Thrilling Spec aims to harken back to the golden age of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror with stories about adventure, discovery, and overcoming obstacles.
What we want:
In a nutshell, previously unpublished short fiction with elements of adventure, daring, and discovery.
- Length: 3,000-6,000 words, semi-firm (if your story is 2,900 or 6,050 words, yeet it at us. If it's 7,000, yeet it elsewhere).
- Payment: $75 per accepted piece. We're hoping to increase pay rates as we go. In exchange for this payment, we ask for exclusive first worldwide digital rights to your story for an exclusive period of six months from the publication date of your story on our website. After that, all rights revert back to you, but we'd asked that you mention us as the original venue with any reprints you sell (and please reach out to let us know so we can congratulate you!). We also ask for ongoing, non-exclusive rights to include your story in any possible end-of-year anthologies.
- If you'd like to support us in paying for high-quality fiction, check out our Ko-fi, which includes a variety of ways you can help!
- Simultaneous subs: Yes! Just please let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere.
- Multiple subs: No! But if you get a rejection and we're still open, feel free to yeet something else at us.
- Anonymous subs: Yes! We want to judge your story on its merits, not the merits of your name (which I'm sure are many and grand).
Artwork:
- In addition to stories being published on our website, we release a monthly ebook for subscribers with cover artwork.
- Payment for artwork is $50 per piece.
What we don't want:
- Homophobia, sexism, racism, etc., etc., unless these are being critiqued. We know these were rife in golden age stories, but that doesn't mean we think it was okay.
- Stories that use cheap tricks (e.g., dead kids and cancer) to evoke an emotional reaction. If your story makes me cry for any reason other than a successfully completed quest, it's going in the bin!
- Gore & erotica for their own sake, not for the sake of the story.
- We do not currently accept reprints nor poetry, although that might change in the future.
- AI anything! Look, we can't tell if you asked ChatGPT for story ideas, but if we get even the slightest hint that you generated any of your story with such a tool—in the bin!