Open Call for Flash Fiction

Hollow Oak Presents: Acorns

We’re looking for stories that are between 1,000-1,500 words to publish digitally on our website, in our feature called Acorns. We want short, punchy fiction that tells us a complete story in a brief format.

All stories must feature a speculative element, whether it’s magic or monsters or anything in between. It can be as subtle as a hint of the unexpected in the real world, or as pervasive as secondary world fantasy. All subgenres of speculative fiction are welcome, although military/political/alien-based sci-fi will be a harder sell. We will judge all stories by their own merits though, so if you think you have something that fits, we want to read it.

Some tips: We generally prefer character-driven stories that evoke emotion. We like intimate, rural settings. We prefer clean prose that makes every single word count.

All stories must be previously unpublished (this includes your own website/blog).

We will not accept any stories featuring bigotry, hateful language, or sexual assault of any kind. These are stories intended for adults so some sex/violence/profanity is fine, as long as it directly pertains to the story and isn’t used solely for shock value. We do want our mothers to read this, so any sex should be fade-to-black rather than overly descriptive.

We will not accept any AI-generated stories. There will be no exceptions to this. We’ll consider stories about robots, not written by them.

Unlike our anthologies, these stories will be published digitally on our blog. They will be free to readers, so at this time, we are only able to offer a nominal payment. We do strongly believe in paying our authors, and hope to be able to increase this payment in the future.

Guidelines:

Deadline: Ongoing

Word count: 1,000-1,500 words

Payment: Flat nominal payment of $5 USD per accepted story, paid through PayPal.

Rights: First world digital publication rights with one year exclusivity following the date of publication. Authors will retain the rights to their stories, and will be asked to sign contracts prior to publication.

Simultaneous Submissions: We do accept simultaneous submissions: after all, life is short. We just ask that you please withdraw your story by emailing us immediately if it’s accepted somewhere else prior to our decision.

Multiple Submissions: No

Reprints: No

General tips: We will not accept re-submissions and we cannot guarantee feedback on any rejected submissions. Please, no poetry. We will not accept anything outside our word count range. Craft is important to us, and while we don’t expect perfection, we do expect pieces to be polished. Please don’t send us a first draft.

How to submit: Please send all stories as .doc or .docx attachments to submissions@hollowoakpress.com with your story title and “Acorns” in the subject line. Do not paste the story into the body of the email. We ask that you include a brief third-person bio in your email, but we do not need (or want) a synopsis in your email. The story will speak for itself. Please, for the sake of our eyeballs, double space and use 12pt font. We also strongly suggest you use Shunn’s Manuscript Format.

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The best way to know what we’re looking for is to read some of our recent publications.