The last two issues of LampLight magazine were a special call. Each of these stories represent the first pro-sale of an author, marking an important step in their journey.
We want to offer both issues to you for free, that you may take these short stories into consideration for the Stoker Awards. Follow the link to find them in ePub, mobi and PDF.
They are two fantastic issues of LampLight containing love and betrayal and ghosts and war and horror. We hope you enjoy.
Update 9 Nov 2021, we are full, submissions are closed, thank you everyone who responded and supported!
“If accepted, this would be my first pro-sale.”
We are going to take a new turn for the submissions. The criteria to submit will be as follows, the following statement must be true:
“If accepted, this would be my first pro-sale.”
And to make that true, we will be raising our pay scale to match:
6¢ (USD) per word (based on HWA guidelines)
5100 words MAX (firm)
Yes, this lowers the max word count, but that is to keep within budget. So this go-round, we will not take any stories over the word count. We’ve added a 100 word buffer, so target that 5,000 word mark as a max. (For this call, strong 1,500 – 3,000 word stories will fair best.)
One of the things we’ve loved over the years is finding new writers and showcasing them for the first time. These two issues are going highlight new writers and hopefully be just the first of many times you will read their work.
Now, since there will no doubt be some questions, here are some answers:
No, 5,000 words is the max, with a 100 word buffer.
Then it wouldn’t be professional rate, and would miss the intention of the issue.
If it was the professional rate at the time, it counts as a pro-sale.
If this is your first short story pro-sale then you may submit, even if you’ve had, for example, a professional non-fiction release. If you have short story pro-sales in other genres, however, you are not eligible for these issues.
LampLight is a horror market, so we are going by HWA guidelines for this. A ‘pro-sale’ will be 5¢ per word for a fiction piece, regardless of length.
The demarcations between fiction pieces, like flash, short, novelette, are to let the reader know how long they are, and aren’t really different categories. If it was pro fiction sale, it counts.
In your cover letter, please add the following statement: “If accepted, this would be my first pro-sale.”
We open up 15 September, so there is time. We are looking for dark, quiet horror. Guidelines are posted here, good luck! We are excited to read your work!
All submissions from March – May of 2019 have been responded to. Please check your inboxes and Submittable accounts. Feel free to query as well.
I’m sorry for the delays this year. I talk more about that on my blog.
Issue V8.1 of LampLight is out! Print, Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo and Smashwords. Get it today.
Print – Kindle – Smashwords – Nook – iBooks – Kobo
Fiona Maeve Geist talks about Unica Zurn: Dark Fantasist and Shrouded Muse.
Fiction From:
The December issue is being pushed to January. From then onwards we should be back on schedule.
Gemma Files is our featured writer. We talk with her about ‘monster pride’ and what she’s working on next. Fiona Maeve Geist returns with an article on Hope Mirrlees and Margaret St Clair.
Fiction from:
Edited by Catherine Grant
Hi everyone. We are going to delay LampLight Magazine spring submissions to 15 April (and extend through June!)
This will let us finish catching up on some things before Volume 7 starts.
In the meantime, we are having a subscription drive! Your support is what keeps LampLight going. Subscriptions support both the magazine and the podcast, and bring to you four great issues of LampLight magazine which can be sent directly to your Kindle if you like!
I spent the better part of two months doodling up designs for the logo of LampLight. I was trying to make a simple-to-draw lamp to sit in the corner of each cover as a logo for the magazine.
I’ve known Paula Snyder longer than is polite to say out loud. Needless to say, we still look fabulous.
I wrote Paula about my endeavors and asked if she could help, sending an (no doubt rambling) email about my idea for the lamp, what the mag was about, etc.
What Paula sent back was fantastic, elegant, and real. Naturally, it looked nothing like my scribbles or descriptions. This is why it looks good.
The LampLight masthead, and overall look of the covers, the outward visible part of the magazine is all due to Paula, and LampLight would not have been the same without them.
Don’t forget to subscribe, so you’ll never miss a great issue of LampLight! Subscriptions support both the magazine and the podcast.
I had known Kevin Lucia for about ten minutes when I approached him about doing the first serial for LampLight.
We had met at Necon in 2011, and saw each other again at Horrorfind Weekend. It was June of 2012 when I sent an awkward email that I had re-written about fifteen times. I was making a magazine, it was going to be quiet horror, would he be interested in doing a serial novella to span the first volume.
Kevin said yes, saying he had a piece he had in mind that would be a great fit. And thus, And I Watered It With Tears (later to be republished as Drowned) came to find its home in LampLight. The characters and locations in Tears are woven into his Clifton Heights saga, which I cannot recommend enough.
Tears helped set the tone of LampLight and we would later make our first Radio Play based off this novella.
We had two more serial novellas, The Devoted by James A Moore, and Wilted Lilies by Kelli Owen. All three are fantastic.
In the end, quarterly release is too long in-between installments for a serial. We haven’t given up the idea, though–I think serials are a great means for story telling.
Kevin would return to LampLight for volume 4 & 5 with his Horror 101 series, taking us on a tour of the genre, past and present.
Listen to Drowned, the episode 1 of the LampLight Radio play, based on the novella by Kevin Lucia
Get all of volume 1, featuring And I Watered It With Tears by Kevin Lucia, for only 5$!
And don’t forget to subscribe, so you’ll never miss a great issue of LampLight! Subscriptions support both the magazine and the podcast (and maybe some crazy serial idea we have…).
(Guest appearance in this post by Lincoln Crisler, author of Queen and Other Stories)
June is birthday month here at Apokrupha. And this year is a milestone. June 2017 marks 5 years of publishing, and we’ve got quite a few things to celebrate. A new issue with a great line up; a new steampunk book; a new Radio Play episode; space dragons…
To mark the occasion, we are re-releasing all of volume 1 of LampLight. These first four issues of LampLight are where it all started.
AND. Get all four of them, thats 130,000 words of short fiction, interviews, a full novella by Kevin Lucia and the fantastic Shadows in the Attic series by J.F. Gonzalez… for just $5.
Already own all of these titles? The files are updated, so just re-download. Files from Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo and Nook will be updated soon.
And don’t forget to subscribe to LampLight to support another 5 years!
We have a goal, we want to get to 1,000 subscribers to LampLight magazine.
With this goal we will be able to acquire more great stories. We will be able to increase writer pay. With this goal, we will be sure that LampLight will be around for another 5 years.
Buy a Subscription, 10$ for One Year!
A subscription is convenient and saves money! For just 10$ a year you will get four great issues of LampLight emailed to you or direct to your Kindle. Ebooks will be available as epub, mobi and PDF.
And, as a bonus, get the current issue as well!
These are our subscriber goals:
Stretch Goals:
We want to be around for a long time, and to bring the best dark fiction right to your hands. Help us achieve that. Pick up a subscription, help spread the word.
All of the funds from these purchases are going straight to us, no cut from Amazon or Kickstarter. All of these funds are going right back into LampLight magazine to pay writers and editors in our community. Subscriptions support both the magazine and the podcast.
Missed out on some of the older issues? We have two ebook bundles set up as well:
Check on the bundles in our ebook store!
For more information on our titles:
