Submission Guidelines

Midnight Echo Issue 10 (edited by Craig Bezant) is OPEN to submissions from March 1 to June 30, 2013. 

Below are the guidelines for Issue 10:

Everyone remembers a moment in their childhood when they gathered around a fire, or huddled in a tent, or pretended to be asleep in a darkened room, and began sharing ghost stories with their friends. Everyone remembers that thrill as the story began to unravel towards a shocking final sentence…

Well, it’s time to rekindle the magic of the supernatural tale. Issue 10 of Midnight Echo will have a ‘Ghost Stories’ theme. But we are all adults now, and you will need to write one haunting story to make it into our pages. It may cross genres but the main element of course needs to be horror – that creeping fear as the unknown begins to take shape. The editor indeed prefers psychological horror – make him stay awake at night, with all the lights on, and you’ll have success.

Share the tales of your culture, of your land, so that we may collect and present them within Midnight Echo’s pages. Go on, get writing. Those keys aren’t going to type themselves…

About the editor: Craig Bezant was the creator and editor of Eclecticism E-zine; after a successful five-year run, he co-founded Dark Prints Press, specialising in dark fiction (especially crime and horror). He has published the work of Lawrence Block, Chris Simms, Will Elliott, Joseph D’Lacey, and Jonathan Maberry, among many others, in anthologies such as ‘Surviving the End’, ‘The One That Got Away’, and ‘A Killer Among Demons’. His first novel for children, ‘The Flats’, was the launch title for their new imprint, Dark Prints Darklings. He has been a member of AHWA for many years, utilising their mentor program and online discussions, and serving as a judge for two Australian Shadows award seasons.

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Below are the general submission details for fiction, poetry, cover and interior artwork, and comic strips.

We also accept Letters to the Editor, so if you want to contact us to say how great we are, to complain about something, or just to chew the fat (translated = talk horror), please do. We won’t be able to publish all Letters, but we will be able to publish some. Send Letters to us at midnightecho@australianhorror.com

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FICTION

The maximum word length for short stories is 5000 words. However, the editors may accept one novelette up to 10,000 word per issue (please send us a brief synopsis of your novelette first, and only send the novelette if/when we ask for it).

PLEASE NOTE: if your story exceeds our word limit and you haven’t contacted us first to check that this is okay, we will feed it to our goblins without reading it.

Follow these guidelines when submitting to us:

  • Please put your full contact details on the first page of the manuscript.
  • Standard submission format, with minimal document formatting.
  • Courier or Times New Roman; 12pt; italics as they will appear. No underlining.
  • Double spaced.
  • Australian English spelling.
  • DO NOT use tab or spacing to indent lines. Use ‘styles’ only.
  • Please put full contact details on the first page of the manuscript.

For a guide to standard submission format, see http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html.

The only variation to this format is that italics MUST appear as they will be used; no underlining.

Stories that fail to follow these requirements will be deleted without being read, so please don’t ruin your chances.

Submissions should be sent as an attachment via email as either an MS Word document or an RTF file.

Write MIDNIGHT ECHO: “Submission Title” in the subject line of the email.

Please include your full contact details (postal address, e-mail, phone number) as well as word count in the body of your email, and send your submission to:

midnightecho@australianhorror.com

Midnight Echo buys Exclusive Worldwide English Language Rights (no reprints), with 6 month exclusivity after first publication, and pays 3c per word to a maximum of $150 for short stories, and up to $300 for a novella. No simultaneous or multiple submissions please, and no reprints. While we will seek to emphasise the work of Australian writers, Midnight Echo is open to submissions from anyone, anywhere. You do not need to a member of the AHWA to submit your work.

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NON-FICTION

Midnight Echo accepts non-fiction articles on any aspect of writing and/or the horror/dark fiction genre, and pays $100 for up to 3000 words.

Please contact us via email to discuss your proposal first.

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POETRY

As each issue of Midnight Echo has different editor/editors, the submission guidelines may change accordingly, meaning some issues will have particular themes while others won’t. It all depends on editorial preferences for that particular issue. Please always check the submission guidelines to ensure the poem you are considering submitting fits the theme of the issue.

Submissions should follow the same guidelines as per fiction (above).

Note: Payment rates for poetry is $15 for up to 50 lines, and $25 for poems up to 100 lines.

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COVER AND INTERIOR ART

Midnight Echo is also open to submissions for Full Colour cover and Black & White internal illustrations. We are seeking all forms of artistic expression – your art form, your medium, your way – as long the submission is a finished piece. No rough sketches or outlines of ideas, just your best and finest work!

All in all, your art should have a voice. It doesn’t have to be prominent, but it needs to be there. We will be asking each piece the same question: ‘Why do you exist?’ Your aim as the Artist, is to allow your piece to answer that question.

The editor of each issue will be responsible for selecting artwork.

If you are interested in submitting Art Work to Midnight Echo, please follow these directions:

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS:

For first round submissions, please email a 72dpi review image of your work.
Image must be under 3 MB.
Please compress using ZIP compression only.
Only send us one email, containing no more than two images. Make them your best ones, or the ones you think best suit the issue. Do not send further emails until you hear back from us. If you have an online portfolio, send us the URL so we may view your work. This makes our submission goblins far happier than receiving multiple emails from the same artist, each with new images.

Please send your submissions to: midnightecho@australianhorror.com

Accepted artists will be notified of the proceedings to supply their final piece for publication. All final supplied files must be in 300ppi.

Please, no lengthy write-ups about your piece. The submission needs to speak on its own.

Payment: Full colour cover art will receive AU$150. Interior art will be paid AU$30 per piece.

All artists will be notified of their acceptance or otherwise via email. The decision of the Current Editor is final.

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COMICS

Midnight Echo is also sourcing black and white horror comic stories (colour is acceptable, as long as a black and white version is available). Submissions can be as dark, hard, or as subtle as the story dictates.

The length should be no longer than 10 A4 pages. Please email us with your proposal first (midnightecho@australianhorror.com). If we like where you’re headed, we’ll ask for the comic to be submitted in PDF format for final approval. Please ensure that the file size is no larger than 3MB. Query first if larger!

We offer $100 for accepted stories.