We are a literary magazine of dark fiction, both short stories and flash fiction. We want your best. But then, doesn’t everyone? No specific sub-genres or themes, just good stories. For inspiration, we suggest “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits”, and LampLight, Vol1 Issue 1 which is free.

We go for stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling.

We do not accept stories with the following: vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers, hitmen, excessive gore or sex, excessive abuse against women, revenge fantasies, cannibals, high fantasy.

Writers

We have published writers of all backgrounds from all over the world in LampLight, but not everywhere, nor all shapes and sizes of writers. Help us to shine a light on greater diverse writing and keep LampLight a showcase of the best dark fiction out there by submitting and encouraging others to as well.

Edition and Rights

The quarterly is published as print and ebook, and at the end of the year all the quarterlies are bound together in an annual collection.

We are asking for non-exclusive, worldwide, serial rights to your work for both electronic and print. We want to publish it, we don’t want to own it.

We will take reprints, provided you have the rights we are asking for. We will not consider reprints that are currently available for free online.

If you have already been in LampLight, we ask you wait until the next volume to submit again.

Payment

We accept originals and reprints up to 7,000 words (firm). Payment in USD.

Unpublished Fiction: 3¢ per word, $150.00 max

Reprints: 1¢ per word

Please note: works published to a Patreon or similar site are considered reprints

Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions

Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know if it gets accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are not allowed, and will result in all submissions being rejected.

Submission Times

There are two submission periods for LampLight:

15 March – 15 May for the September and December Issues 15 September – 15 November for March and June Issues



Submissions sent outside of these periods will not be considered.

Where to Submit

Submittable is our preferred method of submission. We accept most file types as well. Please use standard manuscript format for your story (although headers and footers are not needed). Please add REPRINT to the subject line, if your story is a reprint!

If you need to edit your submission

If you uploaded the wrong file, have a newer version, anything, please do not withdraw your story. Instead send us an email and we can release it back to you for editing.

Please note:

We can only get 300 submissions a month through Submittable. If the followed link reads “There are presently no open calls for submissions.” then we have filled our quota for the month. You will be able to submit again on the 1st of the following month. But, when the limit is reached on the last month, time is up!

https://lamplightmagazine.submittable.com/submit

Please remember, Submittable is a third party site. Please read the Terms of Service before you sign up.

If you need a reminder about formatting, here is a good link to read:

http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

For queries, you can email: submissions@lamplightmagazine.com – Submissions sent to this email address will not be read.