Submission Guidelines
Pulp Asylum is currently open to fiction submissions.
No reprints. Previously unpublished work only. Any story appearing in print or in any public space online, including your website, has already been published.
Original short fiction up to a maximum of 3000 words. Seriously. 3001+ gets rejected unread.
No multiple submissions. One at a time.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. Let me know ASAP if a story is accepted elsewhere.
Nothing created using AI.
Diversity: Fuck yeah. All that. Everyone. Bring it on.
Payment is a flat $15 (US) upon acceptance. I pay via PayPal only. I am buying first publication rights, first electronic rights, and exclusive use of the story for six months from the publication date. Be aware that your story will appear as part of a back issue at the website for one year.
Submit your work in standard MS format via email as a .doc or .pdf attachment to [email protected]. Your subject line should be ASYLUM STORIES [your last name, your story title]. Treat the body of your email as your cover letter. Keep it informal and brief: a bit about yourself, your pubs, a link to your site if you have one.
Response time: 30 days. Query after that if you haven't received a response.
I publish a variety of traditional pulp genres. Horror, mystery, crime, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, western, and just plain weird stories are all welcome. Any genre, no genre, cross genre are all okay. I like challenging, fun, fast stories. Give me action and adventure. Forget background and get down to it. Resist the urge to explain. Dive in and show—vividly, concretely—what's going on with your protagonist. Character is important. I want a character facing challenges, under pressure, whose world is falling apart, whose sense of self is at risk, who is running out of lies to tell her/himself. Give me the strange, the violent, the mysterious, the disturbed, the desperate, the angry, the lonely, the damned. Just don’t give me the inert: your protagonist has to act, to do something, to grapple, to change or be changed. I want stories about that day of reckoning that your protagonist always feared was coming. Or—what the hell—maybe s/he never saw it coming at all . . . but in any case, it’s here.
People under pressure sometimes do unexpected things. Sometimes they show us who they are. Or who they want to be.
I have no taboos--you can write about the most heinous topics if that's where the muse leads you. Blood and gore are okay, just remember that a story's details should be there for a reason. Pointless gore is just as boring to me as any other passage of pointless description.
No fan fiction. That means no using characters or worlds created by other authors. This includes Lovecraft, folks: you ain't H.P., so send that Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth stuff to someone else. This also includes those "the story of ___________ retold from the point of view of _______________" tales. That worked for Tom Stoppard and Gregory Maguire, but that shit is tired. Let it rest. Plow your own field.
I'm also not particularly interested in recast fairy tales, fables, or myths.
Lastly, don't send me trigger warnings on your submissions. You're not going to traumatize me. Really. I'm okay.
--Billy Ramone
No reprints. Previously unpublished work only. Any story appearing in print or in any public space online, including your website, has already been published.
Original short fiction up to a maximum of 3000 words. Seriously. 3001+ gets rejected unread.
No multiple submissions. One at a time.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. Let me know ASAP if a story is accepted elsewhere.
Nothing created using AI.
Diversity: Fuck yeah. All that. Everyone. Bring it on.
Payment is a flat $15 (US) upon acceptance. I pay via PayPal only. I am buying first publication rights, first electronic rights, and exclusive use of the story for six months from the publication date. Be aware that your story will appear as part of a back issue at the website for one year.
Submit your work in standard MS format via email as a .doc or .pdf attachment to [email protected]. Your subject line should be ASYLUM STORIES [your last name, your story title]. Treat the body of your email as your cover letter. Keep it informal and brief: a bit about yourself, your pubs, a link to your site if you have one.
Response time: 30 days. Query after that if you haven't received a response.
I publish a variety of traditional pulp genres. Horror, mystery, crime, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, western, and just plain weird stories are all welcome. Any genre, no genre, cross genre are all okay. I like challenging, fun, fast stories. Give me action and adventure. Forget background and get down to it. Resist the urge to explain. Dive in and show—vividly, concretely—what's going on with your protagonist. Character is important. I want a character facing challenges, under pressure, whose world is falling apart, whose sense of self is at risk, who is running out of lies to tell her/himself. Give me the strange, the violent, the mysterious, the disturbed, the desperate, the angry, the lonely, the damned. Just don’t give me the inert: your protagonist has to act, to do something, to grapple, to change or be changed. I want stories about that day of reckoning that your protagonist always feared was coming. Or—what the hell—maybe s/he never saw it coming at all . . . but in any case, it’s here.
People under pressure sometimes do unexpected things. Sometimes they show us who they are. Or who they want to be.
I have no taboos--you can write about the most heinous topics if that's where the muse leads you. Blood and gore are okay, just remember that a story's details should be there for a reason. Pointless gore is just as boring to me as any other passage of pointless description.
No fan fiction. That means no using characters or worlds created by other authors. This includes Lovecraft, folks: you ain't H.P., so send that Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth stuff to someone else. This also includes those "the story of ___________ retold from the point of view of _______________" tales. That worked for Tom Stoppard and Gregory Maguire, but that shit is tired. Let it rest. Plow your own field.
I'm also not particularly interested in recast fairy tales, fables, or myths.
Lastly, don't send me trigger warnings on your submissions. You're not going to traumatize me. Really. I'm okay.
--Billy Ramone