We're delighted to let you know this new call for submissions is open! Please read through the submission details carefully as we’ve changed some of our guidelines and it could result in your submission not being acknowledged if you do not follow the new terms.

Best Served Cold
A New Collection of Chilling Short Stories of Crime & Revenge

From the very beginning, the theme of revenge has been a major part of crime fiction. Whether it’s perceived slights, rifts within families or sibling rivalry, jealous lovers, business competitors or just good old-fashioned retribution, this anthology will gather together the very best – and most unique – tales of revenge. Featuring some of the top names in crime writing, this is one book that will definitely make you think twice about wronging anyone ever again. A chilling new anthology from the cracking team of Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan. This is your chance to be one of the few selected from open submissions to accompany the selection curated by Paul and Marie.

Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan are the award-winning authors and editors of many books. Together they have co-edited anthologies such as The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration, A Carnivàle of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, Exit Wounds, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist), Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never. Their previous edited anthologies published by Flame Tree are Folk Horror and Witchcraft (publishing January 2026). They have also been involved in organizing conventions for twenty years, co-chairing ChillerCon in Scarborough in May 2022. Find out more at their sites shadow-writer.co.uk and marieoregan.net.

Submit to: anthologies@flametreepublishing.com

Terms:

• Multiple submissions are fine but must be in separate emails.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology.
• Stories using AI-generated text will not be accepted.
• Please only submit unpublished/original/new stories for consideration. Reprints will not be accepted for consideration.
  
• For accepted stories we pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence per word.
• We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the submission deadline.
• Payment for the chosen stories will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website flametreepublishing.com for details), although some may be paid earlier than that.
• Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel.

Important Notice about Submissions and Guidelines

We're always looking for better ways of working so we've tweaked our submission process to allow us to read more stories, and spend more time assessing the balance of our books.

• Submissions must use the dedicated email address.
• The subject line of the email must be the story title.
• The body of the email should state which anthology your story is being submitted to.
• The file with the story must be attached to the email (.docx, .doc or .rtf format).
• The name of the file must match the name in the subject line.
• If submitting more than one story, please submit one story per email.

Other useful tips for a more successful submission:

• The file name of the submission must be the story name only.
• Please just use spaces between words in the title (not _ or - ).
• If the story name starts with A or The, please use it at the beginning of the file name.
• Story length is most likely to be successful at 2000 – 4000 words, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.
• If submitting a story that has recently been submitted to us for consideration to another anthology, please state this in the submission email.
• Deadline for submissions is 27th July 2025.

Thank you, and good luck!