HELLARKEY VOLUME 3 Submission Guidelines
Nameless priests in forgotten temples have read the stars and gibbered a dark secret to the night wind: the age of Hellarkey has come again. That’s right, as foretold in olden times, the THIRD volume of Malarkey Book’s special annual Halloween-themed short story collection OPENS for SUBMISSIONS, beginning April 1st and ending on June 1st. Your editors, Eric Williams, o f cieri, and Lauren Bolger are sharpening their knives, eager to receive the weirdest, spookiest, strangest, and most terrifying short stories imaginable (of no more than 2000 words in length).
HELLARKEY VOLUME 3 will threaten you both physically and incorporeally; a printed zine version will be sent out to all Malarkey Book Club subscribers and be available for purchase, while the stories will also be published (eventually) on-line at malarkeybooks dot com.
WHAT WE WANT: Hellarkey is the single-most anticipated literary event of the Halloween season, and that means we want strange, weird, spooky, shuddery tales of horror, suspense, terror, and fear. Stories set in the hearts of dark forests or the distant void of space; haunted ruins, spectral landscapes, broken minds; dead fingers clawing free of the soil, taloned paws tapping against the glass, black wings against the pale moon; mutants and monsters and madness! Go wild!
Format-wise, we want previously unpublished prose fiction, 1000-2000 words in length. 12-point font, double-spaced. Simultaneous submissions are fine, although do please let us know if it’s accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are NOT allowed. Put your name, the title of the piece, and contact info in the document.
We will also need a short, spookified third person bio, included in the body of your email. Think something like the funny Halloween-flavored credits in The Simpsons Halloween Specials, but 2-3 sentences long. Include Socials and Websites, if you feel like it. Punning strongly encouraged.
WHAT WE DON’T WANT: No fascists (self-explanatory); No AI (not only is it stealing text from countless authors, it’s also an insidious parasitic venture capitalist scheme); Nothing published anywhere else already (we want original work!)
WHERE TO SEND IT: submit all stories for consideration to hellarkey (at) protonmail (dot) com as attachments (.doc, .docx, or .rtf only, please).
RESPONSE TIME: We’ll respond to all submissions within two months of the close of the submission window. Generally, if we pass on your work, you’ll receive a heartfelt “thanks, but no…” in the form of a polite form rejection - please don’t take it personally! Also note that a rejection has nothing to do with the quality of your submission, but rather reflects the reality that we’re only accepting TEN stories! We have very limited time and space, and HELLARKEY VOLUME 3 is a harsh mistress!
PAYMENT: flat $30
BULLET POINTS: