The Chamber Magazine
Website
https://thechambermagazine.com
From the Editor
Why is it called “The Chamber”? The words “The Chamber” invokes images of a alchemist’s or sorcerer’s chamber deep within the bowels of a castle or of a wizard’s study where ancient manuscripts containing arcane knowledge of the Black Arts lie waiting to be used for nefarious purposes. The perfect place to store, discuss, and develop terrifying philosophies and works of horror and other dark matters. The Chamber publishes “the strange and dark and beautiful” of contemporary short fiction & poetry from around the world and from all genres: mainstream, literary, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, grimdark, suspense/thriller, action-adventure, experimental, gothic, Southern gothic, neo-noir, noir, transgressive, magical realism, macabre, mystery/crime, cyberpunk, and more. Be warned that stories published in The Chamber may contain adult language and situations and may not be suitable for people under the age of 18. The Chamber Magazine is provided free, i.e. at no cost/ no charge, to the reader. The Chamber Magazine is published monthly on the first Friday and contains at a minimum 40,000 words (the equivalent of a small novel) of prose/ fiction plus poetry (not included in the word count) consisting of short stories, flash fiction, and micro fiction. All forms of poetry are welcome and are published. Readers are encouraged to retweet/ re-post any story or poem they enjoy on any and all social media. If any story is quoted elsewhere in print or non-social media, please respect the author’s rights and give credit where credit is due. The publisher would appreciate it, if it is permitted, citing The Chamber Magazine as the source of the work. Interviews with contributing authors are also published, but irregularly. The Chamber hopes to eventually publish non-fiction articles and essays about dark fiction and poetry and its authors. The Chamber endeavors to reach the largest possible audience worldwide, both of English-speakers and of those who speak English as a second language. Hopefully, one day all The Chamber’s contents will be in multiple languages. However, the Chamber is accepting submissions only in English at this time. Because almost everything in The Chamber (at least currently) is in English, issues are timed to reach the maximum number of English-speakers around the globe. Issues go out not only on WordPress, but also go out automatically on LinkedIn (the publisher’s account), Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. Other material is published sporadically. Any work published in The Chamber is simultaneously published on The Chamber’s Facebook page, Twitter account, Tumblr blog, and on the publisher’s LinkedIn account. Please use thechambermagazine@gmail.com for submitting and inquiries. Submissions are accepted 24/7/365. Please allow 2-4 weeks for a response. If nothing is heard by then, feel free to inquire about the status of your submission. Our authors’ and poets’ only pay is publication, exposure, and whatever constructive criticism and compliments readers provide. Hopefully, at some point in the not-too-distant future, The Chamber will be able to pay its readers, at professional rates if at all possible.
Submissions
There is no pay for any submission at this time. All rights remain with the author. There is no submission fee or submission period. The Chamber accepts submissions 24/7/365. Use thechambermagazine@gmail.com to query and to submit. Everything must be submitted by e-mail either in the body of the e-mail or a Word document (.doc or .docx). In the subject line of your e-mail please state whether this is an article or review or poetry of fiction submission, your name, and the work’s title. For example: Article by Phil Slattery “Poe’s Raven: an Analysis”. This information helps filter out a lot of extraneous stuff if I have to search for it. Please state the genre and/or subgenre of your work in your cover letter. I put these in the Title line to make it easier for search engines to find stories and poems. I will decide what genre/subgenre the work best fits, if that info is not provided. However, I would prefer that the author provide it in case his/her opinion differs from mine. The Chamber accepts anything of a dark nature: horror, science-fiction, fantasy, grimdark, mainstream, romance, cyberpunk, steampunk, apocalyptic, and much more. Be professional. The less editing I have to do, the more likely you are to be published. In my experience, this is true of all publishers. I reserve the editorial rights necessary to make minor changes needed for clarity (such as to correct typos and misspellings). I will never make revisions or major edits. It’s much simpler and easier to just reject the work or ask for a rewrite. I will try to respond to submissions as quickly as possible, but please allow a couple of weeks before querying about your article/story. If I like your submission, I will publish it as soon as possible, probably within a month or two. This will depend on the backlog of submissions and other factors. Do not send fan fiction. Keep profanity to a minimum. I would like to reach as large an audience as possible. Gratuitous sex, extreme violence, violence to children, rape and anything else that offends my personal sensibilities or anything that skirts the boundaries of the law will not be published. Always re-check the guidelines before submitting. They may change without prior notice. Interviews are by invitation only. However, if you have conducted a short interview of an author (or artist/illustrator) of horror or dark fiction, I will be happy to consider it for publication. I am looking for articles, reviews, essays, dark poetry, and dark fiction of approximately 7,500 words or less including flash fiction, micro fiction, nano fiction, postcard fiction, sudden fiction, smoke longs, dribbles, drabbles, short shorts, six-word stories, mini-sagas, creepypastas, or of any flavor of short fiction that demonstrates the art of writing dark fiction. If in doubt about what I publish, query. I will also accept: Articles of approximately 7,500 words or less on the art of writing dark fiction (of any length, poetry, screenplays, etc.) or on writing in general. Articles on foreign dark fiction are encouraged. Book and movie reviews, the more recently published or distributed the better, but I will consider reviews of classics works of dark fiction all the way back to Walpole (and before if sufficiently interesting). These must be approximately 7,500 words or less also. Articles on horror in other countries are encouraged. Translations of articles, stories, or poems from French, German, or Spanish are considered, but the original article/story/poem and its translation must not exceed the 7,500 word or less limit. Use standard manuscript format (paragraphs together with first line indented) or flush left with a space between paragraphs. In both cases the right edge should be ragged. Please don’t mix the two in one document. My preference is for flush left, but I like the more traditional standard manuscript format too. This makes it easier for me to copy and paste into the website and easier for readers to grasp. I try not to tinker with format, because it is time-consuming and each author should be able to use their own idiosyncrasies. However, having all stories in an issue formatted the same does appear more professional. Either of these two links provide excellent advice for formatting a short story: “Story Writing Format: How to Format a Short Story + Examples and Templates” at Scribophile or “Proper Manuscript Format / Shunn” at Shunn.net. A short bio of 50 words or less is requested and encouraged. Because The Chamber cannot pay for submissions at this time, the only thing that we can offer in return for your story is exposure and recognition. Please take full advantage of this opportunity to advertise yourself to the world. The bio may include your website, twitter handle, or any other social media identification you like. Pseudonyms are fine, but please state them as the byline and include your actual name and contact info in the top left of the first page of the submission per standard manuscript format. I am taking multiple submissions of up to three works at once. Once you have submitted, please wait until you have heard about that submission before submitting more. I will take simultaneous submissions, but be professional and withdraw your work if it has been accepted elsewhere before being published here. Reprints are okay but tell me when and where the article/story/poem was most recently published. You may include this in your submission or bio.
Upcoming
None forthcoming.
Information
Editors Name Phil Slattery
Print publication? No
Circulation 1,000-1,500 monthly
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL https://thechambermagazine.com/submissions-and-announcements/
Approx. Response Time? 2-4 weeks
How often do you publish? Monthly
Year Founded? 2020
Do you pay? No
Twitter @MagazineChamber
Mailing Address:
We do not accept submissions or correspondence via regular mail.
Email philslattery87410@gmail.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheChamberMagazine
Social links to The Chamber Magazine: