Red Sun Magazine
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Website: https://www.facebook.com/redsunmagazine/
Guidelines: https://redsunmagazine.submittable.com/submit
Editor: Ben Richards, Editor-in-Chief; Michael McHenry, Managing Editor; Phillip Englund, Horror Editor; Karen Smith, Fantasy Editor; Judith Field, Science Fiction Editor; Assistant Editors: Ann Stolinsky, Evan Knight
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About The Publication:
” Red Sun is a quarterly magazine that publishes science-fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction. We want quality entertainment. The stories can be dark. They can be violent. They can be gory. They can be humorous. They can be weird. They can be political. They can be speculative. They can be populated with any culture, any religion. With men, women, LGBT, black, white, or brown. We are particularly interested in war-themed science fiction five science fiction written by war veterans. In addition to fiction, we want interviews, articles, and reviews up to 5k words that are relevant to the genres we publish, to include role-playing games, board games, movies, television, etc. We also accept artwork & comic strips; no poetry. Art should fit the genres we publish.” 100% freelance. Welcomes new writers. Quarterly. Pays within 30 days of publication. Publishes ms 1-2 months after acceptance. “We ask for exclusive rights to the author’s work for six months (the duration of a single issue’s run, plus two months), as well as exclusive anthology rights for a year, both to begin at the time of publication.” No reprints. Responds up to 4 months. Sample available for purchase at https://redsunmagazine.com/purchase. Guidelines online at https://redsunmagazine.com/guidelines.
Current Needs:
“Karen Smith, Fantasy Editor: “With regard to fantasy, I like stories that offer a new twist on tried and true themes. I prefer stories that end on a note of hope or courage, even if the main character heads to certain death. Mature characters also add interest.” Judith Field, Science Fiction Editor: “I like the quirky and the unusual, but I’ll consider anything well written. I like stories where I can’t second guess the ending and like Karen, those that give a new take on the themes we see so often. There are some publications that provide a ‘hard sell’ list but I wouldn’t go so far as to be as rigid as that. I do like stories that have endings, rather than just stopping so I wonder if there’s a page missing. For any genre, no pornography, exploitation or gratuitous violence. Really, nothing that’s just there for the sake of it, which doesn’t move the story along.” Phillip Englund, Horror Editor: “I love reading a wide variety of horror (or any genre), so I’m not really looking for anything too specific. Give me fresh takes on old classics. Give me stories which are bleak and nihilistic as hell, and stories in which people you’ve made me care about make it through okay. If it’s well-written and entertaining, it will have a solid shot. In any case, I would enjoy seeing more humor in submissions, assuming it’s not forced–humor should be natural to the piece and/or characters. It’s really rather hard to pull off, actually… maybe that’s why it’s really something we don’t come across all that often.”
US $100 for stories up to 15K words; $150 for stories 15-17K; and $300 for serializations. “We cannot pay for non-fiction at this time. All contributors will receive an as yet to-be-determined amount of contributors copies. For Between 3-5K words, up to 17K words; 3-5K is preferred, but we will consider works up to 17K. We also will consider serializing longer works up to 80K. Serials should be complete. No works-in-progress.
Photos/Art:
“Artists please send us several samples of your work as .jpg, and if we like your portfolio, we will work with you and assign you one or more stories for illustration.“ The exception is comics–you can submit those at anytime as jpg. Pays for art and comics we will pay $35 per piece; $100 for a cover.
Hints:
Karen Smith, Fantasy Editor: “Common mistakes authors make include poor grammar and sentence construction. (That doesn’t matter so much in dialogue, because people don’t necessarily speak in complete, properly conjugated sentences.) Writing is a craft and any author who can’t take the time to master the craft is an author I can’t take the time to read. I really detest terminally stupid characters and so-called heroes who treat women like toilet paper (use once and discard).” Judith Field, Science Fiction Editor: “Read the submission guidelines. That’s all. It’s all in there, but people keep submitting stories that are too short or which aren’t formatted properly. And they just won’t get read.” Ann Stolinsky, Assistant Editor: “I strongly dislike reading a story that reads as a ‘shitty first draft.’ (Sorry, can’t remember which author coined that phrase.) I feel a story doesn’t have to be 100% perfect. I do, however, want to know that an author cared enough about the story to make it the best it can be. Don’t send it with duplicate words, gross misspellings, a change of name for the protagonist midway … I could go on and on. Oh, one more hint. Make sure the story is attached. We’ve had submissions that have just been the cover letter.” Phillip Englund, Horror Editor: “In addition to knowing your craft and following the proper guidelines, perhaps the cover letter should also be given mention. First, please keep it shortish. It’s great if you want to tell us about yourself, but on occasion I run across bios which are these massive, impenetrable blocks of text listing every little thing the writer’s ever accomplished. That makes me suspect said writer has no idea what they’re doing, and you don’t want me heading into your story with that mindset. Secondly, you get bonus points for specifically addressing your cover letter to the appropriate Red Sun staff members. There is absolutely nothing wrong with leading off with something like ‘Dear Editors,’ but when a cover letter employs an actual name, that tells me someone’s put in that little extra effort of referencing the staff page. In turn, I might take a little extra time with your story. Concerning the horror genre specifically, I’m about as much of a blood ‘n’ guts guy as you can get, but there should be a sense of fun to the gruesome bits (even if you’re putting your characters through the wringer). We’re not looking for pieces which wallow in violence and misery for violence and misery’s sake. Serial killers are right out. As are alien abduction stories where the entire plot is: “Some random guy gets beamed up by extraterrestrials and horribly experimented on. The end.” We get a surprising number of those.”
Welcomes New Writers: