Submissions

Here at The NoSleep Podcast, we love nothing more than hearing from up-and-coming or seasoned horror writers who’d like to work with us. We want you to frighten us and mess with our heads, so we in turn can terrify our listeners. As such, we’ve prepared a handy list of submissions guidelines to get your relationship with our show started. We welcome and encourage a broad, diverse range of submissions from all across the horror genre, and can’t wait to read the spine-tingling tales you send us.

Submissions are handled by our team of editors, who, upon your story being selected, will ensure your story is primed for audio adaptation.

WE PAY FOR STORIES

Flash fiction (up to 1199 words): $60

Regular stories (1200+ words): $125

Full length productions which will run more than 90 mins (approx 15,000+ words): $175

Selected stories receive payment within a few days of when the episode airs, along with a link to the episode to share with close family and friends. If there are any delays in payment, you will be notified. All payments are made in US dollars and the author has a choice of payment via PayPal or Amazon gift cards. You will be asked your payment preference upon acceptance. If you are missing a payment, please contact our showrunner, David Cummings, at david@thenosleeppodcast.com. If you have received your payment but are missing the link to the episode, please check your spam folder. Our emails sometimes get lost there. If it’s not there, please contact David for the link.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Email submissions to: submissions@thenosleeppodcast.com

Please note that this email is for story submissions only. While we are not currently accepting open auditions for voice acting, art, or other contributions to the show, enquiries can be sent to: enquiries@thenosleeppodcast.com.

In the body of your email please include:

  • Story title
  • Exact word count of the story
  • Your submission attached as a .doc or similar universally editable file type, such as .rtf. Please do not paste the story in the body of the email.
  • Any content warnings that may apply to your story (child harm/death, animal abuse, sexual misconduct, etc.). Our editors come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and always appreciate a heads-up if a story might hit a little too close to home.

If you’re submitting a story for a holiday special (Christmas, Halloween, etc.) please say so in the subject line of the email. That way we can find it easier when it comes time to schedule holiday content. For flash fiction (under 800 words is preferable, but they can go up to 1199 words) or radio-style scripts, please put Flashfic or Script, respectively, in the subject line, so we can locate them when it’s time to put together our Suddenly Shocking and Old Time Radio bonus episodes.

THE DOCUMENT ITSELF SHOULD

    • Be named “Title of Story_Author Name”
    • Not be a PDF, as we would not be able to edit the file for audio adaptation. Similarly, we cannot accept .pages files, as our editors work on Windows PCs and are unable to open those attachments.
    • Not be an online link to the story in lieu of an attachment. This includes Google Drive links. We would not ask our editors to open unknown links and risk their computers’ health.
    • Be your own work. We can’t adapt stories without the permission of the author. Likewise, WE DO NOT ACCEPT AI-GENERATED STORIES. You will be asked to confirm this upon the story’s acceptance. If we suspect generative AI was used during any portion of the writing, we will run it through AI detection software.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

  • All things horror. We are a horror anthology podcast, so we exclusively want horror. Any type. All types. If it’s within the realm of the macabre, scary, or unnerving, we want it.
  • Stories with great audio cues. Our production relies heavily on good suspense complimented with audio cues.
  • Short stories. For standard episodes, we’re looking at anything from microfic up to stories of about 8,000 words, though the sweet spot is around the 2,000 to 2,500 word range. Anything over 8,000 words is typically reserved for bonus episodes or finales, which are less frequent and therefore require stricter acceptance standards.
  • Audio scripts. We are looking for scripts written expressly for audio, not plays or movies, unless the more visual scenes would make sense solely with sound. Scripts with multiple characters are preferable. If you’re new to scriptwriting and you’d like an example of how to structure and format an audio-only script, you can download an example.

WE DO NOT WANT: Graphic gore (snuff, torture porn, etc.) or graphic sexual violence. Implied instances will usually be okay, but as with any good horror, context and intention matter.

GENERAL SUBMISSION TIPS

  • We have a strong preference for stories written in first person perspective. If third person perspective is necessary to tell the story in the most effective way possible, that’s fine, so long as the piece lends itself well to audio. If a story can be adapted into first person, we recommend it.
  • If your story includes audio cues of recognizable music/film/TV, the cues should be short, in the background, and the usage of these cues should be no more than 1-2 per story. Any story that heavily relies on audio outside of the public domain will unfortunately have to be rejected, due to copyright issues.
  • Feel free to introduce yourself and say hello, but things like cover letters or CV’s aren’t required.
  • Please be considerate of other authors waiting for a response. Choose one or two of your best works and submit those via an attachment in a single email. Please don’t send link-dumps, or refer us to an entire anthology of your work. Similarly, please don’t send rapid-fire submissions. Ideally wait a few weeks between submissions. This is a polite request and not a rule, however. If you have a burning desire to send another story over in the meantime, go for it.
  • Stories can appear elsewhere, so please let us know if they have. Previously published or performed stories are fine, as long as you hold the rights to grant usage to The NoSleep Podcast. However, stories which have not already previously appeared in audio form will have priority.
  • Please do not re-submit stories that have already been rejected. If we think a story could work with certain changes or rewrites, we’ll reach out to you and let you know. Likewise, please do not re-submit a story that has yet to receive a response from us, as this only creates confusion for the multiple editors assessing the inbox. If you have received an auto-response to your email, we have received your submission and it has been added to the assessment queue.
  • As with submitting to any publication, please send in the most polished draft of your story. Our editors will fix any small typos or grammatical errors during the audio adaptation process, so there’s no need to send in a revised version if you catch some mistakes. If you have made significant changes to the story and would like to submit the updated version, please make that clear in the subject line of your email, so we read the correct copy.
  • Finally, queries and questions regarding pending submissions should be sent via email to the submissions address. Any enquiries sent to our admin address will be forwarded to submissions.

RESPONSE TIMES

Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, we unfortunately have long wait times for responses, which we are trying to mitigate. We appreciate your patience in this matter. You will hear back from us no matter what, whether the story is accepted or rejected. While stories do occasionally get overlooked, we ask that you please do not query about your submission before six months have passed. Chances are, it’s just waiting for us in the queue.

In the meantime, you are welcome to simultaneously submit your work to other publishers, both audio and print. We just ask that if your story has been accepted by another horror podcast that you let us know, as that will remove the piece from consideration for The NoSleep Podcast. The horror podcast community is quite closeknit, and many shows share a listener base. If your story is picked up by one of the many other incredible horror productions out there, there’s a good possibility many of our listeners will have already heard it before it ever airs on NoSleep. Acceptances from print publishers are fine, so long as they do not also require the audio right to the story. Likewise, a story’s inclusion in an audiobook is not an issue, so long as the author still maintains audio rights.

When a story is chosen to appear on the show, you will receive an acceptance email from us confirming the story’s selection and requesting your payment and crediting (you are welcome to use your legal name or a pseudonym of your choosing) preferences. Our production queue can get quite long, so it may be some time before your story airs after it is selected. If you do not hear from us during that period, that does not mean the story has been removed from the queue. On the rare occasions a story is pulled after its acceptance, we always inform the author.

RIGHTS & LEGAL

Authors retain full rights to any story or script performed on The NoSleep Podcast. Upon acceptance, we ask for a period of audio exclusivity, starting from confirmation of selection and then up to three months after the story airs on the show. Stories may be published in text form by the author at any time.

Creative Reason Media does not retain the rights to publish or distribute your story outside of the audio performance without written permission from the author.

Audio production of your story remains the property of Creative Reason Media and may not be altered, sold or distributed outside of The NoSleep Podcast without prior written permission.