Submission Guidelines
Please read all guidelines before submitting. We receive 300+ submissions per issue.
The Three-lobed Burning Eye is a magazine of horror and speculative fiction published online two or three times per year. We've been online since 1999, and feature six stories per issue. At the end of each year, we publish an annual anthology in trade paperback. Payment to writers is $13, paid on publication, plus one contributor's copy of the annual. Terms are one-time electronic rights, with non-exclusive archival rights, and one-time print rights.
Editor: Andrew S. Fuller
Our Needs
Seeking quality speculative fiction. We tend toward horror, dark fantasy and magical realism, sometimes science fiction, maybe suspense or even western, though the story must contain some speculative element. Call it "slipstream" or "cross-genre" if you want, sure. We want stories that expand the genre(s) by valuing originality in character, narrative and plot. We want only your best fiction, distinct and remarkable tales that the reader cannot forget.
Fiction only.
Word count: 500 – 7,000 words
No serial stories or novel excerpts
No derivative works or fan fiction (e.g. Star Trek, Buffy, D&D).
No erotica, sword & sorcery or space opera.
No non-fiction (reviews, interviews, etc.)
No poetry
(Yes, 3LBE does take its name from a line in an H.P. Lovecraft story, but it is not an anthology of Cthulhu mythos tributes.)
We are not considering artwork. We do not feature advertisements.
How to Submit
We only accept electronic submissions. Please use the online submission form (linked below) — no email submissions. If after 90 days you do not hear from us, feel free to query.
No simultaneous submissions (sent to us and another market at the same time).
No multiple submissions (sent to us before we have responded to one).
We are not usually excited about reprints, but may consider it if you query first.
Formatting: Please turn off and replace smart curly quotation marks with straight quotes in your word processing software before cutting and pasting into our online form. This includes single quote marks and apostophes. Tabs will be preserved, extra paragraph spaces are unnecessary.
Proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are assumed characteristics of a professional manuscript.
If you receive a rejection, please wait two weeks before submitting again. We encourage you to send us your best first.
Submissions not following these guidelines will be deleted unread.
Advice
Read some issues of 3LBE to understand what we publish. Write something as good, or better. Be original, I cannot be more clear than this. We want only your best fiction.
Read and know good fiction of our field before your write it. Be aware of the clichés, the hackneyed plots and language, the cheap thrills. There is nothing inherently wrong with genre mainstays (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, serial killers, faeries, and aliens), but 3LBE is only interested in new explorations of these ideas.
Know what is gratuitous, and do not write so with topics such as sex, violence, gore, racism, sexism. Extremity belongs in a story only if it is relevant to the narrative.
Beware cleverness. Writers such as O Henry, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch were masters of the twist ending. Such structures are difficult to do well, and we are not interested in instant gratification stories of 1,000 words whose brief and empty narrative serves as a ramp to a final trick. We are not interested in glaring devices. We are looking for depth, texture, and imagination.
We don't have our own list of 10 plot clichés, but if you're curious as to what kinds of stories too many people are writing, take a read of these:
Horrible Clichés to Avoid
The Horror of It All - Writing Tips by Tim Wagonner at HWA
The Grand List of Overused SF Clichés
The Standard Deviations of Writing by Roger MacBride Allen at SFWA
Stories and Horror Stories We've Seen Too Often @ Strange Horizons
We expect professional behavior from our contributors. This includes following submission guidelines.
Please feel free to report our response times to Duotrope's Digest or Critter's Black Hole tracker.
Recommended Reading
The Book of Fantasy ed. by Jorge Luis Borges
Borderlands ed. Thomas F. Monteleone
Dangerous Visions ed. by Harlan Ellison
Mammoth Book of Best New Horror ed. by Stephen Jones
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror ed. by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling et al.
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
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