Ossuary No. 13 is a print-only horror zine mailed out quarterly (spring/summer/fall/winter).
Editor: Walt Shuler
The genre is big enough to hold multitudes, from the visceral squelch of the knife blade to the quiet of the grave. We’re not looking for stories that deliver shock for shock’s sake or that give us a body count with nothing real at stake. Give us stories with teeth, with heartache, and that find the beauty within the grotesque.
Subscribe to OSS13
Want to get fresh new horror delivered to your mailbox 4x a year? You gotta subscribe.
What’s It Cost?
Subs are $24 per year ($6 per issue). That includes the physical zine, postage, and some fun extras.
I Want In!
Great! All you gotta do is sign up through Ko-Fi. Click the link below (note: the link will take you to Blackspire’s Ko-Fi).
Submission Guidelines
We publish four times per year (spring, summer, winter, and fall).
What We’re Looking For
We’re a “big tent” zine, and there’s room for a little bit of everything. We’re as likely to accept a folk-horror piece as we are a slasher-style short story. Each issue is themed, and we prefer that all submissions for that piece relate to the theme in some way, but we are willing to consider exceptional submissions that break the mold.
The theme for our fall issue is: Undeath (whatever that means to you).
We cap submissions at 2,000 words and accept short stories and flash fiction of 2,000 words or less. In some cases, we’ll consider publishing a story longer than 2,000 words. If you have something you feel fits but is over the word count, query us anyway.
What We’re NOT Looking For
We are NOT seeking any stories that are anti-LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, women, immigrants, etc. ICE fanfic? Fuck all the way off. MAGA bootlicking? Nope. Fascist propaganda? Go to hell. Tales of masculine superiority from the manosphere? Hell no.
To clarify, a story can contain elements of the above and still be accepted. For instance, a story set in Nazi Germany where a demon is accidentally summoned, kills the Nazis that summoned it, and drags their souls into the Pit? We’re all over that.
We’re also NOT looking for stories, poems, or art created in whole or in part with AI. We want 100% human-created works only.
Note: We reserve the right to reject any submission.
What Rights Do We Buy?
We buy First Worldwide Serial Rights only.
What does that mean?
- First Worldwide Serial Rights: This grants us the right to be the first to publish your work in print and send it to our subscribers.
Other things to know
- We do not maintain an online archive of your work.
- We do not publish your work online.
- English Only: We do not buy any non-English-language rights and publish only in English.
- Reprint Acknowledgement: If you sell your work as a reprint, we request that you include a credit line, similar to, “This work first appeared in Ossuary No. 13”.
How long is my work exclusive with Ossuary No. 13?
We only require exclusivity until the issue containing your work is published. After that, the rights revert to you, and you’re free to submit it elsewhere as a reprint. We can’t give you a firm date range because the length of the exclusivity period depends on when you submit your work and when the next issue is due.
Do you accept simultaneous submissions?
Yes. However, please note this in your query. If we choose to accept your submission, you must notify the other publication(s) that your work has been published elsewhere.
Are submissions paid?
Yes. Currently, we pay $5 per story/poem/piece of art (payment is through CashApp or Venmo). If circulation grows, we intend to raise those rates. Note: We do not charge a reading fee. All money flows to the writer.
How Do I Query You?
Email ossuary13 @ gmail dot com with the following:
- Put “query” in your subject line
- Give a brief description of the work you want to submit
- If you’re submitting a short story or flash fiction, paste the entire story into the body of the email below the description
- If you’re querying about art, include a description of your idea if the art is unfinished. If you’re querying about a completed piece, please include a digital image of the work (watermarking it is fine).
- We reply as quickly as possible in the order submissions are received. If you submitted/queried and have not received a reply within 45 days, nudge us at the above email address with “nudge” in the subject line.