Contest Rules

• up to 1,000 words
• Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format
• Double spaced
• 12 pt. Courier New or Times New Roman font

Please include author, title and word count on first page.

Stories pasted into the body of an email will be rejected without being read.

For further details on submission criteria and what styles/topics of horror fiction we look for, please check out our standard Submissions page.

What we’re looking for

Tales to Terrify is a volunteer-run fan podcast featuring short horror, dark fantasy, and other disturbing fiction. We greatly value diversity and inclusivity, and seek to publish fiction from writers of different races, religions, nationalities, physical or mental abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

We encourage you to challenge the definition of horror. Standard tropes and monsters are welcome, but give us your own unique take. Avoid the cliche and expected, unless as devices used purposefully and cleverly to further your story.

Drag us deep into the unsettling atmosphere of a crumbling Gothic mansion. Show us the gritty, real-world horrors of evil people with dark intentions. Make our blood run cold and our breath catch in our throats as we’re hunted by ravenous creatures. Unhinge our minds with reality-bending, psychological horrors. Make us feel the pain and sorrow of a long-suffering spirit.

We do our best to honour the diversity within the genre and you should, too. We want to be terrified by your concepts, by your implications, by your story’s possibilities. We want to read works that threaten to bleed into our reality and corrupt something as ordinary as a toaster. Anything is allowed as long as it’s well-conceived and well-written.

What we’re NOT looking for

• Stories that are not horror, dark fantasy or some form of disturbing fiction

• Fan fiction

• Sex is fine, but pure erotica and torture porn are not

• Stories that glorify, minimize, or inaccurately represent intolerance of a person or group’s race, religion, nationality, physical or mental ability, gender identity, or sexual orientantion
  

• Gratuitous gore and violence with no purpose – blood and guts are fine as long as there’s something deeper

• Stories that glorify, minimize, or inaccurately represent child abuse, animal abuse, or sexual assault

Manuscript Format

• Flash fiction up to 2,000 words and longer fiction up to 10,000 words.

• Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format

• Double spaced

• 12 pt. Courier New or Times New Roman font

Please include author, title and word count on first page.

Stories pasted into the body of an email will be rejected without being read.

AI-assisted Submissions

Artificial intelligence can be a helpful tool for writers, but as a publication relying on the creativity and ingenuity of humans, we do NOT accept submissions that have been composed with AI. If AI tools have been used in the development of a story, we expect authors to disclose how and to what extent. Authors who fail to do so will be banned from submitting in the future.

Submission Process

Please get a feel for what we’re after by listening to our podcast prior to submitting your story.

After your story is submitted, it will be reviewed by a member of our staff and rated based on submission quality and suitability for our podcast. We receive plenty of great submissions that just don’t fit our tone or won’t work well in an audio format, so don’t be discouraged if you’re rejected.

You will be notified once your story has been accepted or rejected. If accepted, we’ll be in touch with contract and publication details.

Simultaneous/Multiple Submissions

Simultaneous submissions (submitting the same stories to other publishers at the same time) and multiple submissions are allowed. Each author may submit up to two stories during the submission period. Any story beyond the first two, or which is received outside of the submission period, will be rejected unread.

Reprints

We welcome submissions of previously published works as long as they do not infringe on any existing publication agreements or copyrights. Please disclose the location and date (approximate is fine) your work was previously published when submitting.

Response Times

We’re a small team, so most submissions will receive a response within 60-90 days, although it could take more time for consideration purposes. Feel free to query if you haven’t heard anything in 120 days.

Please do not respond to rejection letters. However, you can submit a different story at that time if we are open for submissions.

Payment

We hold open submissions for longer works (2,000-10,000 words) several times a year, and pay $0.03 USD per word for original work (that has never been published) and $0.01 USD per word for reprints. Payments are processed on the 7th of the month following the air date of the story. We do not pay for flash fiction (less than 2,000 words). 

Lend your voice to the darkness

Are you a master storyteller with a compelling or unique voice? Love to read out loud to friends and family?Join out roster of talented voice actors! We’re always looking for a few new voices to breathe life into our dark tales.

What you’ll need

1. A good quality microphone

This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it should provide clear audio. Older or damaged microphones can introduce unwanted noise and distortion into your recordings which can ruin an otherwise stellar reading. Most narrators use a USB microphone.

If you’re just dipping your toe into narration and don’t want to break the bank, we recommend the Blue Yeti or Blue Snowball as a great place to start.

2. A computer

This requirement probably goes without saying. Could be a Mac or PC, but should be either a desktop or a laptop computer (not a smartphone or tablet).

3. Editing software

There are some impressive (and expensive) options for audio editing software out there. But the majority of our narrators rely on the open-source, free software Audacity. It works on both Mac and PC, and is a very capable and well-supported application with a ton of resources and a very helpful community.

Other common software includes: Adobe Audition, Logic Pro X, Hindenburg and Reaper (among others).

4. A quiet, echo-free place to record

No matter how good your equipment or software is, there’s no substitute for a quiet recording space, free from echoes.

One of the most popular (and perhaps surprisingly effective) places to record is a closet, particularly one full of clothes. The fabric helps to dampen echoes and the interior space works well to isolate you from external noise. One of the worst choices, on the other hand, is the bathroom. While quiet, the abundance of hard surfaces create strong echoes that make your recording sound hollow and distant. 

Our narration process

JOINING OUR ROSTER OF NARRATORS

After submitting your audition file (see the bottom of this page for how to do that), you’ll receive either confirmation of your addition to our roster, or feedback if there’s anything that needs to be improved. Once approved, you’ll be asked for a short bio and be added to our system for consideration when shopping stories.

Story shopping

The process of pairing narrators with stories is known as “shopping.” We make an effort to select the right narrator for each tale, which may include criteria such as reading style, accent, or gender. We aim to be as inclusive and diverse in our selection as possible, while remaining true to the source material.

The shopping process for flash fiction (less than 2,000 words) is ongoing throughout the year. For longer fiction, it tends to coincide with our two submissions periods (winter and summer).

When we find a suitable story for you, we’ll send an email with the story file. Please have a thorough read through before deciding if it’s something you’d like to narrate. If it’s not to your taste for any reason, please don’t feel compelled to take it on.

Accepting a story

If you choose to accept the story, please respond with an approximate timeline for completion. Generally, we prefer an average turnaround of one month, however we’re flexible, especially on longer stories. Just let us know.

Submitting a finished narration

Once your recording of the story is complete, please save as a mono MP3 and send to use via our Google Form for narration submissions, here. Other than editing for errors, please DO NOT do any post-processing/noise reduction on your audio.

story publication

Depending on our currently backlog of stories, it may be several months before your narration airs. There are many factors that can affect air date, but if you haven’t heard from us (or heard your story on the podcast) after a couple of months, please feel free to reach out. 

Some tips to get you started

• If you’re unsure of the pronunciation of a word or name, let us know and we’re happy to confirm with the author. 
• Avoid speaking too directly into or sitting too close to your microphone. This can cause Ps to “pop” and other distracting noises.
• Have a glass of water handy. A dry mouth can result in some strange, otherwordly noises as you read.
• Don’t drink coffee or sugary drinks. They’re also a common cause mouth excessive mouth noises.
• Take a thorough proof listen to your audio after editing and before submitting. This will ensure your recording is exactly as you intend it.
• Have fun with it! Relax, loosen up, shake it out. The more comfortable you are, the more immersive and powerful your read will be.
• Please clean up mistakes, repeated lines and odd noises, but leave the overall noice reduction to us. We have our own process using more advanced software that can often achieve cleaner results.
   

What we don’t accept

Recordings done on a smartphone or tablet

Unfortunately, the audio quality from these smaller devices isn’t quite high enough to provide our listeners with the immersive listening experience they’ve come to expect from Tales to Terrify.

Recordings with excessive or distracting background noise

Some degree of background noise is normal and unavoidable. Usually, as long as it’s fairly consistent, we can clean this up. But irregular noises (bumps and bangs, barking dogs, etc) are tougher to remove and can have a detrimental effect on listener enjoyment.

Unedited RECORDINGS

Submitted recordings should require only minor clean-up. They should be free from errors, repeated lines and unneeded silences. We proof listen to every recording, but as a volunteer-run podcast, we don’t currently have the capacity for major editing on a story.

OVER-processed RECORDINGS

While we do require any mistakes or errors to be edited out, we prefer the audio to be otherwise unaltered. We’ve developed our own techniques and processes for cleaning up minor background noise, optimizing EQ and adding compression.