VOLUME 7: STORIES PUBLISHED IN 2021
Is your story too heavy and hardcore for other “best of” anthologies? Then you’ve come to the right place because Red Room Press is now accepting stories for YEAR’S BEST HARDCORE HORROR VOL. 7, a yearly collection intended to give recognition to the extreme, harder side of horror, stories that break boundaries and trash taboos.
Editors: Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax.
Requirements: The story was originally (or will be) published in a 2021 anthology, single author collection, magazine, or online magazine. Self-published anthologies and collections are acceptable as well.
Deadline: December 31, 2021.
Length: Up to 6000 words. Word count is flexible and longer works are always considered but please note the max payment is $60.00.
Payment: 1 cent a word for reprint rights. ($60 max)
What to Send
Authors:
In the body of an email:
- Author name
- Story title
- Name of anthology or magazine or online magazine it was (or will be) published in:
- If the book is available on Amazon and your story credit appears somewhere on the page, send us the link. If not, send a link to the best source with that information (publisher’s page, etc).
- If the story was in a magazine, send us a web link to the issue TOC where your story appears, or if that’s not available send us a scan of the table of contents (print magazines, etc.).
- A bio
- A short description of the story.
- Attach the entire manuscript in rtf, doc format, or a PDF or mobi of the magazine or book it appears in if available. Note: if sending a doc or rtf, please make sure this is the final version of your story, exactly as it appears in the published version.
Important Note: Make sure your contract allows you to publish the story in a “best of” anthology. If you’re not sure, check with your publisher. If necessary, ask them for a waiver.
Publishers
In an email include the following:
- Name of publication and publisher, date published and format (print, ebook, magazine, etc)
- A pdf, doc, rtf, or mobi of the publication.
- If there are any particular stories you feel we might be interested in feel free to make a note of that (optional).
__________
Include in the Email subject line: YEAR’S BEST HARDCORE HORROR
Email to ybhh (at) redroompress.com
We’ll send a notification within 48 hours that we received your submission. If you don’t get this, please inquire. We may not have received it. Please note that we are not sending out rejection notices and will only notify authors if their story was selected. Thank you!
Volume 6: Stories originally published in 2020. More info here:
Are stores set in a historical period welcome?
Yes
If the story hasn’t previously been published is it eligible for submission?
No, this is a “Year’s Best” for stories previously published 🙂
Are stories that dwell in the realm of erotica welcome?
As long as it is primarily horror 🙂
Do you want the author’s information on the story or do you what the submission to be blind?
Include a brief bio.
I have a story which was published late in 2017, is that eligible for this anthology? I only just found you guys now, haha.
No, only stories published in 2018.
Soy de Argentina…puedo enviar mi relato en español?
My work consists of 3000 words. Is that acceptable?
Are you accepting stories published in podcasts?
Yes, podcasts are fine.
Hi there, you said to let you know if there were any stories by other people that we think you might be interested in.
Here are a few, they definitely fit the theme, but they’re online stories so I don’t know how that’ll work out.
I bet that you can get the rights to them though if you ask.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/6n1rdd/what_my_wife_gave_birth_to_will_haunt_me_until/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/7gnpwv/what_is_water_made_out_of/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/8l33jk/my_son_would_not_stop_crying/
Hope this helps
Thanks, we’ll check them out 🙂
Are you asking for exclusive rights?
Will I be able to submit my story to other publishers after?
Oh wait you can’t cause you’re asking for reprints.
Never mind.
Looking forward to your response to my submission.
Hello, my name’s Syon Das 🙂 I am interested in submitting a short horror story for the 2019 Year’s Best Of collection, and just had two questions after reading the guidelines. The first one, is that if I’m a self published author via amazon’s kindle platform, do I need to compile a group of my short stories together into a collection in order for the one I want to submit to be considered? Or is it acceptable to have it self published on kindle as a digital standalone for 99 cents? And if it does need to be part of a collection, does it need to be paperback, digital, or both? I am new to publicaiton rights and reprints, and this is my first time contacting a publisher, so just wanted to clairfy things. Thank you very much, and I can’t wait to submit my story. It would be awesome to have my work amongst a slew of other bold horror authors.
Standalone stories are acceptable 🙂
Great, thank you!
Hey there, I was wondering what the expected publication date is. I have a story that I think may fit, but the exclusivity contract doesn’t expire until March 2021. Thanks!
Hi,
Story clocking 11,000 words. Would you be interested?
Also, a couple of stories published in last week of 2019. Would they be acceptable.
I understand that you do not send out rejection notices. What is the typical timeline for receiving an acceptance from the date of submission and your receipt of the document… up to three months or more?
Usually at the end of the year or beginning of the next year, January or early February at the latest.
Not sure if I’m reading this correctly or not – for Vol 7, stories published in 2021 – the deadline above says December 31, 2020. But it should be December 31, 2021, right? We can submit stories anytime this year up to that date for publication in 2022? Thanks.
Hi, that is correct. It’s been updated now.