Great Places To Be A Writer - Horror And Dark Fantasy - The Dark Magazine

vegascomic (66)in #writing • 7 years ago (edited)

I hope this next statement doesn't come across like it might sound, but: I've seen a lot of twisted and demented writing here on Steemit. Just perfect for getting published on a very excellent horror and dark fantasy publication called The Dark Magazine! The Dark specializes in the dark side of fiction and to be honest, they smack it out of the park with extreme prejudice. One visit to their well-crafted website and it becomes painfully obvious that these folks really know their craft, as well as their target audience.

Are You Demented Enough To Be In The Dark?

I should probably disclose the truth, but I might be a tad biased when reviewing The Dark Magazine. I mean, I have recently nominated them "Most Likely To Create My Headstone" someday. A prestigious award for sure :)

Seroiusly though, I'm actually considering a subscription to their magazine, which is only $1.99 per month via Amazon Kindle. You can also get the monthly magazine by supporting them via their Patreon site for the same price. (Since I mentioned Patreon, look forward to an extensive dust up about them in a coming article.)

A very awesome aspect to what The Dark Magazine produces is their dedication to having their published works being transcribed to podcast form. I took the time to listen to Too Many Ghosts, written by Steve Rasnic Tem. The audio podcast is made available to sample directly from their website. I found the production quality to be top shelf with excellent back music and professional narration.

Going the extra mile by providing quality podcast versions of an author's work really shows that The Dark values their published writers and should encourage anyone that has a flair for terror writing to submit their short stories to them regularly. I have a couple old pieces myself that I'm trying to find so I can throw my hat into their particularly demented ring. Getting published there would be awesome, and I like the idea of having something I've written turned into audio format as well.

The Dark Magazine also makes their published stories immediately available to read right from their website. I think their subscription strategy is based more in a "support their efforts" type of thing, which I like.

Image Source

Chilling Artwork Makes The Dark Great

Image #2 above is one example of the great visuals found on The Dark Magazine's website. The following are some excellent featured artwork they've used in the past. It may very well be the best aspect of their site and they accept submissions if you happen to be a graphical artist. (See the submission guidelines for artwork below.)

Myself, I get some really good inspiration from these works and can visualize how I could incorporate some of my own styles into something The Dark likes to publish. The first image to left, for instance, could be created from a combination of three layers being rendered differently in an oil paint style and including a noir 3D style for the character. But that's just me thinking out loud.

Image Sources

Despite their per word compensation being lower than some magazines, The Dark pays .03 cents per word, so a 2000 word piece would net you $60. I think the exposure a horror writer would get from being included in their publication would be worth it, especially if they like what you produce and continue commisioning your work.

I dig the magazine big time, so for me, it would be worth the effort to put something excellent together and start up a dialogue with them. It may pay off big time, or possibly be a short story you could market elsewhere. If it's good, you stand a fair shot at reaching the same $60 point right here on Steemit though.