: The email address provided is for withdrawal of submissions only. DO NOT email us your submission. We will only consider submissions through the Google Form link below.


REPRINTS
We do not accept reprints (stories that have been previously published). All submissions must be unpublished.



RESPONSE TIME
Author will be notified via email once story has been selected. Most submissions will receive a response within 30 days after the submission deadline. Due to the sheer number of submissions we are unable to reply to all inquiries. We will review all submissions, so if you don't hear back within 45 days after the submission deadline, then it has not been selected.


FAQs
We’ve compiled answers to frequently asked questions in our AUTHORS’ FAQs page.



MANUSCRIPT FORMAT


  • Manuscript must be written using American English spelling and terminology

  • 12 pt. Georgia or Times New Roman font, normal margins, and double spaced

  • Do not use any special formatting like headers, page numbers, images, and page/section breaks

  • Include author’s name, title, and word count on the first page

  • Indicate scene breaks with three stars, no space (***)

  • Indicate the end of manuscript with three stars, with spaces in between (* * *)

  • Submission must be in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)

  • Save the file name in this format: Title of Story_Author's Full Name (e.g., Horror House_John Smith)

Manuscript Format Template



HOW TO SUBMIT
We will only consider submissions through the Google Form link below. Each author can only submit up to two stories within the submission period.  Stories will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.

DO NOT email us your submission. We will not review submissions sent through email.

DO NOT submit stories that you already submitted on Scare Street’s previous open call submissions. They will be automatically rejected. We review all submitted stories, and unfortunately cannot respond to all inquiries due to the sheer number of submissions.

Please fill out the Google Form by clicking the button below:

Submission Form