Little Key Press
Publishing since 2019
About
Little Key Press publishes anthologies featuring established and emerging authors and the work of Elle Mitchell.Calls for future anthologies will go up in late summer/early fall, with the book to be published the following spring or summer. Deadlines and submission guidelines will be included in the call.
Claw Machine: The Anthology
When you hear of claw machines, what do you picture?In this anthology, claw machines aren’t just beacons for lost dollars and frustration, packed with cheap toys that rarely make it home with us. The claw machine is a game, a curse, a tool, even a drug-induced metaphor. It has omens of death, portals to other dimensions, plushies that aren't what they seem, eggs filled with wishful thinking, society's view on perfection, and so much more.Claw Machine: The Anthology is a collection of stories, with a special introduction, written by 18 established and emerging authors. Their unique speculative stories and dark fiction will grab and pull you in. Unlike the arcade game, you'll definitely walk away with something after reading these stories.
Stories by Angela Yuriko Smith, Angelique O'Rourke, Beth Cook, Curtis C. Chen, Elle Mitchell, Erik Grove, J.B. Kish, Katherine Quevedo, Laura Burge, Marianne Xenos, Mark Teppo, Pia Jee-Hae Baur, Sarah Walker, Simone Cooper, Summer Olsson, Valerie Geary, Wes Mitchell, with an introduction by Will Errickson. | Edited by Elle Mitchell.MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Submission call
2026 Anthology Theme:
CLOCKSSubmission period:
September 1st–November 3rdGenre
dark fiction, speculative fiction, near sci-fi, strange, wondrous, surprise me
What's up with that weird clockmaker down the street?
Has the clock been telling you secrets?
Is someone trapped in a clock?
Has the killer been the clock all along?I don't know, but you do.And I can't wait to read about it!
Information
—Word count: 3-5k
NOTE: It's fairly firm, but if you feel strongly that something fits, submit it. What's the worst that can happen? I say no?—I'm looking for 12 stories + 2 on a bubble as stretch goals (you'll know where you sit in this space)—You may submit up to two stories per author. They must be submitted in separate emails.
NOTE: No author will have two stories in the anthology.—The payment for each story is $40 plus a paperback contributor copy.NOTE: Like the previous Little Key Press anthology, Claw Machine: The Anthology, Clocks: The Anthology will be Kickstarter funded. Should we reach certain the first stretch goal, we will add two more stories by two more authors. The second stretch goal allows us to pay every author more.
The past Kickstarter for reference.—For transparency's sake, here is how I will be choosing the stories.
What I want + What I don't
Vibe check
—Anthologies will always be dark and speculative fiction. But dark does not mean only murder or mystery. Little darknesses hit our every day life, and those fit. That means literary fiction may find a home here along side something labeled paranormal.
—The stories can be unsettling or melancholy or beautiful or weird or filled with saudades.
—Oh, how I love an under repped character with complexity. Do your homework, your research, and search your soul before you send me your story. I will never say yes to tokens or set dressings.
—No high fantasy/medieval fantasy or sci fi that has gone fully blee-blorp.
—Nothing that needs a dictionary to enjoy (that doesn't mean I don't love a good dramatic word we need to lookup, just don't beat me over the head with it).
—No erotica or extreme horror.
—Also just hard pass to dubious consent, rape, sexual assault, violence towards women, bully romance, exploitation of children, visceral animal deaths or murders, or behaviors such as (but not limited to) racism, homophobia, ableism, and transphobia—unless called out. *Remember that fiction can, and should be, used to challenge the status quo.
—I like unlikable characters, but they need to make sense and draw me in with something other than disgust. I do not hate read.
—Don't give me manic pixie dream girls, give me pixie dreams girls who are manic. Make them three-dimensional.
—Western story structure is not the only one. You will grab my attention if you bring me something that breaks the mold.
—Dialects unfamiliar to the average American, hundreds of em-dashes, no quotes for the entire story... none of that scares me. I'm here for unique style IF it makes sense, IF it has a purpose.
—Fuck me up, break my heart, piss me off, make me laugh, give me an emotion, and I'm more likely to give it a second read. Or maybe reach out for a future project, if I love it enough but don't have the space.
—I don't love that I have to say it, but absolutely no AI stories. Human brain or bust.
Pet peeves
These are not hard and fast rules across the board. But they hold true more often than not.
NOTE: Having these things in your story does not mean I won't choose it. Don't shred your story because of my list. But if you see something you think you might be able to enhance and want to, do it before you hit send on that email.—Two sentences in one without a comma.
—An aversion to the Oxford comma.
—Writing stories in a tense or from a POV that feels odd to "fit the genre".
—Not using past participle when discussing the past in a story written in past tense.
—Spaces around em-dashes.
—Characters constantly interrupting each other for pages on end.
—Dialogue that sounds like it's from an AI program because it's so grammatically correct it's become devoid of a normal speech pattern (unless that's the character, of course).
—Inconsistent formatting (i.e. sometimes you italicize a thought, but other times you put it in quotes).Ultimately, all of that can be solved with one thing:
Read your work out loud. Listen to your computer as she reads it to you. You'll notice most strange things without anyone's help that way.
Guidelines
How to submitIt's a three-step process that is meant to give everyone a fair shake, so please read carefully.Step 1
Make sure your story is done, polished, ready. Though it will go through a round of edits as part of the acceptance process, that is not meant to help you with story or flow. I'm looking for something ready for line edits.Step 2
Format your story.
* 12 pt. Times New Roman or Arial font
* Double spaced
* Half-inch indentions before each paragraph
* Title underlined at the top of the document
* Word count underneath title
* No name should be on the document (the file name will take care of that, and the first read is blind)Step 3
Prepare your submission.
*Title your file story title_theme (note: your name is not here, this is meant to match the email subject)
*Email your story to [email protected]
—Subject line: Story title—Submission for Current Theme
—Body of your email: address the press, have your bio, and nothing else. No information about the story, no context, no audience information or genre.
—Attach your story to the email in either .docx or .docBonus step
Add yourself to the LKP Discord server!
NOTE: I will be sending form rejections. This whole process takes a lot out of me, and that's extra energy I don't have to give. I hate that, but I'm a Disabled woman. These are passion projects—thus the very long submission windows and lead times to everything; it's as much for me as for you.
One should not kill themselves doing something they enjoy.For more information on the selection process. Check out the process of publication.
How The Sausage Is Made1. I will download all of the stories, without reading the bios.2. If a story speaks to me, it goes into a first round pile. If it doesn't, it's a no.3. Slush readers will read all of the stories and give me their opinions. It's possible they may change my mind.4. Once we've all gone through the submissions, I will read the bios of the first rounded stories.—I hope to have a mix of emerging and established authors. But I want to uplift unrepresented authors of all types first and foremost.*Authors under the age of 18 will need their parents to co-sign their contracts.—Not everyone has access to college, nor can they afford to apply to writing contests, and subsequently win awards. Not everyone has the energy to write so prolifically they have dozens of published works. Not everyone has the mental stamina for rejection after rejection, so they submit less often. I understand. But none of that diminishes talent.*So please, if you like what you've written, send it. Don't self-reject.5. I will read the second rounded stories once more.—Depending on how many that is, I may need to do another round of cuts.6. I will read the final stories as a collection to make sure they flow nicely. If I have to swap something for another from a previous round, I will. It's not just one story that's important in an anthology, after all.—Transparency in these things is so important. I don't want anyone thinking that a rejection means their story is bad or trash or unworthy. It means that it didn't speak to me or fit with this collection. Nothing more.7. I'll send out acceptances and rejections.8. Along with acceptances, I'll send out a contract.9. Once the contract is signed, I'll edit the story.10. I'll send the edited story out, with a deadline to get the edits back to me.11. I take the finalized stories and put them into a collection.12. Meanwhile, I put up a Kickstarter for the anthology.—If the Kickstarter is unsuccessful, which is highly unlikely, there is a payment contingency. That will be addressed in the contract.13. After the Kickstarter dust settles, I pay you.14. I publish the book.15. We have at least one in-person and one online event.16. You go forth and share with the world, resubmit your story elsewhere if you'd like, get to know other authors on the LKP Discord, and write your hearts out.17. The process begins again. And yes, you can submit again to any and all anthologies.
Contact
Somewhere in the PNW