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Fraidy Cat Press Submission Guidelines

Guidelines, open dates, and more information for Fraidy Cat Press (novellas/novels) and Fraidy Cat Quarterly (flash, short stories, novelettes, art) are below.

We are pro-simultaneous submissions for all categories. Get your work out there with publications you love, and withdraw at any time for any reason.

We try to respond as quickly as possible, but we do have lives, a family, and jobs outside of Fraidy Cat. We appreciate your understanding as we give our time, attention, and grace to all aspects to the best of our abilities.

Short Stories (Fraidy Cat Quarterly): Opening 2/16/26

Word Count: 400-18,500
Payment: $0.01 per word for 400-8,000 words, then $0.005 per word for 8,000-18,500 words. (2,500-5,000 words are likely our sweet spot, but we do enjoy a strong novelette.)
Reprints: No
AI: Absolutely not. 
Genre: Horror, preferably with a cosmic or weird and literary angle
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, encouraged
Multiple Submissions: No. Please wait for a response before you send us another piece to consider. 
Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook with six-month exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the author.
Response times: ~3-6 months

If you haven’t heard from us within 3 months, please query with your name and story title to fraidycatpress [at] gmail [dot] com.

Submit Here

Interior Art (Fraidy Cat Quarterly): Opening 2/16/26

Number of Artworks: Up to 5 per submission
Color: Black/white interior illustrations
Payment: $25 per piece
File Format: JPG or PNG
Reprints: No
AI: Absolutely not.
Genre: Horror, preferably with a cosmic, weird, or unsettling angle
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, encouraged
Multiple Submissions: No. Please wait for a response before you send us more art to consider. 
Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook with six-month exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the artist.
Format: Interior art should fit in a portrait orientation. 4″x6″ is generally a good rule of thumb. However, we are open to consider smaller illustrations that could fit alongside story copy as well. 
Response times: ~3-6 months
 

Cover Art (Fraidy Cat Quarterly): Opening 2/16/26

Number of Artworks: Up to 5 per submission
Color: Full color
Payment: $75 per piece
File Format: JPG or PNG
Reprints: No
AI: Absolutely not.
Genre: Horror, preferably with a cosmic, weird, or unsettling angle
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, encouraged
Multiple Submissions: No. Please wait for a response before you send us more art to consider. 
Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook with six-month exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the artist.
Format: Our covers are 5.5″x8.5″. We’re open to both front cover only and full wrap covers. 
Response times: ~3-6 months
 

Novellas: Closed

We are currently closed to novel, novella, and collection submissions. 

 
Word Count: 18,000 – 40,000
Payment: Industry standard royalties
Reprints: No
AI: Absolutely not.
Genre: Horror, preferably with a cosmic or weird and literary angle, but we’re open to all pitches
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, encouraged
Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook with three-year exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the author.
Query response times: ~3-4 months. Full requests will take longer. We will respond to all submissions.
What to send: These will be included on our submission form, but we are looking for:

  • Name, bio, and contact info
  • Letter, including a short pitch about your novella
  • Sample pages. These should be one chapter or ten pages or 5000ish words, whatever small sample makes sense for your work
  • Optionals: Market comps, content warnings, anything else we need to know

What To Submit

Fraidy Cat Press loves all things horror – from the eerie, creeping terror of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”’s systematic violence to the unhinged tilt of Laird Barron’s “The Imago Sequence” and everything in between. We want your stories that go bump in the night, your stories that creak like an intruding foot on the staircase, your best writing that screeches through the calm darkness. 

Put simply, Fraidy Cat Press is interested in:

  • Horror (and its related genre mashups and sub-genres)

What Not to Submit 

While we love all things horror, there are a few things we’re not open to publishing:

  • Extreme horror or torture porn 
  • Exploitative sexual violence 

Cliches and established tropes are a hard sell – if you want us to publish vampires, give them their teeth back a la Nathan Ballingrud’s “Sunbleached”. Zombies, werewolves, and other classic movie monsters require similar creativity to be considered. 

How To Submit 

Your submission should be in Shunn format, but we prefer you NOT include your address or phone number.

Simultaneous submissions are encouraged! Just please let us know as soon as your submission is accepted elsewhere. 

We strive to respond to all submissions within three to six months. 

Submission links for each window will be shared when we are open for submissions. Please include a bio written in third person of up to 100 words in your submission materials. 

Diversity Statement

Fraidy Cat Press welcomes and encourages submissions from authors of all races, ethnicities, belief systems, nationalities, backgrounds, sexual orientations, genders, and identities. 

A Statement on AI 

AI-generated writing and images ARE NOT ART. By submitting to Fraidy Cat Press, you agree that your work was generated without the use of AI tools. If we find that your story or artwork has used AI in its creation, no future submissions from you will be considered and we will be incredibly disappointed in your lack of creativity. 

Payment & Rights

Fraidy Cat Press’s team are strong believers that art has value and artists should be compensated for their work. Our payments are outlined above and are made via Paypal at this time for first worldwide English-language rights, for use in the print, ebook, and digital editions. Each contributor in the US will also receive one free contributor copy, with an option to purchase up to 5 additional copies at 50% off our list price. We ask for a 6-month exclusivity from the date of publication, and please credit Fraidy Cat Quarterly for any subsequent reprints or collections. Copyright remains with the author and a contract will be provided.

Reprints

Fraidy Cat Press does not accept reprints at this time. 

Final Thoughts

Please do not self-reject! We know how challenging the submission grind is and honor and respect the work that goes into writing and sharing your work with outlets. 

Examples of books, anthologies, outlets and stories we love:

  • Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer 
  • Come Closer by Sara Gran 
  • Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell 
  • Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark 
  • The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones
  • The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron 
  • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 
  • Windeye by Brian Evenson 
  • The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper 
  • A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
  • North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
  • Cosmic Horror Monthly
  • Weird Horror Magazine
  • The Ghastling
  • Nightscript & Chthonic Matter Quarterly