Submissions to The Waterdog

The Waterdog is an independent, solo-edited online literary magazine dedicated to psychological tension, moral ambiguity, and mind-bending internal landscapes. We look for writing that lingers in the dark corners of the mind long after the page is turned.

We publish on a rolling schedule. Content is entirely free to read online.

What We Are Looking For

We accept psychological thrillers, deep character studies, and atmospheric prose across all formats:

• Short Fiction: Up to 2,500 words.

• Flash Fiction: Up to 750 words.

• Poetry: Up to 3 poems per submission (maximum 50 lines per poem).

• Creative Non-Fiction: Up to 2,000 words exploring real-world obsessions, psychological anomalies, or true crime ethics.

What We Are NOT Looking For (Our Anti-Guidelines)

Please do not send us generic horror, slashers, or explicit gore. We prefer psychological terror to explicit violence. We automatically reject clichéd tropes, including:

• "It was all a dream" or "it was all in their head" endings.

• Protagonists waking up with amnesia in an asylum.

• Stories relying heavily on cheap jump-scares rather than earned tension.

Guidelines & Rights

• Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, we allow them. Please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• Payment: We are currently a non-paying market run entirely out of passion. If we cannot afford to pay you, we will never charge you a fee to submit. Submissions are always 100% free.

Rights: We ask for First Electronic Rights. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the author. We ask that you credit The Waterdog if the piece is reprinted in a future anthology or collection.