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Chapbook Contributor Guidelines
Picaro Press has developed a strong line of chapbooks, and we're always looking to add to it. We are open to poetry in all its many forms — quality is the only criterion. Many of our poets have been quite successful with this form. Our chapbook design can be posted in Australia under a $0.50 stamp, and the recommended retail price is just $5; they sell quite well at readings, festivals, and other events. Contributors may buy unlimited copies at a 40% discount.
Contributors need to be aware that poetry is difficult to sell through bookshops at any time, and that chapbooks are doubly difficult to get into the commercial system. Some stores will accept works by local authors on consignment, but they generally expect a 40% discount on the price they pay. It can be a good way to get your work into circulation, but you shouldn't expect to make anything significant in the way of profit. We can supply bookshops directly; your royalty will then be calculated on the discounted price. Because all our products are produced using print-on-demand, we much preferto make a firm sale, not sale-or-return (SOR). That being said, our policy is to supply event stock for festivals and suchlike — meaning that we will ship to an event's designated bookseller on SOR conditions. We're not likely to break even on such transactions, but it's good for both contributors and Picaro Press to be represented. Please contact us for details before making a commitment.
We generally advertise chapbooks to our subscriber list, and they can be purchased through our online store. Historically, though, our best chapbook sales come through the poets themselves. If you do frequent readings, can organise a local launch, attend festivals, or otherwise lift the profile of your work, you can sell hundreds; it's been done many times. If you have a particular market in mind — schools, for instance — then there could be significant potential for good sales. If we supply your customers, we pay a royalty on each copy sold of 10% to 15% of the recommended retail price. If you are in a position to supply customers, you can earn the full 40% discount (less any expenses, of course, such as postage, travel, advertising, etc.).
Our chapbooks typically run to 28 pps, as anything longer is difficult to trim. We've done larger ones, but the cost goes up because we need to either hand-trim or contract that operation out. For longer works, we may be willing to consider publication in book form. All our publications are produced in black and white; colour covers can be very expensive, especially in short runs. We can scan in your cover image, or propose something from our own resources. We can generally include illustrations, photographs, etc. Our standard design includes a quality cover stock, 80-90 gsm copier-quality paper, and a tissue sheet. Other cover stocks or fancier paper are available, though at increased cost. All chapbooks for which contributors licence their copyright carry an ISBN.
The overheads associated with publishing a chapbook are considerable. Many hours go into typesetting, exchanging drafts, production, advertising, and running the business. We need to factor in the cost of consumables, wear and tear on our equipment, taxes, software upgrades, phones, internet costs, bank fees, and a host of other recurrng expenses. To cover our costs and overheads, and still make a fair return on the time required to produce a quality product, we generally need to sell on the order of 100 copies. Naturally, that's much easier to do for established poets than for emerging ones. Please keep this in mind when formulating a proposal; we can and will accept orders for smaller numbers, but possibly not at the standard low price of $3/each. And we do make exceptions to this rule: a) we're not risk-averse, and b) we're willing to support worthy but not particularly profitable projects such as small anthologies, publications for charity or other good causes, etc. We've done a considerable number of special-purpose publications requiring short print runs for workshops, seminars, publicity, and related purposes; if the numbers are low, we may be able to cut expenses and overheads in other ways. If in doubt, please ask us for a quote. A significant advantage of print-on-demand is that, after the initial print run has recovered our costs, we can promptly ship orders for much smaller numbers; if you want just one more copy, or ten, we can generally ship within a week; we've turned around orders overnight to meet an emergency.
Picaro Press receives no grants or subsidies of any kind; one of our key objectives is to demonstrate that poetry, properly formatted and marketed, can thrive without begging. We've managed to stay in the black for eight years now, so we must be on the right track. We're genuinely interested in publishing quality work, full stop. If in doubt, write or e-mail with your idea. The one thing we can guarantee is a fair hearing.
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