Speculative Literary Journals with Higher Acceptance Rates

Facebook Pin LinkedIn Email

A while back, I created a post on speculative literary journals with the lowest acceptance rates. Now I want to go in a different direction. Not all speculative journals are incredibly hard to get into. Honestly, any journal that accepts more than 10% of its submissions is pretty good. So here’s a list of journals that have higher acceptance rates.

Be sure to check out The Submission Grinder for these journals as well!

Anotherealm

According to the Submission Grinder, literary journal Anotherealm has about a 38% acceptance rate. Take into account how some submissions haven’t yet been decided on, and submissions that receive rejection end up becoming dead letters. This just means that the acceptance rate may change.

Anotherealm looks for science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories of up to 5,000 words. Find their full submission guidelines, along with how to submit, here.

Antipodean SF

So far, this journal has a 100% acceptance rate based on several reports, according to The Submission Grinder. According to Antipodean SF’s site, “AntipodeanSF is devoted to ‘down under’ science/speculative/fantasy/horror/surreal fiction stories of about 500-1000 words or less.” You might also have the chance to be featured on their radio!

Find their full guidelines here.

Sci-fi Shorts

According to The Submission Grinder, this journal currently has a 45% acceptance rate. This journal looks for science fiction (and ONLY science fiction), 1,000 words or fewer. According to their site, “Your submission must be original SCIENCE FICTION. No rants or agendas disguised as Sci-Fi. No fan fiction (legally we can’t publish it). We do not accept serialized fiction or stories in multiple parts at this time. Each story must stand alone. We only accept previously unpublished work.”

Find their full guidelines here.

The Creepy Podcast

Next, we have The Creepy Podcast. This journal has a nearly 28% acceptance rate, which might be on the lower side in comparison, but it’s subject to change when it comes to the Submission Grinder.

This journal/podcast looks for creepy stories that can be read in under 25 minutes. Typically, stories for their spotlight narration run between 4,000 and 7,000 words, but their typical episodes usually look for stories around 3,500 words. They also pay $0.02 per word! They also have a quick response time of two to three weeks!

Find their guidelines for what they want and what they don’t want here.

Metastellar

I speak from experience on this one since I’m one of the editors there! Our fiction submissions have a lower acceptance rate, but our reprint acceptance rate is much higher! If you have a fiction piece that’s already published, feel free to send it over to us to have it reprinted.

The MetaStellar site states, “Our editors are looking for previously published flash fiction and short stories that fall into the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Flash fiction should be up to 1,200 words, and short stories ought to be between 1,200 words and 20,000 words and be in English. Brownie points if your work can make us chuckle.”

Find our full guidelines through his link.

365 Tomorrows

Lastly, 365 Tomorrows has had a consistently high acceptance rate, and many speculative authors started here. According to their site, “Definitions of flash-fiction vary depending on who you ask, and at 365, we’ve been a little loose with the term. However, it’s time to set some standards in stone: here, flash fiction is a self-contained story under 600 words … We like science fiction in all its incarnations, from hard sci-fi to cyberpunk and beyond.”

Find their full guidelines and their submission system here.

So if you have a speculative story that fits these guidelines, send it in! Happy submitting, and see you all next week for another book review!

You can get a FREE LIST of 100+ science fiction and fantasy literary journals to submit to when you subscribe!

I have a freelance editing service now! Contact me about book editing, beta reading, and brainstorming book titles. Use the contact form below to ask for a free 15-minute consultation.