SUBMISSIONS

Premier horror ezine MANDATORY MIDNIGHT is now open for submissions. We are looking for well-written horror, weird, and experimental fiction. Nothing is too weird or extreme and nothing is off limits. If your manuscript has been rejected elsewhere, and it is well-written, we want it. 


ABOUT MANDATORY MIDNIGHT 

Mandatory Midnight is dedicated to the discovery of up and coming writers who may be struggling to find an audience of readers, as well as expanding the fan-base of authors outside of the mainstream. We publish horror, weird, and experimental fiction, and we publish the occasional article or interview with roots in horror literature. The site was founded originally by horror author and artist David Paul Harris to support his works of fiction while attempting to attract literary agents and publishers. He was previously published under the name David Paul as the author of The Witness, Naked Vitality (which received a 2005 Library of Poetry Award), From the Blood of Poetry, and he has been published in magazines, including Heavy Metal. After his story Casualties of Pretty Things was published to the site and reached over 3,000 readers David realized he could offer to publish other writers whose works may be going unrecognized elsewhere. To help attract readers he started creating original art for each writer and story he published, and continues to do so. Each writer who contributes to the horror ezine retains proprietary rights to their manuscripts. Neither the site nor its publisher claims any copyrights to the stories, articles, or interviews published. We do not pay for submissions. However, as an incentive, we do provide an original illustration that will be published with the story, should your manuscript be selected for publication. Furthermore, you retain all proprietary rights. We claim no copyrights to your manuscript. You are free to solicit that same work elsewhere, and if it is published by others please inform us and it will be removed from our site. Why would you submit your story to us if you're not getting paid like mainstream magazines? Mandatory Midnight has thousands of readers and our audience is steadily growing. This is an opportunity for unknown writers to start building credentials and for previously published authors to expand their fan-base. This is about building an online presence with your work that your potential readers can follow and, as you pursue a published career (whether it be traditional or alternative), makes it easier for publishers and literary agents to validate your credentials. 


BEFORE SUBMITTING

WE DO NOT WANT TRADITIONALLY FORMATTED MANUSCRIPTS. Traditional manuscript writing is outdated. DO NOT SEND AN ATTACHMENT. Just c/p your manuscript into the body of an email, separate each paragraph by one line (the way you would a standard email) and send it over. The only other thing we like with it is a brief one paragraph synopsis. You may also include an author bio. 

ANY WORD COUNT IS ACCEPTABLE. However, be aware that if your story is longer than 5,000 words it may be split into two parts. Longer stories could be serialized.  

Please go over your manuscript two to three times with a critical eye. It may be helpful to ask someone you know who reads a lot to read your work. Ask them to be critical about the grammar, spelling, and overall structure. If you need help with editing a final draft there are several free online grammar editors available. We encourage you to make use of them. ONLY AFTER you have done this do we want your manuscript. Please understand, we want your published story to be the best representation of your work, and sometimes our editor misses the little things that standout after publication. No one wants that. 


COMICS

We're not opposed to comics, but any that are sent need to be a single self-contained story (a one-shot). Any page length is alright, but nothing too long. 64 pages should be the max. We prefer shorter. Do not pitch us a series. No superheroes, please. No fan-fiction. We only want your original horror, sci-fi, weird and experimental fiction. And when we say weird we mean anything that doesn't fall into a convenient genre. Do not send us incomplete pages. We will not partner you with a creative team. ONLY SEND JPEGs of completed pages. We want the entire completed story. Every page. DO NOT SEND PDFs, TIFFs or any other format. JPEGs ONLY. And DO NOT SEND A ZIP FILE OR A LINK. Attach jpegs to as many emails as it takes. Yes. Seriously. And thank you. 

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES. 

To submit cut/paste your manuscript in the body of an email and contact the publisher directly: davidpaul1970@gmail.com

Works by David Paul Harris


His first two books are no longer in print.
Front Cover Front Cover


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