FrightFiction.com is currently seeking submissions for the first issue of a webzine dedicated to resurrecting the ghost story as a literary form. If you are interested in submitting a ghost story of up to 2000 words, please read the guidelines below.

Submitting fiction

M.R.James, the unchallenged master of the English ghost story, handily laid down some ground rules for writing them ("Some Remarks on Ghost Stories", 1929) which we will unashamedly steal.

1. The pretense of truth
A good ghost story should believable, but it should also be a work of fiction. We don’t want “true ghost” experiences; we’re interested in beautifully crafted fiction.

2. A pleasing terror
Scare us! We crave the tingle down the spine and the urge to look over our shoulders.

3. No gratuitous bloodshed or sex
We’re not interested in vampires or werewolves and we’d rather be chilled than disgusted. We make a distinction between ghost stories and horror stories.

4. No "explanation of the machinery"
We don’t want rational explanations or endings of the “it-was-all-a-dream” variety. We also don’t want theories on the nature of the supernatural.

5. Setting: "those of the writer's (and reader's) own day"
We want to bring the ghost story up to date, so we’d love to see stories with modern day settings. However, this isn’t a strict rule. You can set your story in a council house, a space ship, a Renaissance palace or a stone circle – we’re not that fussy, as long as it creeps us out.

Submitting non-fiction

We also welcome submissions of articles on any aspect of the history of ghost literature, or reviews of supernatural literature past and present. If you would like to submit an article or review, please email first with a synopsis, or the name of the work you want to review, before submitting.

Rights and payment

FrightFiction.com does not currently offer any payment for work used. We'd love to, but we're just starting up and don't have the cash! Work submitted must be previously unpublished. By submitting your work to us, you are agreeing to the publication of it in the FrightFiction webzine, which will remain downloadable from the site indefinately. If you want to publish the story somewhere else at a later date, that's fine by us, but we ask that you don't republish until two months after the issue in which your story appeared has been released.

Submission technicalities

• The word limit for submissions is 2000 for stories and articles, and 1000 for reviews.
• We prefer submissions as Microsoft Word files, double line spaced, and in a standard font such as Courier or Times New Roman, size 12. If you can’t provide a Word file, please send a basic text file, or paste the story into the body of your email. Make sure the file contains your name and contact details.
• Please name file attachments with the name of the story followed by your name.
• Please send your submission to editor@frightfiction.com