Please read everything on this page and read the magazine before submitting.
All prices are in US DOLLARS (South African prices in brackets)
One of our slush readers sinks her teeth into a submission
All fiction submissions must be sent via our Online Submissions Form.
Our submissions form asks for your name, email address, cover letter, story title, and story. Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history, contact details incl email address and phone number (you would be amazed how often we have to call authors when email addresses change overnight).
All stories should be in standard manuscript format.
Our submissions form will accept documents in either .RTF or .DOC format.
If you have any trouble using our submissions form, please contact us with your inquiry.
We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.
Do not query for fiction. Submit, or don’t submit, there is no query.
Please allow at least two weeks for a response/rejection. If your story is shortlisted it could take as long as a month to get back to you.
Please do not submit another story for at least two weeks after receiving a rejection.
We accept submissions of original, never-before-published science fiction and horror short stories. Stories should be between 2000 and 8000 words, though the sweet spot tends to be around the 3500 – 5500 word mark. A typical issue consists of three 5000-word-or-less stories and one story in the 6000 – 8000 word region.
We pay 1¢ (7c) per word for original fiction. Payment is made on acceptance.
We love all types of science fiction, from hard-sf, to political, far-future, near-future, alternate history, sociological, whatever.
We’re a bit more fussy about horror. Stay away from gore and overtly sexual themes unless the story requires it. Vampire erotica bores us to death, so don’t bother. We like strong character based, supernaturally tinged horror. We have read enough horror to able to smell cliches a mile off. Chances are that if your protagonist meets a stranger in a bar and he/she turns out to be a vampire/werewolf/schizophrenic serial killer your submission will end up in the trash pretty quickly. Why not mix and match; we love science fiction horror.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up a bit and think beyond the old tropes. Everything will be read.
To see what rights we purchase check out our FAQ.
We welcome reprints but we ask that your story not be available freely anywhere else online.
Payment for reprint fiction is 1¢ (7c) per word.
To see what rights we purchase check out our FAQ.
We mostly solicit non-fiction articles from our in-house freelancers, but if you would like to pitch non-fiction articles for Something Wicked please email Joe through the contact form.
Include a cover letter telling us who you are, what your areas of expertise are and what type of pieces you would like to write or have written. Please also include clips or links to some of your previously published non-fiction pieces.
We like pop-culture pieces, movie-centric, as well as scientific and academic essays.
Our style tends to veer towards slightly irreverent or at the very least humorous in some way. (check out Mark Sykes’s piece on Doctor Who from Issue 1)
Non-Fiction pays $50 (R350) for articles between 800 to 1500 words.
All of our art is commissioned in-house from our already extensive pool of artists.
However we are always interested in professional-level illustrative artwork of distinctive style and high quality. Portfolio samples are kept on record and all illustration is commissioned on an issue-by-issue basis, though be aware it might be some time before we get to your work.
All fiction art is commissioned according to the style of specific stories or cover requirements. If you would like to be considered for inclusion in our contact list, please send us links to your online portfolio displaying samples of your work that demonstrate your style/s and medium/s, grasp of anatomy and perspective, and ability to interpret a scene and visually realise character and/or action.
Art pays $50 per illustration (1 per story)
Cover Art pays $150
To see what rights we purchase check out our FAQ.
Use our contact form for all art inquiries.
