Pickpik
This October there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, every genre, style, and form is wanted, from short stories to poetry to essays.
​
I post upcoming calls for submissions shortly before the first day of every month. But as I am collecting them, I post them on my page, Calls for Submissions. You can get a jump on next month's calls for submissions by checking that page periodically throughout the month. (I only post paying markets.)

Also see Paying Markets for hundreds of paying markets arranged by form and genre.

Happy submitting!

___________________________


IHRAM Press: Art, Action, Impact: Voices of 21st-century Activism. Genre: "This anthology will explore interventions that have sparked widespread change, highlighting protests and acts of resistance expressed through art, storytelling, and personal activism." Payment: $50. Deadline: October 1, 2025.

Mudroom. Genre: Poetry, fiction, essays, and essays in translation. Payment: $15. Deadline: Opens October 1, 2025.

Polar Borealis. Restrictions: Open to Canadians only. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: 1 cent per word. $10 for one thousand words or less. $20 for two thousand words or less (but reasonably above one thousand). $30 for three thousand words or less (but reasonably above two thousand). Deadline: Opens October 1, 2025.

The Iowa Review. Genre: Fiction, poetry. Payment: $1.50 per line for poetry ($100 minimum) and $0.08 per word for prose ($100 minimum). Deadline: October 1, 2025. No fee for snail mail submissions. $4 fee for online submissions.

The Forge Literary Magazine. Genre: Fiction, flash fiction, micro-fiction. Length: Under 3,000 words preferred. Payment: $75. Deadline: Opens October 1, 2025. They open to fee-free submissions on the first of each month and close when they reach their quota.

Gordon Square Review. Genre: Poetry, short stories, personal essays, and hybrid prose works. Payment: $25 per prose piece and $10 per poem. Deadline: October 1, 2025.

The Last Line. Genre: Fiction that ends with the last line provided. Payment: $20-$40. Deadline: October 1, 2025.


The Paris Review. Genres: Fiction, poetry. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: Opens October 1, 2025, and closes when they reach capacity.


Sundog. Genre: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art. Payment: $50. Deadline: Opens October 1, 2025, and closes when they reach capacity.

Humour Me. Genre: Funny short stories with the theme ‘Autumn.’ Payment: £7.50. Deadline: October 1, 2025.

Flame Tree: Wars in the Stars Short Stories. Genre: Sci-fi on an epic scale. Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. Deadline: October 1, 2025.

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. Genre: Speculative stories. Payment: 8 cents/word for original work. 2 cents/word for reprints. Deadline: October 2, 2025. Opens October 1. This is a monthly call.


Stone's Throw. Genre: Noir, dark fiction, crime short stories. Length: between 1,000 and 2,000 words. See theme. Payment: $25. Deadline: October 3, 2025. Note: This is a monthly call.

Tales from the Moonlit Path. Genre: Dark, eerie speculative fiction and poetry. Payment: $10 for fiction. Deadline: October 4, 2025.

Daikaijuzine. Genre: Speculative fiction, poetry, art. Payment: $10.00 for each short story, and $5.00 for each poem and flash fiction piece. Deadline: October 5, 2025.

Shadows in the Ravens Eye: A Reimagining of Poe’s Tales. Genre: Short stories that reinterpret Poe's legends with fresh angles, but keeping with his style and atmosphere. Keep the dread, the obsession, the unreliable minds. Surprise us with setting, voice, or twist. Length: 2,000 to 3,000 words. Payment: 20 cents per book. Deadline: October 5, 2025.

Raconteur Press. Genre: Detective stories. The early pulp magazines and books may have cost a dime, but these detectives need more than that to keep body and soul together. They were the gumshoes, the flat-feet, who used old-fashioned persistence and a healthy dose of common sense to track down clues and close the net on the perpetrators. Read Frederic Brown’s The Fabulous Clipjoint and you’ll have a clue to what we’re looking for. Men whose gruff exterior hid a soft heart and a sharp mind, they were not noir, they were something uniquely American, classless, and driven by a desire for justice—but not at all costs. They got their man, or woman, in the end. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 5, 2025.

Tractor Beam. Genre: Soilpunk speculative fiction. Payment: $1,000 for stories and graphic novellas up to 6,000 words. Deadline: October 6, 2025.

Affirm Press. Restrictions: Open to Australians only. Genre: All literary and genre fiction. For non-fiction, they are interested in most subjects that have a connection to Australia. authors or authors based in Australia, and only manuscripts that haven’t been previously published. They only accept submissions on the first Monday of each month. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 6, 2025.

Trans Survivors Zine. Genre: Trans and nonbinary art. See theme. Payment: $25. Deadline: October 13, 2025.

Planet Scumm. Genre: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream. Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: October 13, 2025.

Solarpunk Magazine. Genre: Solarpunk. Payment: $0.08/word for fiction, $40/poem, and $75/essay, $100 for reprint cover art, $200 for original unpublished cover art, $50 for reprint interior art, $100 for original unpublished interior art  Deadline: October 14, 2025.

Inner Worlds Zine. Genre: Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus. "We are mainly interested in fiction, but we’re open to speculative memoir or creative non fiction, as long as it has speculative elements.” Payment: £0.02 per word for each piece accepted, with a minimum £20 payment. Deadline: October 14, 2025 for members of marginalised groups only.

The Orange & Bee. Genre: Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales. Payment: Poetry: flat rate $US50.00 per poem; Flash fiction/non-fiction: flat rate $US80.00 per story (max 1000 words); Short fiction/non-fiction: $US0.08 per word (max 4000 words). Deadline: October 14, 2025.

Translunar Travelers Lounge. Restrictions: September 15 - 21 is reserved for writers of color. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: $0.03 per word with a minimum of $20. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Horror Tree: Trembling With Fear. Genre: Horror short stories. Payment: $5. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy. Genre: Science fiction and fantasy. Length: 1500-7500 words. Payment: $0.005/word up to 7500 words. Minimum of $15. Reprints paid at full rate. Deadline: October 15, 2025. Accepts reprints.

The Last Girls Club. Genre: Feminist horror poetry and fiction on theme: Secret Police, ICE, and the Disappeared. Payment: $0.015/word for fiction, and $10 for poetry. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Consequence Magazine: The Culture of War. Genre: Short fiction, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, reviews, and visual art mainly focused on the culture of war. Payment: $20 - $60 for prose and poetry, $150 for art. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Cutleaf: Literary Nonfiction. Genre: Literarhy nonfiction.. Payment: $100 to $300 for published prose. Deadline: October 15, 2025. Closes when cap is reached.

New Orleans Review. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Payment: $300 for prose, $100 for poetry. Deadline: October 15, 2025. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, there are no submission fees for Latinx writers from September 15th to October 15th.

Rattle: Rebels. Genre: Poetry. "Our Spring 2026 issue will be dedicated to literary rebels—those poets who run counter to the literary mainstream." Payment: $100. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Into the Deep, Dark Woods Anthology. Genre: Original fiction and poetry in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, suspense, mystery, humor, and romance, appropriate for up to a “PG-13” audience. The setting of “deep, dark woods” must be central to the story. Payment: 6 cents/word. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Electric Spec. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: $20 per piece. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Rooted. Genre: Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, CNF, audio, art. See theme. Payment: $10 for online publication only. No payment for print. Deadline: October 15, 2025.

Foglifter. Genre: Foglifter is a biannual compendium of queer and trans writing. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace. "Please submit work that engages with themes that may include gender expression and transition, reproductive justice, disability and chronic illness, surveillance and censorship, body modification culture, fat liberation and anti-ableism, queer desire and sexuality, the racialized body, and performance and protest. We invite works that grapple with the political, personal, and cultural dimensions of the queer body." Payment: $100. Deadline: October 16, 2025.

Havok. Genre: Flash fiction. See themes. Payment: $50 via PayPal for each story selected for an Anthology. No payment for online publication. Deadline: October 17, 2025.

Seaside Gothic. Genre: Seaside gothic fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or a collection of photographs or illustrations. Payment: £0.01 per word. Deadline: October 19, 2025.

Flame Tree: No Laughing Matter. Genre: Fiction which embraces the horror/thriller genres with elements of bleak, black humour, wry observation, a touch of irony and satire, and hints of the absurd. Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. Deadline: October 19, 2025.

Hub City Press. Restrictions: "We are seeking new and extraordinary voices from the American South." Genre: Debut and second novels. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 19, 2025.

Quist. Restrictions: Open to writers and artists between the ages of 14 and 21 and based in Quebec. Genre: Poetry and prose. Payment: $75. Deadline: October 20, 2025.

Astrolabe. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography & art. Payment: $50. Deadline: October 22, 2025.

Mythaxis. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum. Deadline: October 30, 2025.

Neon Hemlock. Genre: Speculative fiction novellas. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 30, 2025.

JMS Books. Genre: LGBTQ romance stories, 12,000 words minimum. See theme. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries. Genre: Heroic fantasy. Payment: £25. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Engen Books. Restrictions: Newfoundland and Labrador writers preferred. Genre: Space Stories. Length: under 7,500 words. Payment: $0.01 CAD per word. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Harbor Review. Genre: Poetry, art. Payment: $10. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

The Temz Review. Genre: Prose (fiction and creative non-fiction) up to 10,000 words long. Payment: $20. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Nine Arches. Genre: Poetry collections. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.
​
Tenebrous Press. Restrictions: Open to POC. Genre: New Weird Horror novels and novellas. Length: 20,000 - 120,000 words. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Brick. Genre: Literary nonfiction. Payment: $65–720, depending on the length of accepted work, plus two copies of the issue the work appears in and a one-year subscription to the magazine. Deadline: October 31, 2025. Closes when cap is reached, so submit early.

Phylum Press. Genre: Poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art. See theme. Payment: $10. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Rebel Satori Press. Restrictions: Open to LGBTQIA+ writers. Genre: Book-length speculative fiction involving LGBTQ+ characters written by LGBTQ+ authors, including but not limited to: sci-fi, interstitial, slipstream, horror, and supernatural fictional manuscripts. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

My Galvanized Friend is a new publication focused on highlighting works from those identifying as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, and essays between 500 and 3,500 words as well as works of poetry and original works of art. Payment: $25 per fiction/nonfiction/essay and $10 per page of poetry. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

MetaStellar. Genre: Science fiction, fantasy or horror. 1000 words max. Payment: 8 cents per word. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Flash Point Science Fiction. Genre: Speculative fiction stories from 100 to 1,000 words in length. "Send us your science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between, so long as it’s short." Payment: 2 cents/word. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Made in L.A. Restrictions: Preference for writers who currently live in and around Los Angeles. Genre: Fiction. Payment: 1 cent/word. Deadline: October 31, 2025. 

Walpurgis Witcheries Anthology. Genre: Sword and sorcery. Length: Between 4,000 and 8,000 words. Payment: 1 cent/word. Deadline: October 31, 2025.


​AfriCANthology II: Strange Truth of Black Canadian Fiction. Restrictions: Open to  writers who live in Canada or are Canadian citizens living outside the country who self-identify as Black. Genre: Short stories (2,500 to 4,000 words) in any genre of fiction that honour the anthology’s themes and relate to the Black experience in Canada.  Payment: $200 CAD. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series. Restrictions: Open to any individual living in the U.S. who identifies as an immigrant and who either (i) was born in another country, (ii) has at least one parent who was born in another country (iii) is a refugee, or (iv) lives in the United States under Asylum or a Protection Program, such as TPS or DACA. Genre: Books of poetry, prose (fiction or nonfiction), and hybrid texts of poetry and prose. Payment: In addition to publication, marketing, and a standard royalties contract from Black Lawrence Press, authors chosen for the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series will receive a travel stipend of $500, which can be used for book tours or in any manner chosen by the authors. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Olit. Restrictions: Strong preference for Orlando based writers/submissions about Orlando and surrounding areas. Genre: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Hybrid, Artwork, Photography. "Send us all kinds of stuff. We love the artfully weird." Payment: $10. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Dragon Soul Press: FIRE & ASH. Genre: All dragon-themed stories. All genres accepted.  Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Manawaker Studio: 100 Word Project. Genre: Speculative fiction of exactly 100 words. See theme. Payment: $1. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Anvil Press. Restrictions: Open to writers living in Canada. Genres: Full-length books per year in the following genres:
• literary fiction (short story collections, novels, uncategorizable prose)
• creative nonfiction
• memoir
• essay collections
• poetry
• books about Vancouver history (preferably off-beat or little-known history)
Read submission guidelines here. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Haven Speculative. Genre: Speculative fiction and poetry. Payment: 8¢ per word for fiction and $20 for poetry. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Wildhouse Publishing. Genre: Full-length poetry collection. "Wildhouse Publishing curates books for unconventional people with adventurous spirituality." Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Midnight Meadow Publishing's goal is to publish engaging and unique LGBTQ+ stories while elevating marginalized voices. They are interested in a wide variety of genres. Read submission guidelines HERE. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Flash Fiction Online. Genre: Speculative flash fiction. Payment: $100. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Glass Poetry Press. Genre: Poetry chapbooks. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Phoenix Poets Series: University of Chicago Press. Genre: Full-length poetry manuscripts. Payment: Royalties. Read full guidelines HERE. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

SpecPoVerse. Genre: Speculative poetry. Payment: $5. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Inner Worlds Zine. Genre: Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus. "We are mainly interested in fiction, but we’re open to speculative memoir or creative non fiction, as long as it has speculative elements.” Payment: £0.02 per word for each piece accepted, with a minimum £20 payment. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Ember. Genre: Creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry aimed at children and teens. Payment: 2 cents per word or $20 per work, whichever is more, for worldwide first publication rights in English. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

New Writing Scotland. Restrictions: Open to writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing or inclination. Genre: All forms of writing are invited: autobiography and memoirs; creative responses to events and experiences; drama; graphic artwork (monochrome only); poetry; political and cultural commentary and satire; screenplays; short fiction; travel writing or any other creative prose may be submitted. Maximum recommended length of 3,500 words in total. Payment: $25/page. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Spring Into SciFi. Genre: Science fiction short stories. Payment: $15. Deadline: October 31, 2025.

AND A FEW MORE...

Last Girls Club. Genre: Feminist horror: short stories and poems - see themes. Payment: Fiction, 1.5 cents/word. Poetry, $10. Deadline: November 1, 2025.

Ninth Letter Web Edition. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. See theme. Payment: $25 per poem and $75 for prose. Deadline: November 1, 2025.

Podcastle. Genre: Fantasy podcast. Length: Up to 6,000 words. Payment: $0.06/word for original; $100 for reprints, $20 for flash fiction reprints. Deadline: Opens November 1, 2025.

Clocks. Genre: Dark fiction, speculative fiction, near sci-fi, strange, wondrous. Payment: $40. Deadline: November 1, 2025. Closes when cap is reached, so submit early.

Foglifter. Genre: Foglifter is a biannual compendium of queer and trans writing. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace. "Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. We want the pieces that challenged you as a writer, what you poured yourself into and risked the most to make. But we also want your tenderest, gentlest work, what you hold closest to your heart. Whatever you're working on now that's keeping you alive and writing, Foglifter wants to read it." Payment: $50. Deadline: November 1, 2025.

The Other Stories (Audio). Genre: Horror on themes. Payment: 15 GBT. Deadline: November 1, 2025. See themes.

The First Line Journal. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction and poetry using the line provided. (See theme) Payment: $25-50 for fiction, $25 for nonfiction, $10 for poetry. Deadline: November 1, 2025.

Thema. Genre: Fiction, poetry, and art on theme: Today's Onerous Task. Payment:  $10-$25 for short fiction and artwork, $10 for poetry. Deadline: November 1, 2025. Accepts reprints.