PRINT OPPORTUNITIES
HALLOWEEN PARTY
EVERY ODD YEAR Gravelight Press, the horror imprint of Current Words Publishing, LLC, produces a new volume of its award-winning anthology series, HALLOWEEN PARTY. These collections feature short stories and, occasionally, poems, relating to all-things horror.
The 2025 edition has been put on hold currently. Check back for any updates.
THE WORK MUST BE CREATIVE.
All work must be original, not AI created, and not previously published. We do not accept novel excerpts. We will accept short stories/poems that are planned to be included in a collection by an author. All rights remain with the authors. (This means that when Netflix knocks at your door, you don’t owe us a cut, or need to get any permission from us.) DO NOT INCLUDE in your pieces any song lyrics that you have not written yourself, excerpts from other authors’ writing, art, or testimonials.
AUTHORS WHOSE WORKS ARE SELECTED FOR PUBLICATION ARE PAID.
For 2025 the payment is $25 per story, or $25 for every 1- 3 poems ($25 total, whether one, two, or three poems by the same author are chosen). Each published author will receive a print copy of the book, typically valued at $15. The $25 payment you receive makes you eligible for membership in the Horror Writers Association.
Your payment will be sent to you electronically.
You will receive a contract which will need to be executed by you and Gravelight. We use DocuSign.
HOW MANY SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED?
We accept poetry and short stories. An author could multiple stories/poems accepted. Ultimately, we will choose approximately 20 to 25 works for this volume.
DO YOU NEED MY BIO?
For your submission it says bio of 100 words. In truth, when it comes time to publish the anthology, that is when we will need your bio, and it should be up to 300 words +/- a few words. You SHOULD include links to your universe (website, blog, what-have-you) in that bio.
HISTORY OF PUBLICATION.
You do not need a history of publications to be selected. You just need to provide well-written work in the genre.
THERE IS A $10 SUBMISSION FEE. This offsets the cost of production, in addition to weeding out the less on-topic, less-polished pieces. This has always been a part of Halloween Party series, and will ever be. Producing a book requires real labor that is valuable. If you believe that your creative efforts are valuable, please understand that the work of others is also valuable or seek an alternative publication.
WHY WAS MY WORK NOT CHOSEN?
This only happens when the work is not of the quality that we are seeking, or is off-topic in our estimation. The submission fee is not refunded for work not chosen for publication. It takes real and valuable labor to read and respond to author submissions. We do not address questions on submissions not chosen nor do we provide feedback. We have all been there, and we know it is hard not to be chosen. If your work is not selected, we hope you will persevere and try again in the future.
We look forward to reading your work!
Please scroll down to the INSTANT NOODLES submission information for a publication that has no fees.
PUBLISHING A FULL-LENGTH WORK WITH CURRENT WORDS PUBLISHING, LLC.
Current Words Publishing, LLC (CWP), the parent company of Gravelight Press, acts as a partner publisher. This means that authors pay the publisher for labor authors need to bring a book to market, and the authors retain all royalties. CWP can provide book production and design, website design, editing services, cover design, and so on. If authors have been published in a CWP (or Gravelight Press) publication, authors can request services at a 20% discount. CWP strives to build a publication posses among all authors of full-length works we have brought to market in order to give authors a community of resources and cheerleaders who help each other through reviews and cross-posting, etc. It is important to us at CWP to do our jobs well, and affordably.
Book a Meeting with Dianne & David
Interested in publishing? Book a free Zoom call to talk about it with us!
We offer free resources as well, for the DIYers among us.
FREE OPPORTUNITES: INSTANT NOODLES SUBMISSIONS
INSTANT NOODLES is our online literary magazine where we publish short fiction, poetry, and artwork. We’re in our third year! FREE to read, and to submit. There is no submission fee. Producing INSTANT NOODLES also requires real labor, and skill, and that labor is valuable, but we do our digital-only publications at no charge, in an effort to balance free and paid opportunities. In order to submit, please click the “submit” image below:
GRAVELIGHT PRESS 