July, 2026 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 4,000 words
Deadline: Open between July 1 and July 14, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: Within three weeks
Description: Fairy tale narratives: Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales. We are interested in works that stretch, expand, test, subvert, and challenge the fairy-tale tradition. We are interested in works that are entertaining, but also in works that matter: that is, in works that are both pleasurable to read and thought-provoking.
Mysterion (ezine)
https://www.mysteriononline.com/p/submission-guidelines.html
Payment: 8 cents a word (4 cents for reprints)
Story Length: up to 10,000 words
Deadline: Open between July 1–July 31, 2026
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Four months
Description: Christian-themed speculative stories and artwork—science fiction, fantasy, horror—with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology; science fiction and fantasy, good ghost stories, etc.; there's great fiction material hidden in the mysteries of Christian theology—cherubim, leviathan, nephilim, visions, prophecy, and more.Sweet Screams: A Taste of Darkness
https://www.grimalkinpress.com/submissions
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–5,000 words
Deadline: August 15, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Horror stories centered around themes of sweetness, baking, cooking, desserts, and the unsettling things that can exist beneath comfort, nostalgia, celebration, or indulgence.
Baneberry Literary Horror Annual
https://baneberrylit.com/
Payment: $500 flat rate
Story Length: 500–7,000 words
Deadline: July 8, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown (Listed “As soon as possible”)
Description: Original horror short stories, from the conceptual and ethereal to the visceral and gory. We look for prose style and thematic complexity over commercial formula.


Diabolical Plots ezine (ed. David Steffen)
https://www.diabolicalplots.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: 3,500 words or less
Deadline: Open between July 13– July 27, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response Time: One month after end of submission window
Description: Speculative fiction–science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Everything should have a speculative element–that includes horror. Feel free to mix in other genres at will–a fantasy mystery or a science fiction romance.###

***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

G. & M.H.: Deathly Delusions Anthology (Tales Of Ghouls and Methamphetaminergic Hypnogogia)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScJRPsHdI1orIYLupLys4TVGmskiwA5ambtxfoIo5EhSUou5A/viewform
Payment: $50 flat rate for short fiction (+ royalties)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (preferred 2,000–4,000)
Deadline: January 8, 2027
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Weird Horror, such as Unreliable Setting or Narrator; Drug Use; Ghouls and other monsters, etc.
Body Shots
https://subtlebodypress.com/bodyshotsguidelines
Payment: $150 flat rate for works of 5,000+ words
Story Length: 5,000–7,500 words (soft range)
Deadline: Currently open with no closing date listed
Reprints?: No
Response: None. *NOTE: Publisher keeps story in continuous queue of consideration until either it is published or author writes to withdraw it.
Description: Bold, voice‑driven short fiction. All genres (slice‑of‑life, stream‑of‑consciousness, horror, comedy, science fiction, slipstream, transgression, crime fiction, weird fiction, etc.)
Slapshots In Space and Magical Marathons
https://tychebooks.com/submissions
Payment: Minimum $50/story, flat rate. $20 per poem
Story Length: between 1,000 to 5,000 words (or, up to 60 lines of poetry)
Deadline: Open between July 1, 2026 to August 31, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown
Description: Original speculative fiction (sci-fi, horror fantasy, space opera, humor, etc.) short stories and poetry reexamining sports.