UPDATE (1/2/2023): Terror House submissions are closed for the month of January with the following exceptions:
- Writers who have been published by us in the past.
- Writers who have been published (or are scheduled to be published) by one of the following presses/journals: Expat Press, Misery Tourism, or Apocalypse Confidential.
This does not affect those who have already submitted work and have not yet received a reply. We will be responding to all outstanding submissions over the next month and apologize for the delays.
We hope to reopen submissions to the general public in February and will post an update then. Thanks for your interest and support!
***
Terror House Magazine is seeking innovative, compelling, well-written fiction and literary nonfiction, as well as analysis of books, music, movies, and other forms of media. Not only that, every published submission is automatically entered into our Best of the Month contest (more info here).
Here’s what we’re looking for.
(For manuscript submissions to Terror House Press, click here.)
Short Stories/Flash Fiction
We enjoy stories that are experimental, impactful, and original. Can you make us laugh? Can you make us cry? Can you scare us? If you can write a good story, we want to publish it.
Please note that while we generally prefer literary fiction to genre fiction, we are willing to publish anything that is well-written. Stories that blend multiple genres are especially welcome. If you’re not sure if your work qualifies, send it to us anyway and we’ll let you know.
Memoirs/Literary Nonfiction
Do you have a true story that is weird, funny, fucked up, touching, or all of the above? We want to see it. We prefer stories where stuff actually happens, so don’t send us any poor-little-rich-boy dirges about how life as a trust-funder in the Hamptons is so rough. We want the kinds of epic, hilarious stories you’d tell a friend after two beers on a Friday night, or deeply moving experiences of triumph and woe.
Poetry
We like all kinds of poetry at Terror House Magazine, from freeform stanzas you can belt out at an open mic night to stuff that rhymes (sometimes).
Please note that due to our minimum word count (see below), you may need to submit multiple poems to meet our requirements. Ideally, your submission should consist of two to three poems, unless your poem’s length is fairly long.
Additionally, due to the way WordPress works, if your verse uses creative formatting, it may not display properly on the site or on different types of devices. We will do our best to accommodate your work if this is the case.
If your poem has creative spacing, please use the space bar instead of the tab key. We cannot stress this enough. Tab spacing is not consistent across devices, meaning that if your poem contains tab spacing, it will take us much longer to edit it for the site.
Finally, Terror House believes that the only good rhymes are by Christopher Wallace. If your poem rhymes, it better be exceptionally good for us to accept it.
Art/Photography
If you paint portraits, take pictures, or create other forms of visual art, we’re interested in publishing your work. We require art/photo submissions to contain at least two pieces of work, preferably more.
Please note that art/photography submissions are ineligible for our Best of the Month Award.
Analysis/Criticism
Terror House Magazine also publishes book, movie/TV, music, and video game reviews. However, we’re looking for depth and thoroughness in our criticism. Don’t just say that you like something: tell us why you like it. Analyze its themes and symbols, delve into its history, present your own theories. At the same time, don’t treat it like homework: make it funny and engaging. If you can tell a narrative about what you’re reviewing, even better.
Please note that analysis/criticism submissions are ineligible for our Best of the Month Award.
Novels/Novellas/Residencies
If you have a longer work or a body of work you’d like to serialize on Terror House Magazine, we’ll happily publish it. We will publish one installment of your novel/novella/residency per week until it ends. If your work is exceptionally long and/or good, we will publish multiple installments per week.
If you are going to submit a novel or novella, please provide a short synopsis alongside it. This will enable us to reply to you much faster.
UPDATE (1/2/2023): Terror House is not accepting novella, novel, or residency submissions at this time.
Submission Guidelines
Please follow these instructions when submitting your work. Failure to do so will delay our response and may lead to your submission being rejected.
1. Submissions must be between 300 to 3,000 words, except for novellas, novels, and residencies.
300 words is our minimum requirement due to how Google works. While your word count doesn’t need to be exactly within our requirements, please stay near the neighborhood of 300 to 3,000. If your work is too short, bundle it with other works, and if it’s too long, consider splitting it up into a serialized format.
UPDATE (1/2/2023): Because Terror House is not accepting novella, novel, or residency submissions at this time, all submissions should be no longer than 10,000 words in length when broken into multiple parts.
2. Submissions must be in .doc or .docx format (preferably .docx), no exceptions.
We use Microsoft Word to read and edit submissions. Don’t send PDFs or other weird formats and don’t copy and paste your submission into your email. It makes things easier for all of us.
3. Submissions must be original works that have not been published elsewhere.
We don’t recycle content from other sites. While simultaneous submissions are fine, if your work is accepted elsewhere, please be quick about withdrawing it.
You retain copyright for any submission of yours that we publish and are free to do whatever you like with it, though we request a seven-day period of exclusivity before you post it anywhere else. Additionally, if you choose to republish your work on another site, we ask that you link back to the original published here. This is so Google doesn’t hit us with a duplicate content penalty.
How to Submit
Send all submissions to submissions [at] terrorhousemag [dot] com. Twitter users can also send submissions via direct message to @terrorhousemag.
In the body of your message, please include the following (if you’re a first-time submitter):
- The name you want to publish your work under (if it’s different than the name on your email)
- A short (100 words or less) biography written in the third person, containing links to your website, Twitter account, books, or anything else you want to promote
Also, please attach the following to your email:
- A picture of yourself or other avatar image to go along with your bio (again, if you’re a first-time submitter)
- (Optional) A picture you want to use as the featured image on your submission; if you don’t include one, we will select one for you
All images must be in .jpg, .jpeg, or .png format. No .bmp, no .gif, and definitely no copypasting your image into a Word document. Send images as attachments only.
We will personally review your submission and reply back. If your submission was rejected, we’ll tell you why. If it’s almost up to our standards, we’ll give you feedback on how you can improve it.
If we have published your work in the past, you do not need to submit a new bio or author photo unless you want to change the ones we have on file for you.
There is no limit as to how often you can submit new work.
All Submissions Will Receive a Response Within Two Weeks
We’re a small, independent magazine, and we don’t have an army of illiterate college interns skimming your work and sending out form rejections. When you send us a submission, we have to schedule some time to sit down and read it thoroughly, then write out a constructive reply.
It may take up to 14 days for us to respond to your submission, but if you send it, it will get a response.
If for some reason we don’t respond to you within two weeks, send us a follow-up email and we’ll get on it.
Thanks!
