Picaro Press Submission Guidelines
Contributor Guidelines for Wagtail |
The Wagtail series is filled, for the most part, by invitation. Since inception in 2001, we’ve tried to maintain a good geographic balance across Australia. We alternate between male and female contributors each month. And we look to mix new and established voices every year. For these reasons, it’s not really practical to work from a swag of unsolicited submissions. Payment is in the form of a 15% royalty on every copy sold.
Wagtail is primarily a showcase for reprint material, and selections are made to provide readers with a good idea of each poet’s voice and style. A major objective of the series is to facilitate sales of each contributor’s books; we hope that readers who enjoy an issue of Wagtail will be just that little bit more comfortable about spending $20-$30 on the poet’s collection. Occasionally we accept new work, but not often — not because we’re averse, but because once it appears in Wagtail it won’t be eligible for publication in most other Australian serials. Our philosophy doesn’t sit well with the ‘exclusive-first-use’ requirement which most other poetry serials insist upon. For Wagtail, we ask only for one-time non-exclusive use. We choose our contributors on the basis of how much a Wagtail issue devoted to their work will raise awareness of, and interest in, Australian poetry.
That being said, if you’d like to put your name forward for consideration, by all means do so. E-mail inquiries are welcome, though please don’t append a swag of poems. If you’d like to send a book, or a few printed pages of your work, fine. Do keep in mind, though, that the volume of snail-mail we receive is truly massive. While we can promise it will be read, but we certainly can’t pledge to respond to more than a small fraction of it. We keep a long shortlist of potential candidates, and a shorter list of active and pending invitations. Eleven poets per year isn’t that many, so it can take a while.
Contributor Guidelines for Books |
Our books are published in one of three discrete lines. Our authors are paid a 10% royalty on every copy sold.
First is the Art Box Series, designed to keep classic, significant, or otherwise significant older Australian poetry volumes in print. To date, that basically means we’re looking for work 20-40 years young. Chris Wallace-Crabbe has kindly agreed to act as Art Box Series Editor, and we solicit contributions based on his advice. Suggestions are always welcome, of course, but for obvious reasons the number of titles we can take on each year is limited.
The second line is our Aegis Series. Poetry titles are lucky to get a 500-book print run, and most won’t sell through. Some of the better ones do sell through, though, and that creates a dilemma. It’s a huge risk for the publisher to assume that demand will justify printing another 500 copies ... but the economics of smaller print runs are typically ruinous for publishers, whether large or small. Because Picaro Press uses print-on-demand, we’re different. There’s still a good deal of risk — the overheads involved in typesetting, printing and publicising a book are considerable. To break even, we need to sell about 100 copies. Keeping that in mind, we’re open to queries from poets who have good books which are no longer in print. If can be convinced that the demand is there, there’s a good chance we’ll take it on.
The third line is our New Work Series. We’re proud to partner with Varuna-The Writers’ House in supporting the Publisher Fellowship Program, which aims to bring new work manuscripts up to a publishable standard, and perhaps help get the word out to readers. If you’ve a manuscript under construction, we’d strongly recommend that you apply for the Fellowship — it’s enormously helpful to both poet and publisher. We do consider submissions from individuals, but please query first. Picaro Press operates without grants or subsidies of any kind, on the grounds that a) such things are ephemeral, so that reliance on them is unsound business practice, and b) we like to think we’re clever enough — and that poetry is popular enough — to survive without charity. So far, we’ve not been proven wrong. Still, when we accept a New Work title, we’re taking on a considerable risk. We still need to sell 100 copies, somehow. It’s obviously easier for established poets to do that than it would be for newcomers. It’s also much easier for poets who do a lot of readings, attend festivals, run workshops, or have friends who’ll get their book onto the syllabus at university. Don’t imagine that bookshops will sell your poetry for you — almost all our sales to booksellers come from special orders. Bookshops usually source their stock though book distributors, and distributors won’t consider poetry titles unless they’re on a school syllabus, or the poet’s name is either Les Murray or Stephen Herrick. (That being said, our policy is to supply event stock for festivals and similar events — meaning that we will ship to an event's designated bookseller on sale-or-return (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.) We’d prefer to take on a good book just because we love the poetry, and sometimes we do. Ultimately, though, if we don’t cover our costs, we won’t last long. Please consider our situation when formulating your proposal.
Guidelines for Chapbooks
Picaro Press has developed a strong line of chapbooks, and we're usually 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 $0.60 stamp, and the recommended retail price is just typically $5; they can sell quite well at readings, festivals, and other events. Contributors may buy unlimited copies at a 40% discount, e.g.., $3. Special papers or colour covers, of course, will add to the cost.
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. We can supply bookshops directly on firm-sale conditions, but your royalty will then be calculated on the discounted price, and it doesn’t come to very much. Chapbooks can be a good way to get your work into circulation, but you shouldn't expect to make enough in the way of profit to pay your grocery bill. Because all our products are produced using print-on-demand, we much prefer to make a firm sale, not sale-or-return (SOR). Still, as for books (see above), our policy is to supply event stock for festivals and similar events on SOR conditions. Please contact us for details before making a commitment.
We generally advertise chapbooks to our Wagtail subscriber list, and they can be purchased through our online store. Historically, though, most 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, typically 10% of the recommended retail price. If you are in a position to supply customers yourself, you pocket the full 40% discount.
Our chapbooks typically run to 28 pps, as anything longer is difficult to trim. We've done larger ones, but the cost may go 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. Almost all our chapbooks are produced in black and white; we can produce or contract colour covers, but that can really drive the price up. We can scan in your cover image, or propose something from our own resources. We can generally include b&w 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 possibly at increased cost. All chapbooks for which contributors licence their copyright will be assigned 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 recurring 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 discounted 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. 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. You never have to pay extra for small orders.
Again, please remember that 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 ten 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.