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In brief: seeking short scary stories - 3k to 6k words -  for inclusion in an anthology that we'll sell at our in-real-life haunted house attraction.

 

We expect 5,000 visitors this year. Give us your most twisted and terrifying tales in any horror sub-genre. The more unconventional, heady, and surprising, the better. Underrepresented voices and ideas especially welcome. 

 

Flat fee + royalties + a possibility that we'll want to option your story for use inside the attraction later on down the road.

Call for
Short Story
Submissions

Genre: Horror

Word Count: 3k - 6k

Theme: None (General Horror)

Deadline: July 28th, 2023

Pay: Flat Fee + Royalties

Submissions: ken@gainesvillefeargarden.com

Hi horror writers.

We run an experimental haunted house attraction in Gainesville, Florida.

In 2022, we debuted with this.

The gimmick: it's audio-only.

Our guests wear blindfolds (blacked-out lab safety goggles)...

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and sets of wireless headphones.

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Then we hand them a guide rope, pull them like ducklings into a big white tent, and...

then we tell them a story.

(Think immersive, 4D horror podcast experience.)

For the next 25 minutes, they listen. They focus. They move through space and lose themselves. They feel. They smell. They touch.

They scream.

Then they laugh and play all of the weird games at our outdoor beer and wine bar. (Favorites = séance room and fire-able vortex cannon.) 

But our victims want more. Specifically, they want more stories.

Thus:

The Fear Garden: Volume I

(A companion anthology for our IRL haunted attraction.)

60,000 words. 

10-15 tales (3k - 6k words each) from 10-15 twisted brains on the bleeding-edge of horror.

Paperback copies strewn about the little lounge spaces at our event. (And for sale at the bar.)

Narrated versions loaded onto cassette tapes. (Headphone splitters = couples and groups listening together while they snack and sip.) 

Scary story overload.

 

***

 

Brass Tacks

  • Non-Exclusive First World Wide English Language Anthology Rights. (As soon as we publish the anthology (print or e-book), you're free to do what you like with the story. If we don't publish within eighteen months, all rights revert back to you.)

  • Author always retains story copyright.

  • Flat fee - paid on story acceptance - of $0.02 per word as a guaranteed advance against royalties.

  • Royalties for as long as we publish / sell the book (indefinitely): Pro-rata share of the Author's share (50%) of the anthology's net earnings. (Pro rata = your share of the anthology's word count. Net earnings = sales revenue minus direct publishing / distribution costs. Net earnings don't include initial Kickstarter funding.)

  • We'll use Amazon KDP to produce both paperback and e-book copies.

  • Audio Performance Rights: we ask that you let us record a dramatic or non-dramatic reading of your story for inclusion in our forthcoming private podcast feed, which we'll only make available to select supporters, guests, and book-buyers. (We have no plans to monetize the podcast directly, but if that ever changes, we'll offer you a new contract for pro-rata royalties.)

  • Possibility to Option: Each year, one of the stories included in our anthology will be the story that guests actually hear - live/experience - while in our haunted attraction. If your story is especially compelling and could lend itself to an immersive walk-through, we'll reach out with an offer to option your story as the soup du jour for our event the following year.

***

Edited by B. A. Palmer, who's the Lead Writer for our event. He's a member of Codex Writers and SFWA, an affiliate member of Horror Writers of America, a 2018 Writing Excuses Retreat scholarship recipient, and a Hambidge Fellow. More here.

 

Fin.

Writers: show us what you've got .

Questions?

Thanks for submitting!

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