Submission Guidelines

Three-Lobed Burning Eye (3LBE) is a speculative fiction digital magazine published online and ebook (thrice per year) and print anthology (every other year). Each issue features four original stories (six per issue starting 2025), some with audio readings. 3LBE was founded by Editor Andrew S. Fuller in 1999.

We recommend reading an issue or two of the magazine before submitting to have an idea of the fiction we publish.

We are currently CLOSED to submissions. Our submission windows are open three times during the year: January 1–15, May 1–15, September 1–15. We open and close at 12:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.

Fiction Guidelines (updated Nov 19, 2024)

Three-Lobed Burning Eye is seeking original, unpublished speculative fiction: including horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction. Payment is $.08 per word for short stories or (1,500–7,499 words) or flash fiction (500–1,499 words); plus one copy of the print anthology.

We welcome stories published in another language then translated into English for the first time. If the story you are submitting is a translation, please include the original author’s name and email on the submission.

We purchase first world electronic rights, with non-exclusive archival rights, optional first audio rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights.

You are limited to one submission per submission period. We will reject any submission that does not follow the guidelines.

What We’re Looking For

We publish stories across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof. We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot. We want to see something new and different.

We believe in diverse characters and points of view; and encourage authors of every race, culture, creed, gender, orientation, expression, status, age, and ability. We encourage writers who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ to share their voices.

What We’re NOT Looking For

Please do not send simultaneous or multiple submissions. We do not consider reprints.

We will not consider any submission written, developed, or assisted by artificial intelligence “AI” writing tools or machine software or large language models (such as ChatGPT or Sudowrite’s Story Engine). Submitting such work may result in being banned from submitting in the future.

The magazine focus is on short fiction, and does not include poetry or non-fiction. We do not consider media tie-in fiction or fan fiction.

We are not interested in “extreme horror,” as such, please avoid unnecessary descriptions of violence or gore. We do not publish erotica per se, but we don’t mind some hotness in context of the story.

While the magazine title echoes a line from an H. P. Lovecraft story, we are not interested in Cthulhu sequels or pastiches. We do enjoy cosmic horror, weird tales, and uncanny fiction, though we prefer that you create an original setting and characters.

For legal reasons, writers must be at least 18 years old.

How to Submit

1) New! Please submit your story via Moksha submission system.

2) Brief cover letters are appreciated, including no more than a few publishing credits and any experience relevant to the story. Please refrain from summarizing your story in the cover letter.

3) Format your submission in Shunn Modern Manuscript Format and attach in .rtf, .doc, or .docx formats. Include your name and email address in the upper left corner of your manuscript, along with your pronouns (optional). We will only ask for your legal name and mailing address if your story is chosen for publication.

4) We receive nearly a thousand submissions per reading period, and accept 18 stories per year. Please do not respond to rejections, even to say thank you. We regret that we are unable to offer feedback. We do not consider unsolicited rewrites of stories we have rejected.

5) If after 60 days you have not heard from us, feel free to query. We will respond soon.

6) If you receive an acceptance, please wait to make any revisions until further correspondence.

Issues of the magazine include audio readings. If your story is accepted, you will have the option to record your story, have a colleague do so, or one of our narrators. You may also want to retain first audio rights for another venue.

Payment is made upon publication via PayPal, we pay transaction fees. (For areas where this method is not available, we will find an alternative.)

If we publish your story, please wait three issues before submitting again. If your story is later reprinted in another publication, we appreciate an acknowledgment as first-printed.

We look forward to reading your story!

Advice

Read a few issues to see what we publish (all are available online for free) or purchase an issue to support us. Write something better. Explore, challenge, be original. Read widely in all genres. Beware clichés, hackneyed plots, thin characters, and wish fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with tropes and trends, but we are interested in new explorations of ideas. Strive for depth, texture, and imagination.

Please feel free to report our submission response times to: Duotrope’s Digest or The Submission Grinder.

Recommended Reading

American Fantastic Tales ed. Peter Straub
The Book of Fantasy ed. Jorge Luis Borges
Dangerous Visions ed. Harlan Ellison
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories ed. Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror ed. Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling et al.
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color ed. Nisi Shawl
Year’s Best Weird Fiction, vols. I–V ed. Michael Kelly et al.
The Best Horror of the Year, vols. 1–16 ed. Ellen Datlow
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora ed. Sheree R. Thomas
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy ed. Ellen Datlow
The Dark Descent: The Evolution of Horror ed. David G. Hartwell

Writers whose work we enjoy: Robert Aickman, J. G. Ballard, Clive Barker, Algernon Blackwood, Ray Bradbury, Octavia E. Butler, Italo Calvino, Ted Chiang, Michael Cisco, Julio Cortázar, John Crowley, Tananarive Due, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, Shirley Jackson, M. R. James, Stephen Graham Jones, Franz Kafka, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kathe Koja, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kelly Link, Arthur Machen, Richard Matheson, Flannery O’Connor, Nnedi Okorafor, Lucius Shepherd, John Shirley, Isaac Bashevis Singer, James Tiptree Jr., Jeff VanderMeer, Gene Wolfe … to name a few.