How the Sausage is Made!
What We Want:
We want solid entertaining writing. That has to be clearly stated because we are open to gore, extreme horror, splatterpunk, and horror with sexual elements to it.
Sounds great?
Like anything too good to be true, there is a catch. We have some hard “Nos.” Before you go off about the freedom of expression, remember, this is a web ‘zine, not a government. We donate our time to it and if we’re not getting joy from reading your story we’re not going to publish it.
This website runs on our love of horror. We offer a token payment of $5 USD to support your drug habit, paid upon publication. However, you keep your rights –we don't want them.
Instant Rejection:
NO sex with children, NO sexualization of children, and NO child rape. If you’re writing a story about a child predator who gets what’s coming to him –great. But we don’t want to read about that predator coming on his victims.
We won’t publish anything supporting a racist, transphobic, or homophobic agenda, so don’t try it.
Don't be Too Naughty:
High-quality gory smut is fine. Like gore, sex has to serve a purpose. If you want to write a piece about a cowboy who discovers one of the prostitutes at the local brothel has a vagina that opens to another dimension filled with blood clot monsters and he can fit his entire body into it… Sure, that’s great. If you want to write a story about a couple of nymphomaniacs that explode killing people with their bone shrapnel every time they have sex, that’s fine too. We don’t publish erotica, we publish horror. A story that’s mostly sex with a horror twist at the end –sorry, M. Night, we didn’t read to the end.
We want splatterpunk, extreme horror, and
The same principle applies to science fiction/fantasy. We’ll read your sci-fi/fantasy story, but it better be horror first and a sci-fi/fantasy story second. Berserk: The Golden Age ARC III, The Advent is a perfect example of fantasy… that becomes horror.
So yes, sex and sensuality are fine, but we publish extreme-horror. We won’t publish a story that’s 90 percent lesbian vampires having explicit sex and 10 percent them ripping their victims to pieces. Go 50/50 on that and you might have our attention.
For the love of Jack Ketchum, no purple prose.
Be Original:
All work must be 100 percent original.
No stories written by AI. We take great pride in having purely human generated content on this page. Granted, you might fool us, but we will never publish you again —after, we feed you alive to a collective of vultures.
You get a token payment, not by the word –so save your words and make each one count. RUN FOR THAT MONEY!
Be wary of tropes. If you go down the path of vampires, zombies, werewolves, or serial killers, be original. If you think it’s super original, have your mom read it first and have her tell you it’s original. And if you shared your writing with your mom and it gets published by us, you’re a sicko.
Things You Must Do:
Know we might not read your entire story. We read as long as it’s interesting, error-free(ish), and fits this publication. If we didn’t get to the end it’s not getting published.
Establish your story is a horror story and that it’s got heart –and blood and guts. Using atmosphere is okay, but telling us about spooky settings isn’t what we want. Drive your story with pulp action. Descriptions of creaking floorboards or a tree filled with crows starring down the main character are typical dry horror. Mainstream publications are interested in that stuff… We’re here for the weird messy fun stuff.
Things have to happen. If we’re 500 words into your story and it’s just descriptions of gore or worse backstory and nothing has happened, we probably stopped reading it 100 words ago. Describe your character through their actions.
Your story must have characters. The people in your story aren’t there just to be fisted to death by a serial killer with forearms like Popeye. We need to connect with either your victims or your killer/s.
If we were looking for “classy” writing, we’d go work for The New Yorker. We want trashy, fun, pulp horror.
Make us gag in revolt, or laugh at slipping in guts, or cry at inhumanity…
Great writing evokes feelings.
Be a great writer.
The DIED Policy:
Since the Trump Reich is banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace, we at Carnage House are retaliating. We call it our DIED policy: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Defiance. For members of the BIPOC, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ communities, we will be opening for submissions 2 weeks early.
Political Statements in Horror Literature:
"SplatterPUNK" contains the word "Punk." Punk has an ethic. Punk is antifascist, anti-conservative, and anti-establishment. We are for free speech, pro-choice, freedom of expression, the freedom to read, the freedom to be weird, and the expression of political ideas in art.
We're not saying every story we accept has to focus on fighting oppression. Writing sermons is as boring as reading them. However, in America, for too long, the idea of art and politics has been taboo. This is because of the scum-fuck corporations. You can only sell to everyone if your product is milquetoast, has no opinions, and doesn't alienate the evangelicals, incels, Proud Boys, conservatives, the alt-right (now rebranded as "the right,") or the 1/3rd of Americans who watch Fox News.
To those people, we'd like to straighten our tie, extend a middle finger, and say, "Fuck off."
We'd like to tell you: We're crazy left. We're gonna publish your non-political horror or your left-leaning horror. You know, put the "PUNK" in "SplatterPUNK." If we can work in a "Fuck you, Donald Trump," we will.
We hope this encourages other genre writers and publishers to follow. The place for apolitical art is in the safe, clean confines of the Amazon/Disney/Temu Store.
We don't do "safe."
We don't do "clean."
...and fuck corporations.
The "No Drama" Policy:
At Carnage House, we have a "No Drama" policy. If you say something trans/homophobic or bigoted or if you start beef, we have the option to pull your story. Who decides what's drama? We do. We're sick of seeing he said, she said bullshit on social media.
You can keep the pay, but you're not dragging us down with you if you're an ass.
This type of behavior is why we can't have nice things.
Nuts and Bolts Stuff:
Miscellaneous:
Word Count:
Pay:
Format:
Cover Letter:
Finally, Actually Sending the Damned Thing:
Now that you know how the sausage is made, here are all the links and dates you'll need to succeed:
Issue #11 DIED submissions open on March 18th, 2026.
Issue #11 general submissions open on April 2nd, 2026.
Issue #11 submissions close on May 1st, 2026.
CLICK HERE TO BEGIN THE SUBMISSION PROCESS.
Email is for bugs: