Submissions are open January 1-31 for our 2023 run of chapbooks in print.
Accepted works will be slated either for our PETALS series (for spring-summer release), or our THORNS series (for fall-winter release), to be sold in our online store and by retailers (worldwide Ingram distribution).
Look, we have to say it: the best way to know what we like is to read our past work (in our case, issues of Wrongdoing Magazine, available online for free). To paraphrase, we’d just have to say we look for the dark, the gothic, the erotic, the wrong.
Most of all, we’re looking for work that makes sense to us. The biggest questions we’ll be asking while reading your chapbooks will be:
- 🌹 Does it have a distinct voice? Is it innovative and fresh?
- 🌹 Does it have a meaningful throughline, and is the whole different than the sum of its parts? Can we feel its pulsing need to come alive as a book?
Our submissions are open to everyone, everywhere; however, we especially look to publish marginalized creatives. This is not up for debate, and neither are our rejections. The Editors’ decisions are final.
Our response time is currently <3 months.
FORMATTING ‘REQUIREMENTS’
- 🌹 .doc, .docx, or .pdf
- 🌹 Approx. 20-40 pages, not including front and back matter, with some wiggle room
- 🌹 12 pt readable font + standard letter-sized pages are fine for submission (unless experiments/aesthetics require otherwise)
- 🌹 Double-spaced prose, single-spaced poetry (unless experiments/aesthetics require otherwise)
- 🌹 If submitting a collection, every new piece should start on a new page
In any case, we’ll be printing your book at 5 x 8 inches in softcover with perfect binding. ISBN included. All covers will be designed by our in-house illustrator in collaboration with the writer’s vision.
CONTENT ‘LIMITS’
As a publisher of the gothic and grotesque, no subject matter is ever off-limits to us. That’s, of course, unless the point-of-view is harmful; we don’t want your gratuitously violent or exploitative fantasies. Any work that objectively condones/promotes bigotry may get you banned from submitting. Also, while we understand that writers under 18 may have a lot of their own punk to contribute, minors may not submit any explicitly erotic work.
Also, we always require content warnings upon submission in order to protect our Editors. If this fact is an issue for you, then please do not submit.
- 🌹. (A broad overview of all applicable warnings is OK; there's no need to go piece-by-piece if you're submitting a collection.)
We reserve the right to terminate the contracts of authors whom we find, upon fair investigation, to have committed hateful, abusive, or plagiarizing behaviour.
SUBMISSION ‘FEES’
In lieu of a traditional fee, we ask that submitters purchase a PDF of Wrongdoing Magazine’s latest issue, through the submission portal below, at an 80% discounted rate of $1.
In addition to keeping the press afloat, this fee will help pay stipends to our Editors; if it still creates a barrier to your submission, however, we’ve budgeted for a number of waivers. You can email us to request a free submission, no questions asked; let us know the genre(s) of your manuscript(s). Please do not abuse this policy as we ourselves have limited means.
For submitters seeking special attention to their manuscript, we also have additional options within the portal:
- 🌹 $3 in total for a ‘lineskip’ submission (your manuscript sent to the top of the pile)
- 🌹 $10 in total for consideration + an editorial letter (3+ paragraphs of overview feedback from one of our Editors)
- 🌹 $5/page for consideration + detailed feedback (in-line comments from one of our Editors.)
Multiple submissions are permitted, but a new fee must be paid for each manuscript. Please note that lineskip/feedback options or any additional donations do not increase one’s chances of publication.
REVISION PROCESS
Between acceptance and publication, we’ll inform you of any edits we suggest for your work, just as we’ll be open to any revision requests on your end; we expect the pre-publication process to be collaborative.
Please do not send revisions before receiving an acceptance, unless they're substantial and you really believe they'll affect our judgment. If that is the case, then please do not fill out an additional sub form (email us instead).
RIGHTS AND PAYMENT
By submitting to Wrong Publishing, you are confirming that all of the enclosed work is your own.
While your chapbook as a whole can’t have been published previously (this includes self-publication), previous publication of individual collected pieces is fine; please include an acknowledgments page outlining those.
Work in translation, if it hasn't yet appeared in English, is also accepted (so long as the translator has the required rights.)
Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please do e-mail us should you choose to publish elsewhere.
In exchange for 1 year of exclusive publication rights, we offer our 2023 authors 40% of profits and 10 author copies, with additional purchases available at base cost. Author royalties jump to 50% after 1 year, at which point we’ll offer indefinite on-demand printing, the rights still exclusive until the author chooses to terminate the contract. As the publisher, we’ll also reserve the right to do so should the need arise (the author will always receive advance notice).
In the interest of transparency and ethics, a more detailed breakdown of our royalties payment structure is as follows (after printing and distribution fees):
- 🌹 40% to the author for the first year; 50% afterwards
- 🌹 10% to the Cover Artist
- 🌹 10% to the Marketing Director
- 🌹 Author copies
- 🌹 Website/maintenance fees
- 🌹 Stipends distributed to our Editors
- 🌹 Note: individual Editors receive 100% of submitter payments for their written feedback.
We are not yet able to pay author advances, though we hope that that’ll change.
Upon termination of contract, if/whenever it occurs, we’ll require acknowledgment of first publication of the book as a whole and/or original works within.
We strongly believe in giving every author a dedicated, personalized & lasting run of promotion. We’ll be nominating short individual works for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions anthologies. Should we wish to anthologize individual works, we'll always reach out to the author/artist for permission to reprint them.
Questions? Concerns? Email us at publishingwrong (at) gmail (dot) com or reach out on social media.
Please do not send submissions through any other means than the portal below. If it is causing you trouble, just let us know and we can then accommodate.
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