OPEN CALL: Side Hustle
- catvoleur
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
SIDE HUSTLE: Horror Stories for Late Capitalism
A particularly insidious aspect of late capitalism is that a lot of people can’t survive without taking second jobs, gig work, seasonal employment. Depending on your source, it could be as much as a third of the world’s population. These jobs are already horrifying enough: no benefits, shitty pay, dangerous conditions. But what if they were… darker?
SUBMISSION WINDOW:
May 15th -- June 14th
Extended period for LGBTQIA+, disabled, or BIPOC authors: June 15-21
WORDCOUNT:
1,000 -- 5,000
PAYMENT:
5 cents USD per word
WHAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR:
A particularly insidious aspect of late capitalism is that a lot of people can’t survive without taking second jobs, gig work, seasonal employment. Depending on your source, it could be as much as a third of the world’s population. These jobs are already horrifying enough: no benefits, shitty pay, dangerous conditions. But what if they were… darker?
Side Hustle is an anthology of horror and dark science fiction stories about the extra work we do to stay afloat. Uber driver for the damned. Security guard for a room without doors. Freelance editor of unspeakable codexes. Vendor of cursed small appliances on ebay. Grave robber. Whatever extra job you have to take to pay the bills, whatever you need to sell to stay alive, we want to hear about it.
We encourage formal experimentation. A horror story told in receipts, in delivery app ratings, in an email exchange over the purchase of a defective homunculus, in an academic CV. How can you explain these gaps in your resume?
We also encourage submissions from outside the United States. What does gig work look like where you live?
PLEASE DON'T SEND
If we think you used so-called AI in your story, we will reject it
REPRINTS?
No.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS?
No, one story per author.
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS?
Yes, but please let us know ASAP if your story is accepted elsewhere.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Responses expected by July 10
Because of the high volume of submissions, we will send form rejections
FORMATTING GUIDELINES:
You don’t have to use Shunn manuscript format as long as your story is legible.
Try to proofread your story as much as possible, but minor errors or some awkward sentences will not cause us to automatically reject your piece.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Please write SUBMISSION: “TITLE” – LAST NAME as your subject line.
In your cover letter:
Please include your pronouns and the name by which you would like us to address you. You do not have to give us your legal name at time of submission.
You do not need to give us your address or contact information except for your contact email at time of submission.
We don’t need long cover letters, but if you want to, you can highlight any special expertise or relationship you have to your story.
You may include a link to your website or list of previous publications, but this isn’t necessary—we love publishing new voices, so we encourage previously unpublished writers to send something.
Think about this: if we took the time to request something, don’t you think it’s a good idea to include it? Please check this list again before moving to the next step.
When you have all of that stuff together, please send your submission to submissions@agitapublishing.com
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
We intend to create a diverse anthology and encourage members of the BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQIA+, or other marginalized groups to submit stories. When presented with otherwise equally good submissions, we will prioritize stories by marginalized authors.
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