04/18/22: We are currently CLOSED to new submissions.

What We’re Looking For

Word Horde is a small press publisher of weird, fantastic, speculative, and horror fiction. We publish a handful of titles every year, with a focus on unique voices.

We enjoy smart genre fiction with a strong sense of place and excellent writing that engages in conversation with the genre as a whole and the world at large.

We love reading work from marginalized and underrepresented authors.

Much of what we publish could be classified as literary horror, though we prefer not to discriminate between highbrow and lowbrow modes.

We feel that while every Word Horde book is different, every Word Horde book shares a distinct aesthetic.

A Word Horde book should not just entertain the reader but should leave the reader profoundly changed by the experience.

For a better sense of what we publish, we recommend exploring the full Word Horde catalog.

We are typically looking for novels and collections with commercial appeal in the 80–120k word count range. We only accept short stories for specific anthologies which are announced on our website and social media.

We acquire books a year or more out from publication, as most works need time for editorial attention, art direction, and packaging before they are ready for release. On acceptance, we offer a small advance and respectable royalty for print, ebook, and subsidiary rights.

Guidelines

To query, please send an email to CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS introducing yourself and describing the work you would like to submit in a few sentences.

If your query excites us, we may ask for a sample or the full manuscript. IF REQUESTED, attach the full manuscript as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file (no PDFs). Do not paste your manuscript in the body of the email. Please use standard manuscript formatting (12-point, Times New Roman, double-spaced), and include your name (and pen name if applicable), email address, and word count at the top.

Be sure to indicate if this is a simultaneous submission, and if it gets accepted elsewhere, please let us know promptly.

Please allow up to six months for reading time. We try to answer queries in a timely manner but do keep in mind that we receive a lot of queries for a very small number of spots on our schedule.

Artists

We are always interested in finding artists that work in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction fields. Please send a link to your portfolio to CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS.