Important notice: Due to the last submission period clocking 1905 submissions, we’ve had to make adjustments this round, including reduced word count, shorter open period, different system, etc. We apologize for the inconvenience! Please read FAQ at the end for more info.
We are looking for first readers! Read at your own pace, be part of a fun community, take part in book and merch giveaways, and get credited as assistant editor in the release. If you are not submitting a story this round, consider applying HERE!
The Skull and Laurel is a quarterly magazine of New Weird short fiction. A more detailed explanation of the type of stories we publish at Tenebrous Press can be found here, but essentially we are looking for speculative fiction that is genre-fluid and modern in its themes, subtext, characters, techniques, or form. Horror, fantasy, and science fiction stories are welcome so long as they are dark and Weird with a capital W. If your story is speculative and either blends genres or refuses to fit neatly within their confines, we want to read it. Our goal is to publish strange and brave new stories told by people you may have never otherwise met.
Submission Guidelines
This round open to all writers: October 15th to November 1st 2024.
Extended window for marginalized writers: October 15th to November 7th 2024.
(Please be responsible when using the extra window. We’ll assume writers understand why this is needed, and will respect it. We’d be very sad to discover otherwise.)
This round covers issue #3; if the number of submissions is sufficient it will also cover issue #4.
Genres and forms: Weird Horror, Dark Fantasy, Dark Science Fiction. Short Fiction, Narrative Poetry. We also encourage trying us with things like comic strips, mixed media, found footage, puzzles, games, experiments, and other weird forms, as long as they tell a story.
Word count: 100 to 4999 words
Payment: 3c/word (USD) originals; $25 (USD) reprints
Reprints: Yes (Please limit this to reprints that haven’t been originally published in the past 12 months! Reprints originally published in the past 12 months may be eligible for a BNW award, instead.)
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, please
Multiple submissions: Please submit no more than one original story and one reprint at a time (one of each is fine).
Translations: Translations are welcome as long as the story has not yet been published in English.
Target Age Group: Mature audiences
AI Disclaimer: Machine/AI-generated content is explicitly forbidden. Authors and artists should anticipate contracts declaring that no part of their submission was machine/AI-generated. Those who submit machine/AI-generated content will be permanently blacklisted.
Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook, including a six-month exclusivity period. For reprints, World English reprint in print, electronic, and ebook, no exclusivity. All copyright belongs to the author.
Estimated response time so far has been under three months for most passes, over that for shortlist. It’ll depend largely on volume of submissions, and it will be the best it can possibly be.
Please remember we love simsubs and will cheer you on if you need to withdraw for any reason.
Withdraw your story by dropping an email to tenebrouspress.mag@gmail.com including the author name and story title as submitted.
Format: Any standard manuscript text format will suffice so long as your submission is readable. No preferences on things like font etc.
For weird formatting or submissions that contain images such as comics or mixed media, please create a shareable PDF in a medium-to-low quality.
Home address and legal name are not necessary and we’d prefer not to receive them.
If you make mistakes with the form, have typos, misread instructions, or submit the wrong thing, it is not a big deal. Let us know if you need us to do anything about it, otherwise rest assured that we understand the level of stress, overwork, and exhaustion that comes with being a writer.
Special Goal: For the next issue of the magazine, we will be looking to accept at least one extra weird eco-horror/cli-fi submission from a BIPOC writer. Given enough submissions, we will make this the goal of both next issues, #3 and #4.
The theme connections can be vague, but submitting to this category counts as disclosure that the author fits the demographic for this specific entry.
If you submit a SPECIAL GOAL STORY that will not count against your ‘one of each’ rule, so you can still also submit an original and a reprint.
You can submit these at any time during the open period.
(LINK FOR ORIGINAL AND REPRINT FICTION)
(LINK FOR SPECIAL GOAL STORIES)
If you cannot access these forms for any reason, feel free to email us a submission at tenebrouspress.mag@gmail.com! Please try to include your byline, bio, title, word count, and for reprints, original publication venue. Make the subject line “SUBMISSION - TITLE”.
However, if you can use the form, we’d be grateful. We understand and agree that this isn’t ideal but don’t have any plausible alternatives yet (see Q 1). However, we are constantly searching for other options.
FAQ: (This has no bearing on the sub process, only read this if you actually have questions as they may be answered here)
Q: Why did you change your system from Moksha to a Google form?
A: The 1905 submissions. More specifically, the realization that we needed to pay not only for the months of Moksha when we’re open for submissions, but the *entire* time we want to be able to access anything to do with those submissions, up to publication. This ended up being more money than we’d anticipated, and more than the magazine can afford right now.
While we are trying to make things as convenient for writers as possible, it can’t come at the expense of not being able to sustain the magazine. We’re sorry, and if there are submission systems that you know of that are more accessible and work well, we’d love to hear about it! For long fiction we’re huge fans of Query Manager and would leap at something like that for short fiction.
Q: Why did you lower the word count?
A: The 1905 submissions! More specifically, the larger word count ended up being the hardest for the readers to process, and in the end is incredibly unlikely to be featured in the magazine because it would take up over half the total word count and have to outweigh the benefits of featuring two to three other shorter stories. As featuring new voices is one of the main goals of this magazine, that longer word count just isn’t affordable at this time.
Q: If I’m published here would my story still be eligible for a BNW award?
A: Nope! For BNW we don’t allow submissions that have been published by our press in any form, including in the S&L magazine.
If you have any other questions, drop us a note on socials, email us at tenebrouspress.mag@gmail.com, or write us through this anonymous form: