Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
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The Quiet Ones is a free-to-download e-zine that centers LGBTQIAP+ and women’s voices in the subgenres of quiet horror and intimate dystopian fiction, both for YA and Adult audiences.
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New installments of The Quiet Ones are released annually, for free, on the last Thursday of October. We make all our back issues available on our website as well.
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The Quiet Ones is available in PDF format, and designed to be read both on computer screens and tablets (e-readers included).
Equity and Inclusion
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We primarily seek creative work from those who identify as LGBTQIAP+, women, and allies. We’re especially fond of (though do not require) stories that center LGBTQIAP+ and female characters. That said, we welcome work from anyone and everyone, and we do not automatically disqualify any submissions based on the author’s identity, nor do we require our contributors to share their sexual or gender identities.
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We are aware of the rising use of AI in the arts and agree with the growing concern amongst creatives that works created by AI present a danger to our community and to our livelihood. As such, The Quiet Ones officially will not accept or consider works created, even in part, by AI, and our publishing contracts will be updated to include this. If, at any time, we discover a work that we have published contains passages created by AI, that work will be removed from the publication.
Submission Concerns
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An excellent question with many possible answers. There is a lot of debate among fans and critics alike about what falls within the boundaries of Quiet Horror and Intimate Dystopia. For our purposes:
Quiet Horror applies to atmospheric, unsettling stories that rely more on mood and rhythm than on shock and gore. Examples of quiet horror include: classic ghost stories and shorts like The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, modern moody masterworks like The Walls Around Us by: Nova Ren Suma, and films such as The Exorcist III or Pontypool where so much of the horror is left to the viewer to imagine as opposed to horror films that bombard their audience with scenes of excessive gore and jump scares.
Intimate Dystopia is all about scale. We’re looking to zoom that lens in – show us the personal, everyday impact of living under totalitarian regimes, or heavily restricted environments – anything from haunted houses to run-down clubs or playgrounds – anywhere upon which the larger trappings of dystopian visions apply. For post-apocalyptic stories, give us small, contained spaces which explore life in the ruined world. Examples of intimate dystopia include: Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler, Wool by Hugh Howey, and films such as Quarantine (or [Rec]), or Tale of A Vampire.
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Presently, our policy is to make all decisions regarding acceptance within two months after the closure of any given open submission period. For example, if an open call closes on December 1st, you would receive notice of acceptance no later than February 1st.
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With the exception of our debut issue in October 2021, our budget allows us to accept a maximum of ten works of fiction and/or poetry per issue. Sometimes, we also publish works written by members of our staff. In cases like these, it is important that we recognize that staff contributions do not count against the maximum number of accepted pieces written by non-staff creators. In other words, we do not put writers who do not work for us in competition with writers that do.
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The Quiet Ones is open to the consideration of simultaneous submissions. All we ask is that you, as the author, notify us as quickly as possible should your piece be accepted elsewhere before our decisions are made.
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Congratulations! Within a week or so after you’ve been informed that your piece has been accepted, we will send you a publishing contract to solidify your work’s inclusion in our publication. Once that contract is signed by all parties, The Quiet Ones’ team will take it from there; formatting your work for the zine and publishing it accordingly. You may receive some messages from our editorial staff in the lead up to the zine’s release if we have questions regarding your work but, generally, the process is: email of acceptance, contract, publication, and payment.
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Presently, our policy is to send payment after publication. This means you will receive your compensation, usually, within a day to a week after the zine featuring your work is made available on our website. We are equipped to send your funds either by check (through the USPS), or digitally via PayPal.
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Yes, absolutely. We love fusing genres together and are happy to consider stories that make us laugh, cry, or swoon – as long as they contain elements of horror and/or dystopia. A ghostly romance, or a slapstick Mad Max (for example) would fit right in here.
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Works that include harmful representation, excessive gore, scenes of graphic animal abuse, and hate speech will not be considered for publication.
Fundraising
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Presently, The Quiet Ones uses PayPal to collect donations directly through our Support Us page on our website.
There, you can quickly and easily donate $5, $10, $20, or a custom dollar amount of your choosing.
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Our out-of-pocket costs to maintain The Quiet Ones include web hosting and design fees, payments to authors for the publication rights to their work, and equipment costs that keep our hardware and software subscriptions up-to-date. As of 2026, this works out to slightly less than $2,000 USD per year.
Donations are first allocated toward covering those costs. Once donations exceed operational costs, we pass 100% of the money we receive to our annual fundraising partner.
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We began our fundraising efforts in 2025 with the pledge that, every year, we would choose a new fundraising partner to gift the full sum of donations that exceed our operational costs. The decision on which charity to support is made entirely by our executive editors.
The Quiet Ones is not directly affiliated with our annual fundraising partner.
Advertising Questions
View our Advertising Page for more information.
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We’d prefer your adverts to be sent in high-resolution (300dpi) .JPEG, .EPS, or .PNG format.
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For full size ads: we approximate a live area of 4.5″ x 8.5″. For half-page ads we prefer to divide our pages horizontally, so your ad should be 4.5″ x 4.25″.
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Yes! Though your design should consider that anyone looking at it with an e-reader, such as a Kindle device or a Nook, will not see the ad in color and, depending on the device, may lose some of the information in the greyscale version of your ad.
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Not at the moment. Right now we are limiting ad sales to LGBTQIAP+ outreach programs, mental health organizations, non-profits, MFA programs, writing workshops, freelance editing collectives, and similarly themed organizations and programs that orbit our primary mission statement.