SUBMIT YOUR STORY
Since launching in Feb 2024, listeners have praised the storytelling, acting and sound production of the Ominous Thrill podcast.
Listeners most frequent request is.... MORE, PLEASE!
To that end... OMINOUS THRILL is on the prowl for original, dark, and devious fiction stories to adapt for our highly rated immersive audio series.
Ominous Thrill is an audio anthology featuring character-driven stories that span psychological horror, thrillers, suspense, creature features, sci-fi, body horror and beyond.
We love grounded tales where obsession, love, rage, and revenge clash in the murky worlds of the supernatural and paranormal.
We love stories told from unique and underrepresented perspectives.
Our favorite and most frightening monsters are ones that seem all too real and hide right under our noses.
Our stories are not afraid to get vividly gruesome or luridly spicy, and we relish the moments when they are narratively warranted.
Ominous Thrill explores adult characters, themes, and fears in all their deviously dark and messy beauty.
If you are a storyteller who leans into these vibes and has stories that would make great audio, we'd love to consider making them part of Ominous Thrill.
SUBMISSION STYLE GUIDE:
- The best style guide is always our previous episodes - which are full cast productions. Give the episodes a listen and take a look at the episode scripts for examples.
- THINK AUDIO when picking your story to submit. We prefer stories that drive us to create vivid and lush audio-scapes with clearly defined sonic action.
- Character-driven, present-tense stories work best for Ominous Thrill.
- Stories should "feel" like at least three acts, with a clear beginning, middle and end.
- Full-cast dramatization with narration are preferred. Limit primary character count to 4.
- Third person narration is not a good fit with Ominous Thrill at this time. Please adapt your third person story to fully dramatized or First-person perspective as that works better for audio. You can increase your chance of acceptance by doing this yourself before submitting.
- Second person can be effective when the story has a compelling reason to be told that way.
STORY LENGTH:
- 4000-8000 words (roughly 25-50 minutes of audio time.)
- We're open to reviewing multi-episode stories that fit these word lengths per episode.
SCRIPT FORMAT:
- Screenplays, teleplays, or stage-plays will not be accepted unless they have been properly adapted for the EAR.
- All visual script SHOTS must be adapted to audio scenes or removed. Please do this work before submitting these formats.
- No tabbed indents, consistent font (preferably Calibri 14), left-aligned prose, and concise file names.
- We can accept Final Draft documents.
RATE:
- $100+ per accepted story depending on length, style and level of adaptation required. Paid in USD via PayPal.
RIGHTS:
- You retain full rights to your stories, with a 3-month audio exclusive period for the Ominous Thrill podcast. The podcast retains exclusive rights to our audio production.
- Priority will be given to stories not previously performed for audio, but all stories are welcome.
- You will be credited in the audio and show notes of the episode with “WRITTEN BY…”
- In the case of heavy adaptation by us, the credit will be “STORY BY…”
- In either case, the show notes will include a link to where you would like listeners to find you.
HOW TO SUBMIT.
- Email your story to OMINOUSTHRILL@GMAIL.COM
- Use the NAME of your story in ALL CAPS in the subject line.
- Include the story’s title and exact word count in the body of the email.
- Attach the story as a Microsoft Word (.doc) file or other universally editable format. No PDFs.
- Do not paste the story into the body of the email.
- Make sure your story is ATTACHED before sending.
- Send only ONE story per submission.
- Include LINKS if the story is already published or available publicly.
- Proofread thoroughly; excessive errors or poorly formatted submissions may be rejected.
- Include the phrase “devious audio delight” in the body of your email.
NOTIFICATION:
- You will be notified as soon as possible if your story is selected.
- In some rare cases accepted submissions can go right to production, but most will need to be adapted in ways that range from minor to major. We will notify you of required changes.
- We're open to collaboration and even outright licensing of stories to make changes on our own. We want the best possible audio stories for our listeners and are open to working with authors to make that happen.
- Rejected stories may not be submitted again. Feedback on rejected stories will not be provided.
We can't wait to read your wickedly devious dark fiction!