Submission Guidelines for All Magazines

Compensation

All contributors of accepted submissions will receive $10 token payment or a physical copy of the magazine.

Submission Period

The submissions window is Open for all three themed issues until their respective deadlines noted above. Notice: Any submission sent to us will NOT be read until the READING PERIOD for that issue has begun--please see the above dates. Any stories submitted AFTER the submission window has closed (without prior consent from someone on the Aphotic Realm Team) will be deleted unread. 

Submissions

Fiction

We will accept unpublished short stories of any genre as long as they are dark, sinister, or eerie in tone. Stories must contain a minimum of 1000 words and not surpass 5000 words. Please submit all stories to submissions@aphoticrealm.com. In the subject line please write, “JUSTICE – Title of your story," “KAIJU – Title of your story,” or “LYCAN – Title of your story.” In the body of the email, please include a 50-100 word bio about yourself and your contact information. All stories must be submitted as a .DOC or .DOCX file. All other file types will be deleted without being read.

No simultaneous submissions. 

Poetry *NEW*

We will accept unpublished Poetry. It should be macabre; grotesquely fantastical. Horror meshed with sci-fi sensibilities, supernatural, gothic, and fantasy heavy on imagery, theme, but no gratuitous sex for the sake of shock. Anything deemed dark and full of dimension. Form can be any kind, but if sending rhyming poetry, be sure to follow the rules for any structure chosen. No more than 60 lines, but longer poems will be considered if they warrant a second look. Please submit all Poems to submissions@aphoticrealm.com. In the subject line please write, “POEM - JUSTICE – Title of your poem," “POEM -KAIJU – Title of your poem,” or “POEM - LYCAN – Title of your poem.” In the body of the email, please include a 50-100 word bio about yourself and your contact information. All Poems must be submitted as a .DOC or .DOCX file. All other file types will be deleted without being read.

No simultaneous submissions. 

Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction is the same as Fiction, just of the non-fiction variety. Please email us a pitch of your article before you write it. Please send all article pitches to submissions@aphoticrealm.com. In the subject line please write, “Non-fiction – Title of the piece.”

Book Reviews

Book Reviews should be at least 200 words and not exceed 1,000 words. Please make sure that the book review you send us falls in line with our style. We publish Strange and Sinister fiction – it is very unlikely that we will publish your review of romance or YA fiction.

Please send all book review submissions to submissions@aphoticrealm.com. Please write, “BOOK REVIEW – Title of book” in the subject line of the email. In the body of the email, please provide us with your name (people do forget this), a short synopsis of the book (not exceeding 50 words), along with links to where we can find/purchase the book.

Comics

Comics should not exceed 12 pages. The comics can be in black and white or color, but we do not accept works-in-progress or pages that are penciled and not inked. Not all comics have or need dialogue, but we are not accepting comics that intend to be lettered and are not. To put it simply, all submissions must be COMPLETED.

In addition to short comics, we also accept comic strips. These too, must be completed.

Please send all comic submissions to submissions@aphoticrealm.com. Please write, “COMIC – Title” in the subject line of the email. In the body of the email, please provide the names of the creators (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letter, etc.), as well as a brief description of the comic.

Comics should be sent as a .PDF file. Any attachment of a different file type will be deleted and unread.

Please keep in mind that all comics that are accepted for the print of the magazine will have to be sized to 8.5” x 11” (while retaining proper dimensions).

You must own all the rights to all work you send.