Tweet the Meat News: Twitter Literary Zines

There are several venues for micro fiction and prose on Twitter, and if you've somehow found yourself here, you may be interested in some of the others. I recommend reading and following every single one of these. Some of these are paying markets, some are not. 

I'm only listing ones that accept other people's work.

Nanoism "Thoughtful" fiction

Outshine optimistic, near-future prose

Picfic Experimental

Thaumatrope Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror

Escarp Poetry and Prose

And of course there's Tweet the Meat, Twitter's premier paying Horrorzine. 

I also highly recommend Very Short Story but these are all written by one person.

If anyone knows of any others, feel free to post in comments and I'll add them to the list. 

Tweet the Meat News: Submission stats; about themes

The first submission period was a rousing success. We have finished the first round of reading, and we will soon start sending out letters.

Here are some statistics:

Submissions: 111

Outright rejections because the sub was too long: 23

Outright rejections because the sub was WAY too long: 2

Number of people who wrote to express outrage at the sub auto-reply: 2

Number of stories involving decapitated heads: 14 (That's not a bad thing, mind you.)

Number of dead babies: 6

Number of vampire-themed stories: 8

Number of stories submitted in TXT SPK: 0 (Thank you!)

The first user-submitted story will appear on Friday, May 1st.

Themes

Starting next submission period, we are introducing themes. Each week we may have a theme from which we will accept the majority of the stories. You do not have to follow the theme if you feel you have a great submission. From time to time we may also have a weekend-only 'secret theme.' Only people who submitted the week before will learn what the secret theme is.

Theme for 5/2: Wet

As always, if you have any questions, ask. Tweetthemeat (at) gmail.com

Thank you for your support

Tweet the Meat News. Are your stories credited?

Someone expressed concern that the stories on Tweet the Meat are not properly being credited. All the tweets will be credited to the author if they wish. If the authors wish to remain anonymous, that's fine as well.

Every Meat Tweet that has appeared on Tweet the Meat so far, including all from the "Where" theme that appeared Monday through Friday has been written by an anonymous Tweet the Meat editor. Our official opening is May 1st, and from that point on, all Meat Tweets will be paid submissions.

Submissions are open at the moment. We have received several submissions so far, and we are looking forward to seeing more.

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Submission Guidelines

Tweet the Meat is a Twitter-only, horror/weird/speculative market that opened in May, 2009.

No serials. No unfinished stories. You must scare us in 140 characters or less. Are you up to the challenge?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

No fan fiction or any other trademarked characters.
No reprints.
Nothing that would be illegal in any way.
Dear Lord, nothing in SMS or text-speak.
All stories must be complete. (No Serials.)
Other than that, the world is your oyster... Your 140 character oyster.

Our submission periods are on Saturdays and Sundays. If your clock says it's Saturday or Sunday, you may submit. If it says it's Monday, Friday or any other day, don't submit.

Most weeks, we are asking for a specific theme. To learn what the next theme will be, read the Twitter Feed or check back after Thursday and click here.

Please, no simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are allowed and encouraged up to five at a time. Please put all of your submissions in a single email, and please only send us one email a weekend.

We aim to have a response time of <1 week. Feel free to query if you haven't heard from us after 14 days.

Please submit in the body of an email to tweetthemeat (at) gmail(dot)com. Put "Submission" in the title. Include your name and a short bio. Your bio will appear in this blog with a link to your tweet.

Due to the length of the Twitter stories, no title is necessary. Bylines are given in a secondary tweet.

We ask for non-exclusive, first digital rights. In addition, we request non-exclusive, print anthology rights (This is new as of 9/18/09). Original author retains all copyrights. All we ask is it first appears on Tweet the Meat, and immediately thereafter it's yours to do with as you please.

We pay a flat rate of $1.00 a tweet. We pay via Paypal only, so if you don't have a Paypal account, we can donate your payment to the paypal-accepting charity of your choice. We pay on acceptance.

We publish one Meat Tweet a day at approximately 6 p.m. Pacific Time. In the future, we hope to increase both the frequency and pay rate.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at tweetthemeat (at) gmail(dot)com.

This form was last updated on 9-18-09