Sometimes, speculative fiction small presses and publications also publish anthologies. These submission periods come throughout the year. These small presses develop specific themes and ideas that writers build on every year. If you want to submit to anthologies, check out these five speculative anthologies and keep their submission periods in mind for this year.
Black Beacon Books
This speculative small press has several submission periods throughout the year for various themes and genres in their anthologies. They primarily look for science fiction, thriller, mystery, and horror, based on their website. At this time, they have several submissions set for later in the year, with publication sometime in 2027. They also accept novelettes submissions between 9,000 to 25,000 words, though they also only publish at certain periods.
Their next submission period happens from October 1 to November 30th. For this period, titled Lighthouses 2, they want thriller, mystery, or horror stories set in a lighthouse. They pay a $30 flat rate per accepted submissions. Find their full guidelines for how to submit and other upcoming submission periods through this link.
Dragon Soul Press
Besides looking for short stories, this small press also looks for anthology submissions. They plan to publish a huge variety of anthologies throughout this year and next year, with submission periods throughout 2026. For example, they want submissions for their horror anthology Sinister Dreams by June 30, between 3,000 and 20,000 words. Other submission periods include Midnight Bites for horror, Once Upon a Tale for fairytale retellings, Curses and Crystals for witch-themed stories, as well as several others.
Before you submit, check out all of their submission periods and also check out their submission guidelines through this link.
Tyche Books
This small press advertises a couple of different submission periods for Canadian authors, though it looks like anyone can submit. Their next anthology, titled Slapshots in Space and Magical Marathons, begins its submission period from July 1 to August 31, with stories wanted between 1,000 and 5,000 words and poetry up to 60 lines.
According to their site, “Slapshots in Space and Magical Marathons: A Speculative Sports Anthology (working title) invites contributors to re-examine sports through space opera, near- or far-future science fiction, alternative worlds, time travel, magical realism, fantasy, or other lenses that fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction. Steampunk, hopepunk, science gone bad, social commentary, or just plain laugh-out-loud fun—all of these and more are fair game.”
Find their full guidelines and how to submit through this link.
Shacklebound Books
Lastly, this small press holds submission periods for their anthologies every year. However, while they might be currently closed to submissions at the moment, you can get a good idea of what they look forward in their anthology now. That way, you can prepare for their next period! They just finished their Witches & Warlocks anthology submission period, where they looked for drabbles of eactly 100 words. They pay a flat rate of $5 for all of your drabbles.
Happy submitting! See you all next week for another book review.
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