Opportunities

Presenting the current submissions criteria from a few of our favorite publishers - Akashic Books, Arte Público Press, Bilingual Review Press, and the University of New Mexico Press. In the spirit of an optimistic new year, I give our readers these guidelines with the hope that soon we can feature a new author who wrote a masterpiece, successfully followed the rules, and then ended up on La Bloga's Author List.

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First, Akashic Books, a press we've featured several times here on La Bloga because of books such as Indian Country Noir and Havana Noir, and authors like Achy Obejas, Sarah Cortez and Amiri Baraka. Although Akashic is not accepting print submissions, it does want content for its online presence. Here are the details:

Akashic Books Submissions


PRINT SUBMISSIONS:

Akashic Books is not accepting print submissions at this time, as our small staff is overwhelmed with work on our current release schedule and forthcoming titles. To uncover other publishing opportunities, we suggest you follow the threads at the Independent Book Publishers Association, The Center for Fiction, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, all of which are excellent organizations of independent publishers.

FLASH FICTION WEB SUBMISSIONS:

Submissions for our Mondays Are Murder, Terrible Twosdays, and Duppy Thursday web series are currently open. We only consider one submission per author at a time. We respond to every submission we receive, typically within 6-8 weeks. Please do not submit multiple stories for simultaneous consideration, and please familiarize yourself with the guidelines of each series before submitting.

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Duppy Thursday. Though we’re based in Brooklyn, our location envy of the Caribbean is evident throughout our catalog. One aspect of Caribbean literature that appeals to us is the integration of folklore into contemporary stories—a perfect example being Jamaican author Marlon James’s debut novel John Crow’s Devil, which we published to great critical acclaim in 2005. Whether it be the spider Anansi, the devil woman La Diablesse, the Soucouyant, Mama Dlo, or Papa Bois, these mythical beings have injected life (and death) into the literature of the region. As with our other flash fiction series, we challenge you to tell your story in 750 words or less.

Do you have a story you’d like us to consider for online publication in the Duppy Thursday flash fiction series? Here are the submission terms and guidelines:

—We are not offering payment, and are asking for first digital rights. The rights to the story revert to the author immediately upon publication.
—Your story should be set in a Caribbean location and incorporate some aspect of folklore, whether centrally or tangentially.
—Include the location and the referenced folk tale or figure of the story with your byline.
—Your story should not exceed 750 words.
—Please include a short bio with your submission.
—Accepted submissions to Duppy Thursday are typically posted 2–4 months after the notification date, and will be edited for cohesion and to conform to our house style.
—E-mail your submission to info@akashicbooks.com. Please paste the story into the body of the email, and also attach it as a PDF file.

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Mondays Are Murder. Mondays Are Murder features brand-new noir fiction modeled after our award-winning Noir Series. Each story is an original one, and each takes place in a distinct location. Contributions to the Akashic Noir Series are bound by mood: our authors are challenged to capture the sometimes intangible moods of “noir” and of “place.” The stories run the gamut from darkly-toned literary glimpses to straight-up crime fiction, while similarly capturing the unique aura of the story’s location. Our web model for the series has one more restraint: a 750-word limit. Sound like murder? It is. But so are Mondays.

Do you have a story you’d like us to consider for online publication in the Mondays Are Murder flash fiction series? Here are the submission terms and guidelines:

—We are not offering payment, and are asking for first digital rights. The rights to the story revert to the author immediately upon publication.
—Your story should be set in a distinct location of any neighborhood in any city, anywhere in the world, but it should be a story that could only be set in the neighborhood you chose.
—Include the neighborhood, city, state, and country next to your byline.
—Your story should be Noir. What is Noir? We’ll know it when we see it.
—Your story should not exceed 750 words.
—Accepted submissions are typically published 6–8 months after their notification date and will be edited for cohesion and to conform to our house style.
—E-mail your submission to info@akashicbooks.com. Please paste the story into the body of the email, and also attach it as a PDF file.

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Terrible Twosdays. Are you a parent going through the Terrible Twos? Did you live through them and survive? Terrible Twosdays is a place to commiserate over the unending shenanigans of your Darling Children (as the online parenting communities say). Nonfiction stories will be considered, so long as names have been changed to protect the guilty. Inspired by our best-selling gift book for parents, Go the Fuck to Sleep, Terrible Twosdays joins the roster of our other online short fiction series. Unlike Mondays Are Murder, we’re looking for stories with a light and mischievous feel, all about the day-to-day challenges of parenting. As with our other flash fiction series, stories must not exceed 750 words.

Do you have a story you’d like us to consider for online publication in the Terrible Twosdays flash fiction series? Here are the submission terms and guidelines:

—We are not offering payment, and are asking for first digital rights. The rights to the story revert to the author immediately upon publication.
—Your story should focus on the challenges of parenting. Ideally, stories should be about children aged 0 to 5, but any age (up to early teens) is acceptable. Stories may be fiction or nonfiction.
—Include the child’s age at the time of the story next to your byline.
—Your story should not exceed 750 words.
—Accepted submissions are typically published 2–4 months after the notification date and will be edited for cohesion and to conform to our house style.
—E-mail your submission to info@akashicbooks.com. Please paste the story into the body of the email, and also attach it as a PDF file.

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Next, our good friends at Arte Público Press, which bills itself as the nation's largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovery literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. 

Arte Público Press Submissions
 
Arte Público Press, affiliated with the University of Houston, specializes in publishing contemporary novels, short stories, poetry, and drama based on U.S. Hispanic (Cuban American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and others) cultural issues and themes. Arte Público also is interested in reference works and non-fiction studies, especially of Hispanic civil rights, women’s issues and history. Manuscripts, queries, synopses, outlines, proposals, introductory chapters, etc. are accepted in either English or Spanish, although the majority of our publications are in English.

Response time is 2-4 months for queries and proposals and 3-6 months for manuscripts.

Please take time to familiarize yourself with our current and previous titles, as well as specialized fields, and send only the material relevant to our publishing needs. Due to the overwhelming amount of submissions we get each year, we would advise that the writer take time to distinguish whether or not his/her work is appropriate for APP so that response time is diminished. We recommend that writers include an introductory sample of the manuscript instead of sending the entire manuscript.

Piñata Books is Arte Público Press’ imprint for children’s and young adult literature. It seeks to authentically and realistically portray themes, characters, and customs unique to U.S. Hispanic culture. Submissions and manuscript formalities are the same as for Arte Público Press. Illustrators are welcome to update files by submitting new art samples online through our website at: Printers – Illustrators – Artists Guidelines

The Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage series publishes recovered literature written by Hispanics between the colonial period and 1960 in the geographic area that has become the United States.

Thanks for considering Arte Público Press to review your manuscript.

Please submit your manuscript using the Manuscript Submission Form. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at submapp@uh.edu

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Bilingual Press, associated with Arizona State University, has been in business since 1973. One of its projects is preserving classics of Chicana and Chicano literature through the Press’s Clásicos Chicanos/Chicano Classics imprint.
 

Bilingual Press Submission Guidelines

Book-length Manuscript

Description: The Bilingual Press publishes hardcover and paperback originals and reprints on U.S. Hispanic themes, including creative literature (novels, short story collections, poetry, drama, translations), scholarly monographs and edited compilations, and other nonfiction. We are always on the lookout for Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, or other U.S. Hispanic themes with strong and serious literary qualities and distinctive and intellectually important topics.

Publisher: Gary Francisco Keller

How to Contact: Send query letter first and include self-addressed, stamped envelope. Do not send complete manuscript until requested. Query letter should describe the book and, as appropriate, give a plot summary or table of contents, sample chapter or sample poems, and any other information relevant to the rationale, content, audience, etc., for the book. Also include a brief resume or vita of the author. Response time is 3-4 weeks for queries, 3-4 months for manuscripts. Simultaneous and photocopied submissions are OK. Electronic submission is not acceptable.

Terms: Creative literature and general nonfiction books pay 10% royalties, with an advance on royalties of $500-$1000 (average) and 10 complimentary copies of the book. For scholarly titles payment is generally in copies. Note: Writers should take the utmost care in assuring that their manuscripts are clean, grammatically impeccable, and have perfect spelling. This is true not only of the English but the Spanish as well. All accent and other diacritical marks need to be in place. We are interested in publishing creative literature that treats the U.S. Hispanic experience in a distinctive, creative, revealing way. The kinds of books that we publish we keep in print for a very long time irrespective of sales. We are busy establishing and preserving a U.S. Hispanic canon of creative literature.
Address for Submissions 

Gary Francisco Keller, Publisher, Bilingual Press, Hispanic Research Center, Arizona State University, PO Box 875303, Tempe, AZ 85287-5303

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Finally, the University of New Mexico Press. As noted on the Press's website: "UNM Press is a well-known and respected publisher in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, indigenous studies, Latin American studies, American studies, Chicana/o studies, art, architecture, and the history, literature, ecology, and cultures of the American West."

UNM Press Submissions 

University of New Mexico Press does not accept unsolicited fiction, poetry, children's, or young adult book proposals. Due to the many hundreds of submissions the press receives annually, we cannot respond to unsolicited queries. Thank you for thinking of UNM Press in conjunction with your work.

We require that authors send an initial query letter describing their manuscript.
Please provide brief replies to these five points:

1. Begin with a description of the issue, problem, or subject your manuscript addresses. Why is this an important topic?

2. Document the need for a book on this topic or in this area. Why should your manuscript be published? How does it differ from other works on the subject?

3. Define your purpose and audience. Why will people want to buy the book?

4. Describe your work's scope and contents. Please append a contents page. What is the page length or word count of your manuscript? What unique features characterize your treatment of the topic? How many illustrations do you intend to include?

5. When do you expect to complete the manuscript? Are there scheduling priorities involved with the publication of this work; for instance, an event or exhibit anticipated to coincide with its release?

Send letters to:
Clark Whitehorn
University of New Mexico Press
MSC05 3185
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Send letters regarding literary and cultural studies/criticism, art, and photography to:
Elise M. McHugh
University of New Mexico Press
MSC05 3185
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

For questions about the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series, please e-mail Elise M. McHugh at elisemc@unm.edu. Please note that submissions to the series are by invitation only.

For questions about editorial procedures and book proposals, please email clarkw@unm.edu.

For all other questions, please email unmpress@unm.edu.

Your proposal will be considered and you should receive a response in four weeks. If we invite the manuscript and have it reviewed, the process typically takes 6-8 weeks. If your work is accepted for publication, please print and follow the instructions in our Author Handbook. In addition, if accepted for publication, your final manuscript must be accompanied by the UNM Press Final Manuscript Checklist. If you wish your materials returned to you, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.


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Later.