Folded Word

So You Want to Submit a Manuscript?

Fantastic! Please do.

We are currently accepting submissions for most of our projects listed below. Zines, chapbooks, and broadsides are listed in the left-hand column, books in the right-hand column. We are a PG-ish house, so please bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to submit your manuscript.

Report your response times at Duotrope’s Digest

unFold

poetry for today’s mobile electronics

unFold, the successor to Form.Reborn on Folded Word, is a PG-rated experimental poetry journal that seeks inspired 140 character (including spaces) Tweets, suitable for mobile poem text messages. unFold seeks to develop Form140, and invites those submitting to improvise solutions to Twitter’s inhospitability to traditional line breaks, as described at Form21. Ultimately, we want digestible poems written in present tense that mobile phone users will enjoy to the point of forwarding.

Accepted manuscripts will be published first on Twitter, archived on our blog, and then combined in a collection that will be released as an e-book. If your manuscript is chosen as a “3 Cheers” winner, it will also be released as a YouTube video. By submitting your work, you are agreeing to grant us non-exclusive electronic rights to publish your manuscript in these three formats, which may be archived indefinitely. We donate a portion of our Twitter-zine anthologies’ net profits to charity.

• Editor: Rose Auslander
• Reading Period: year round
• Issue Close Date: 31 December of each year
• Publication Date: e-book poetry collection will be released every other year, one Tweet will be released as an unFold Twitter update each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• Number of Poems Needed: a total of 150 Tweets per year, some of which may be parts of serial poems
• Maximum Number of Poems per Submission: either 6 single day poems, or serial poems that total no more than 3 stanzas. Please limit your submissions to one batch per calendar month
• Simultaneous Submissions: no
• Previously Published Submissions: no
• Royalty: no
• Other Perqs: complimentary e-book anthology for the volume in which your work appears.

Submissions should be sent in the body of an email to poetry@foldedword.com with “submission” in the subject line. Please be sure to use your word processor’s word count tool to check your character count. We cannot accept submissions over 140 characters (including spaces/line breaks) per episode. Be sure to include your name & pen name plus a link to your bio in your email.

Track your submissions at Duotrope’s Digest

Chapbooks

Poetry and Fiction: print & e-books

We do accept unsolicited chapbook manuscripts. We are open to most genres and themes, but please note that we are a PG-ish house. We will make every effort to respond to your submission within 90 days. We will only publish 6 chapbooks per year so competition will be fierce. Chapbooks will be released as “Green Editions” and e-books first, then one title per year will be selected to be produced in a “Signature Edition” as well. Be sure to take all of these considerations into account before deciding to submit your novel to us.

Our contracts are based on the concept of partnership and long-term sales. As such, we do not offer an advance. However we do offer 25% net royalties along with contributor and review copies. We also believe in a collaborative editorial process.

Submissions must be sent using our Submishmash account. Scroll down and click “submit” under “Chapbooks,” then fill in the blanks. Your cover letter should include introductory remarks regarding your manuscript plus your contact and biographical information. Upload your entire chapbook manuscript, which should not exceed 20 pages.

Due to the overwhelming response to our Poets & Writers ad, our response time is slower than usual. We assure you that we will read every manuscript submitted.

Submit your chapbook.

Track your submissions at Duotrope’s Digest

Heron

Print/MP3 fusion project

We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts for Heron. All manuscripts will be solicited from Regular Contributors to Form.Reborn/unFold and PicFic that have demonstrated:

• flexibility & openness to editorial suggestions
• passion for our Twitter-zines & our philosophy
• connection with readers (based on web-stats & comments)

 

PicFic

Twitter-fiction for today’s mobile electronics.

PicFic is currently closed to submissions in preparation for our forthcoming mini-chapbook line. Please visit our blog to learn more.

 

Book-length Poetry

Single-author collections, anthologies

We are not accepting unsolicited book-length poetry manuscripts at this time. We are, however, open to reading poetry manuscripts from our frequent unFold contributors and chapbook authors. Please consider submitting poems to these projects first if you are interested in placing a book-length collection with us.