We're delighted to let you know this new call for submissions is open! Please read through the submission details carefully before sending us your stories.

Christmas Ghosts Short Stories

The time of cheer and goodwill to all… Or is it? For many, Christmas falls in the bleak midwinter, in the long dark hours where cold icy fingers ever encroach upon the fire valiantly struggling in the hearth. Time-honoured literary tradition leaves us with bountiful stories of gothic chills and festive fear, tales of the dark, moody, ghastly and ghostly.

This new collection will focus on the last, most hair-raising of these – the seasonal spectre. Your story will shiver with eerie apprehension as we encounter all manner of yuletide ghosts – malevolent demons, terrifying wraiths or spirits of fateful Christmases past perhaps, seeking eternal rest. 

Submissions to: ghosts@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.
• For accepted stories we pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints.
• 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.
• Let us know in your submission email whether your story would be a reprint or is currently unpublished.

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 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 28th September 2025.
  

The Flame Tree Beyond and Within, Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in the Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, highly collectable and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Thank you, and good luck!