Pharmacopeia Obscura
Description
This collection will explore medicine’s strangest frontiers—real and imagined—through the cryptic lens of the August Doctor, whose notes chronicle the weird, wondrous, and macabre.
We seek stories of speculative medicine: ancient treatments with unforeseen side effects, sentient diseases, experimental therapies, uncanny medical devices, or practitioners whose ethics and methods straddle the line between genius and madness. Think: surgical sorcery, pharmaceutical horror, future bioware, medieval apothecaries with secrets, or cosmic parasites only the Doctor understands. Tone can range from dark and eerie to surreal and satirical—but all submissions should have an edge of the uncanny.
We are not looking for stories with excessive gore for its own sake, or stories that stigmatize illness or disability. Psychological, existential, or body horror elements are welcome if handled thoughtfully.
Send us your stories because the doctor is in.
We seek stories of speculative medicine: ancient treatments with unforeseen side effects, sentient diseases, experimental therapies, uncanny medical devices, or practitioners whose ethics and methods straddle the line between genius and madness. Think: surgical sorcery, pharmaceutical horror, future bioware, medieval apothecaries with secrets, or cosmic parasites only the Doctor understands. Tone can range from dark and eerie to surreal and satirical—but all submissions should have an edge of the uncanny.
We are not looking for stories with excessive gore for its own sake, or stories that stigmatize illness or disability. Psychological, existential, or body horror elements are welcome if handled thoughtfully.
Send us your stories because the doctor is in.
This listing is permanently closed for submissions. This may mean one of several things:
- It was always planned to be a limited-time project, such as a one-time anthology, and the limited-time submission window has ended.
- The publisher has stated that they are permanently closed, or on hiatus with wording that makes it sound permanent.
- The publication website is down in a way that appears to be permanent, and we haven't been able to find a new website for them.
- The publication website is not down, but it appears to have been inactive for more than a year.
Market Genres
Genres
FantasyScience Fiction
Market Types, Lengths & Pay Scale
Originals
Flash
0 to 1000 words
Less than 1 cent/word
Short Story
1000 to 7500 words
Less than 1 cent/word
Novelette
7500 to 12000 words
Less than 1 cent/word
Market Submission Types
AI Submissions?: Unknown Policy
Electronic Submissions?: Yes
Postal Submissions?: No
Multiple Submissions?: Yes
Simultaneous Submissions?: Yes
Translations: Original Language Only
Electronic Submissions?: Yes
Postal Submissions?: No
Multiple Submissions?: Yes
Simultaneous Submissions?: Yes
Translations: Original Language Only
Market-Provided Data
The data in this section was provided directly by the publisher, not entered by Submission Grinder staff.
Market Response Data (User-Reported)
View recent responses from this market
This statistical information is an aggregation of submission data provided by our members. The more data we have the more accurate our
numbers will be so please be sure to log all of your submissions here and not just your rejections or acceptances.
numbers will be so please be sure to log all of your submissions here and not just your rejections or acceptances.
Count:
There are 41 completed reports in the past 12 months.
Averages and Boundaries:
Min: 1 | Average: 95.92 | Median: 120 | Max: 194
Responded:
97.56%
Accepted:
29.26% - avg 94 days
Rejected:
65.85% - avg 99 days
(22.22% of rejections are personal)
Rewrites:
2.43%
Dead Letters:
-
Lost/Returned:
-
Never Responded:
-
Withdrawn:
2.43%
Pending:
There are 0 pending responses.
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Listing added: 21 April 2025
Last officially checked: 7 May 2026