"First dates can be so awkward."
Here are seventeen publishers accepting dark fiction, horror, urban fantasy, military horror, and anything that goes bump in the night - including vampires. None require an agent, and all are traditional publishers.
Some of these publishers have been in business for a long time and have a great track record. Others are start-ups. Read their websites, look at the covers of the books they publish (do you like the art?), check out their authors on Amazon - in short, investigate before you submit your work. And be sure to read submission requirements carefully and follow them to the letter.
You can find additional speculative fiction publishers (including some horror) here: Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts. All of these are traditional publishers. (No vanity presses.)
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Arkham House published its first book, The Outsider and Others by H. P. Lovecraft, in 1939. Other writers published by Arkham House include Greg Bear, Michael Bishop, James Blaycock, David Case, August Derleth, John Kessel, Mary Rosenblum and many more. Submissions: Please submit a synopsis of your manuscript to: PO Box 546, Sauk City, WI 53583. Do not make submissions via email. Arkham House does not return submissions or acknowledge that they have received your manuscript. They will contact you only if they are interested in publishing your work. Snail mail only. Read guidelines here.
Bell Bridge Books / BelleBooks, Inc. BB is looking for dark, gritty, serious urban fantasy & horror. Vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night on the mean streets of contemporary life. "A book we've currently bought is an epic series about a clan of vampires. (Right, epic means the series spans centuries. You can never trust guidelines.) Read Laurell K. Hamilton, Robin McKinley (Sunshine), Patricia Briggs, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, etc." Advance: Yes. Simultaneous submissions: No. Formats: Print and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
Black Bed Sheet Books. Black Bed Sheet Books specializes in publishing fiction of a dark nature: Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller. Accepting novels, novellas, short story collections. Black Bed Sheet Books has published over 80 authors. Advance: No information. Formats: Print and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
By Light Unseen Media. "By Light Unseen Media is currently seeking outstanding and unique manuscripts in the area of vampire fiction and non-fiction. Authors are asked to query before submitting manuscripts. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be considered." Advance: $200; Formats: Print (POD) and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
Chaosium Fiction. Currently, the Chaosium fiction line primarily features works centered on the Cthulhu Mythos. "We will consider original novels, anthologies, single-author collections, and non-fiction. Our target length for book releases is 90,000 to 100,000 words, though we will consider longer or shorter works if the content is compelling. We will consider reprints." Chaosium is a professional fiction market, offering advances, royalties, and, for short fiction, a word rate in line with HWA and SFWA guidelines. Read guidelines here.
Cohesion Press is an award-winning press based in Australia. Seeking: Military horror, SHTF, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic horror (there are too many bad zombie tales out there already, so if you have the shambling (or running) dead in your story, it better be damn good), Biological/Creature horror ie. beasties rising up against man, giant creatures devouring cities etc. ACTION is important. No romance, no thrillers based on tension, no subtle horror. ACTION is important. No romance, no thrillers based on tension, no subtle horror. Go here for complete submission details.
Cosmic Egg. Cosmic Egg is an imprint of John Hunt Publishers, a mid-list house located in the UK. The publisher offers traditional publishing deals as well as co-operative publishing for authors. The parent company publishes a total of 300 titles per year with global sales and a focus on physical stores. Worldwide distribution. Cosmic Egg imprint publishes speculative fiction: Vampires, Werewolves. Dragons and Faeries or Angels and Demons, Fantasy (including magical realism and spiritual fantasy), Metaphysical Cosmology, Horror or Science Fiction (including Steampunk). Advance: None. Royalties are 10% of net. Formats: Print and ebooks. Note: It has come to my attention that in some cases authors are expected to pay for some or all of publishing costs. Legitimate publishers do not require authors to pay for publishing their books under any circumstances. Read guidelines here.
Dark Hall Press. Dark Hall Press, a division of New Street Communications, LLC, was launched on October 31, 2011, "The Dark Hall list includes works of supernatural and non-supernatural horror, as well as cross-genre pollinations (sci-fi/horror, fantasy/horror, noir/horror, etc.) and experimental works." Formats: Print and Kindle. Read guidelines here.
Dark Regions Press is a small press specializing in dark fantasy, horror and science fiction. "Each book that is accepted for publication in Dark Regions Horror, Dark Regions Fantasy and Dark Regions Sci-Fi will have a Kickstarter/crowdfunding campaign associated with it. The campaigns will be created as a means for readers to preorder the book and to fully fund each project. Authors, artists, editors and everyone else involved in each book project will be asked to contribute to the campaign with videos, promotional efforts etc. Crowdfunding campaigns aren't always favored by authors, so it's important to know before thinking about submitting that if your manuscript is accepted for publication in Dark Regions Horror, Dark Regions Fantasy or Dark Regions Sci-Fi a crowdfunding campaign will be associated with it." Advance: Author will receive a base payment (or advance) in the amount of $500 and starting rates of 35% NET royalties (profit sharing) for trade paperback editions and 45% NET royalties (profit sharing) for ebook editions which can increase to 40% and 50%, respectively, based on sales thresholds being reached. Note: Books are crowd-funded. Please read guidelines here.
Elder Signs Press is looking for Dark Fantasy, Dark Fiction Thrillers, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Supernatural Thrillers. Submissions: Send a synopsis of up to three pages. This should include information about your characters, major plot points, and how the book ends. Also send the first three chapters; a cover letter with your real name, the name you wish to publish under (if different), contact information (address, email), word (not page) count, publication history, and any specific knowledge/experience you have relating to the material. Electronic submissions only. Responds in 1-3 months to queries. Responds in 3-6 months to proposals. Read full guidelines here.
Flame Tree Press, an imprint of Flame Tree Publishing, specializes in speculative fiction, including horror. Flame Tree sells through all major wholesalers, retailers, and online outlets. In addition, foreign language co-editions and translation rights are sold to publishers in many countries around the world, including France, Germany, China and Brazil. They publish simultaneous hardcover, paperback and ebook editions to the trade market, online and retail stores, and library markets and pay industry standard royalties. Advances are modest. Read guidelines here.
Grinning Skull Press publishes novels, novellas, and anthologies. Terms: 50/50 split on royalties. Read full guidelines here. No simultaneous submissions.
Journalstone wants horror in all its forms—from literary to weird, Gothic to psychological, and (almost) everything in between. Standard royalties. (Advance not mentioned.) No reading or application fees. Read guidelines here.
Rainfall Books is a British publisher of fantasy, horror and science fiction, specializing in modern works inspired by the writing of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Submissions: Rainfall has published 150 chapbooks over the past three or four years and have many more waiting in the wings. They are always looking for submissions for chapbooks in the form of poetry and short stories. They are happy to publish reprints. Please read guidelines here.
Severed Press. "Established in 2008 Severed Press is a leading independent publisher of horror and science fiction. Publishing trade paperbacks and E-Books. Severed Press has earned a reputation for excellence, quality and commitment to new and established authors alike. We are proud of the diversity of our authors and aim in continuing to build strong relationships worldwide. Authors include seasoned masters of horrors such as Tim Curran, Mark Tufo and Jake Bible to best selling newcomers David Achord and Joseph Talluto." Severed Press is currently accepting novel submissions in the following categories: Apocalypse/Survival Horror, Dark Humour, Sci-Fi Horror, Anything out of the ordinary. Advance: None. Pays royalties. Note: Promotion and marketing for novels locally in Australia. Please read full submission guidelines here.
Tartarus is a small British independent press founded in 1990. They specialize in collectible hardback
limited editions of literary supernatural/strange/horror fiction. They also publish paperbacks and ebooks. Tartarus has been the recipient of four World Fantasy Awards, and in 2010 received a "Stoker" from the Horror Writers Association. Submissions: Tartarus is looking for short story collections and novels of between 75,000 and 120,000 words. They are not interested in high fantasy, violent horror or young adult fiction. Electronic submissions should be sent to rosalieparker@btinternet.com as a Word or rtf attachment. Please send a synopsis or first two or three chapters/stories when first getting in contact. Additionally, they are now accepting single short story submissions for Strange Tales V. Please read full guidelines here.
Voodoo Press is primarily a German language publisher, but they have branched out into English. What they are looking for: Apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, survival horror, traditional horror novels. No reprints or self-published. Terms: 50% share of the net profit plus 5 years of rights. Please read full guidelines here.
Some of these publishers have been in business for a long time and have a great track record. Others are start-ups. Read their websites, look at the covers of the books they publish (do you like the art?), check out their authors on Amazon - in short, investigate before you submit your work. And be sure to read submission requirements carefully and follow them to the letter.
You can find additional speculative fiction publishers (including some horror) here: Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts. All of these are traditional publishers. (No vanity presses.)
_______________________________
Arkham House published its first book, The Outsider and Others by H. P. Lovecraft, in 1939. Other writers published by Arkham House include Greg Bear, Michael Bishop, James Blaycock, David Case, August Derleth, John Kessel, Mary Rosenblum and many more. Submissions: Please submit a synopsis of your manuscript to: PO Box 546, Sauk City, WI 53583. Do not make submissions via email. Arkham House does not return submissions or acknowledge that they have received your manuscript. They will contact you only if they are interested in publishing your work. Snail mail only. Read guidelines here.
Bell Bridge Books / BelleBooks, Inc. BB is looking for dark, gritty, serious urban fantasy & horror. Vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night on the mean streets of contemporary life. "A book we've currently bought is an epic series about a clan of vampires. (Right, epic means the series spans centuries. You can never trust guidelines.) Read Laurell K. Hamilton, Robin McKinley (Sunshine), Patricia Briggs, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, etc." Advance: Yes. Simultaneous submissions: No. Formats: Print and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
Black Bed Sheet Books. Black Bed Sheet Books specializes in publishing fiction of a dark nature: Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller. Accepting novels, novellas, short story collections. Black Bed Sheet Books has published over 80 authors. Advance: No information. Formats: Print and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
By Light Unseen Media. "By Light Unseen Media is currently seeking outstanding and unique manuscripts in the area of vampire fiction and non-fiction. Authors are asked to query before submitting manuscripts. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be considered." Advance: $200; Formats: Print (POD) and ebooks. Read guidelines here.
Chaosium Fiction. Currently, the Chaosium fiction line primarily features works centered on the Cthulhu Mythos. "We will consider original novels, anthologies, single-author collections, and non-fiction. Our target length for book releases is 90,000 to 100,000 words, though we will consider longer or shorter works if the content is compelling. We will consider reprints." Chaosium is a professional fiction market, offering advances, royalties, and, for short fiction, a word rate in line with HWA and SFWA guidelines. Read guidelines here.
Cohesion Press is an award-winning press based in Australia. Seeking: Military horror, SHTF, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic horror (there are too many bad zombie tales out there already, so if you have the shambling (or running) dead in your story, it better be damn good), Biological/Creature horror ie. beasties rising up against man, giant creatures devouring cities etc. ACTION is important. No romance, no thrillers based on tension, no subtle horror. ACTION is important. No romance, no thrillers based on tension, no subtle horror. Go here for complete submission details.
Cosmic Egg. Cosmic Egg is an imprint of John Hunt Publishers, a mid-list house located in the UK. The publisher offers traditional publishing deals as well as co-operative publishing for authors. The parent company publishes a total of 300 titles per year with global sales and a focus on physical stores. Worldwide distribution. Cosmic Egg imprint publishes speculative fiction: Vampires, Werewolves. Dragons and Faeries or Angels and Demons, Fantasy (including magical realism and spiritual fantasy), Metaphysical Cosmology, Horror or Science Fiction (including Steampunk). Advance: None. Royalties are 10% of net. Formats: Print and ebooks. Note: It has come to my attention that in some cases authors are expected to pay for some or all of publishing costs. Legitimate publishers do not require authors to pay for publishing their books under any circumstances. Read guidelines here.
Dark Hall Press. Dark Hall Press, a division of New Street Communications, LLC, was launched on October 31, 2011, "The Dark Hall list includes works of supernatural and non-supernatural horror, as well as cross-genre pollinations (sci-fi/horror, fantasy/horror, noir/horror, etc.) and experimental works." Formats: Print and Kindle. Read guidelines here.
Dark Regions Press is a small press specializing in dark fantasy, horror and science fiction. "Each book that is accepted for publication in Dark Regions Horror, Dark Regions Fantasy and Dark Regions Sci-Fi will have a Kickstarter/crowdfunding campaign associated with it. The campaigns will be created as a means for readers to preorder the book and to fully fund each project. Authors, artists, editors and everyone else involved in each book project will be asked to contribute to the campaign with videos, promotional efforts etc. Crowdfunding campaigns aren't always favored by authors, so it's important to know before thinking about submitting that if your manuscript is accepted for publication in Dark Regions Horror, Dark Regions Fantasy or Dark Regions Sci-Fi a crowdfunding campaign will be associated with it." Advance: Author will receive a base payment (or advance) in the amount of $500 and starting rates of 35% NET royalties (profit sharing) for trade paperback editions and 45% NET royalties (profit sharing) for ebook editions which can increase to 40% and 50%, respectively, based on sales thresholds being reached. Note: Books are crowd-funded. Please read guidelines here.
Elder Signs Press is looking for Dark Fantasy, Dark Fiction Thrillers, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Supernatural Thrillers. Submissions: Send a synopsis of up to three pages. This should include information about your characters, major plot points, and how the book ends. Also send the first three chapters; a cover letter with your real name, the name you wish to publish under (if different), contact information (address, email), word (not page) count, publication history, and any specific knowledge/experience you have relating to the material. Electronic submissions only. Responds in 1-3 months to queries. Responds in 3-6 months to proposals. Read full guidelines here.
Flame Tree Press, an imprint of Flame Tree Publishing, specializes in speculative fiction, including horror. Flame Tree sells through all major wholesalers, retailers, and online outlets. In addition, foreign language co-editions and translation rights are sold to publishers in many countries around the world, including France, Germany, China and Brazil. They publish simultaneous hardcover, paperback and ebook editions to the trade market, online and retail stores, and library markets and pay industry standard royalties. Advances are modest. Read guidelines here.
Grinning Skull Press publishes novels, novellas, and anthologies. Terms: 50/50 split on royalties. Read full guidelines here. No simultaneous submissions.
Journalstone wants horror in all its forms—from literary to weird, Gothic to psychological, and (almost) everything in between. Standard royalties. (Advance not mentioned.) No reading or application fees. Read guidelines here.
Rainfall Books is a British publisher of fantasy, horror and science fiction, specializing in modern works inspired by the writing of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Submissions: Rainfall has published 150 chapbooks over the past three or four years and have many more waiting in the wings. They are always looking for submissions for chapbooks in the form of poetry and short stories. They are happy to publish reprints. Please read guidelines here.
Severed Press. "Established in 2008 Severed Press is a leading independent publisher of horror and science fiction. Publishing trade paperbacks and E-Books. Severed Press has earned a reputation for excellence, quality and commitment to new and established authors alike. We are proud of the diversity of our authors and aim in continuing to build strong relationships worldwide. Authors include seasoned masters of horrors such as Tim Curran, Mark Tufo and Jake Bible to best selling newcomers David Achord and Joseph Talluto." Severed Press is currently accepting novel submissions in the following categories: Apocalypse/Survival Horror, Dark Humour, Sci-Fi Horror, Anything out of the ordinary. Advance: None. Pays royalties. Note: Promotion and marketing for novels locally in Australia. Please read full submission guidelines here.
Tartarus is a small British independent press founded in 1990. They specialize in collectible hardback
limited editions of literary supernatural/strange/horror fiction. They also publish paperbacks and ebooks. Tartarus has been the recipient of four World Fantasy Awards, and in 2010 received a "Stoker" from the Horror Writers Association. Submissions: Tartarus is looking for short story collections and novels of between 75,000 and 120,000 words. They are not interested in high fantasy, violent horror or young adult fiction. Electronic submissions should be sent to rosalieparker@btinternet.com as a Word or rtf attachment. Please send a synopsis or first two or three chapters/stories when first getting in contact. Additionally, they are now accepting single short story submissions for Strange Tales V. Please read full guidelines here.
Voodoo Press is primarily a German language publisher, but they have branched out into English. What they are looking for: Apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, survival horror, traditional horror novels. No reprints or self-published. Terms: 50% share of the net profit plus 5 years of rights. Please read full guidelines here.
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