Nocturne Magazine strives to publish writers and artists who work primarily in the genre of horror. This is an often overlooked genre that has a reputation for cheap scares, predictable plots, and, even worse, is seen as entertainment (like that’s a bad thing).
We challenge that notion. Entertaining as horror is, it also strikes at something profoundly human within us all. It’s art, it’s frightening, and it’s fantastic. We want to provide artists whose work has been deemed too “genre” for other literary magazines a home.
Additionally, our goal is to pay each contributor with any profits we make from each issue. At the end of the submission period, all profits will be divided amongst our contributors to support them and their art.
Lastly, we will be nominating our published writer’s work to contests like Best of the Net, Pushcart, and more. Horror doesn’t always need to lurk in the shadows. It needs a little time in the moonlight, too.
Submissions for Issue 6 are now open!
Nocturne Magazine accepts work that may *sort of* fit into the genres of horror, dark fantasy, or speculative. However, we can be convinced of branching out as long as there’s something deeply unsettling about your submission.
We want something that makes us stay awake at night. Or have strange dreams. Or wake up still thinking about your piece while we drink our morning coffee. We don’t just want “eww,” or “yikes.” We want to scroll through your submission with trembling fingers.
We vibe with Stephen King’s weird dream scenes, Shirley Jackson’s “castles” and murderous young women, and Grady Hendrix’s fierce vampire-fighting book club, and anything else surreal, unusual, or downright terrifying.
But we also have some things we don’t love:
Gratuitous rape/sexual assault, abuse, torture
Children’s horror
Fan-fiction
Chapters or excerpts from other work
Non-fiction pieces
Fiction pieces that about real victims of murder, no matter how highly publicized.
Husbands killing wives. We get dozens of these, so it's a hard sell.
Here are the guidelines for fiction, art, and errata.
- Don’t worry too much about the formatting. We aren’t fussy. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
- We aim to respond to your submission within one month, but please do not query until 90 days has passed.
- We do not accept reprints or AI generated stories.
- Submit only once per submission period per category.
- Submit all written work in a a single document, either Word, rtf, txt, or PDF.
*If we have previously rejected your submission, please do not resubmit it, even if it has gone through major edits*
Fiction: Submit a single story 6000 words or less. For flash fiction (less than 1000 words), submit up to 3 pieces in a single document.
Cover art: We take one piece of art per issue. This piece will be featured on our cover. See past issues for examples of what we like. Ideally size 5x8". Send a tremor down our spines. Please refrain from sending: sexually graphic images, illegal images we feel compelled to report on, AI art, or photo-illustrations (sorry, but we really don’t want to be concerned about the photo occupants in scary situations!). Submit up to 5 pieces.
Errata: Do you have a poem-ish piece? Something that we don’t yet have a name for or that doesn’t fit into any category? Send here. Submit up to 5 pieces totaling 5000 words or less in a single document.
Please note that if your submission doesn't adhere to the guidelines that we will notify you and reject your submission.
Payment upon publication is $10 per contributor and $25 for the cover art.
Send subs to:
nocturnehorror@gmail.com
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