Submissions - DUMBO Press
Thank you for considering publishing with DUMBO Press. We love to get submissions, we love to read them, and we’re super thankful for the authors that take their time to send us their work.
We publish a wide spectrum and we read year round. If you’re reading this, our submissions are open.
How to submit
For web feature submissions, YOU MUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS provided in this MS Word template and email it to us at submissions@dumbopress.com. This helps streamline our publication process.
Please DO NOT edit the submission template (other than filling it out, of course). We work with a bot and if the template is changed, your work won’t be published. Under “main text” DO NOT include the title – only the content of your work.
Please also fill out the form the best you can. If you don’t fill in the “stand-alone passage” section, we will choose a quote from your writing for you.
What we want
We are on the lookout for contemporary literary fiction and poetry. We have a soft spot for the non-traditional – those pieces that might not easily fit into the conventional publishing mold. In other words, we like the weird. That said, we're about quality. If your work is compelling, and is of high craftsmanship, we will be happy to consider it. We are open to your fiction, poetry, experiments, vignettes, manifestos, and essays exploring politics, current events, literature, philosophy. And good news – submitting your work is completely free. Looking forward to seeing your best – send it our way!
All submissions must be in English. The only other language we’re able to accept is Chinese, but please keep those submissions short. We’re generally not interested in translations, but if you send one, we’ll consider it.
We take multiple submissions, but please don’t flood us with a million files. Multiple submissions are generally more acceptable if the pieces are on the shorter side.
We encourage simultaneous submissions. Get your work out there! But please let us know ASAP when it’s accepted elsewhere. WE ONLY ACCEPT PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED WORK.
Spelling and Grammar: Please take the time before you submit to read through your work. This will increase your chances of acceptance. We probably won’t reject your work based on a missing parenthesis, but do your best.
Edits: All submissions are subject to some light editing. We’ll never change the integrity of your work, of course, but sometimes small grammar edits are necessary to maintain DUMBO’s standards. This includes your bio and “behind the scenes.”
Flash fiction: Your best prose, anywhere from 10 words (if you can pull it off) to 1000 words. We love flash, and if you think you can tell a story in a small amount of space, send it our way.
Short story: Everything prose above 1000 words. Anything above thirty pages gets a little long for the internet, but we’ll still consider it.
Poetry: If your poems are short (1 page or less) we generally like it when people send us more than one. Other than that, anything goes. Impress us.
Response time: Right now is about 1 month, but we’re working on shortening that. If you haven’t heard back from us in 3 months, send a note.
Please follow us on social media:
Other notes
Social Media: We will post your stories to social media, and if we really like it, we’ll make it a feature and you’ll get a little more exposure. We’d appreciate it if you gave us a follow, too.
Rights: All rights revert back to the author upon publication. Your work is yours. But please give us a shout out if you’re lucky enough to have it published elsewhere. We maintain First Worldwide Electronic Rights. Please see our Terms and Agreement for more details. By submitting your work, you agree to the terms for publication.
If your submission contains sex, violence, drugs, or profanity, congrats, you found the right journal. But keep it non-hateful, please.
At this time we are a small team of volunteers and are unable to pay our contributors, even though we’re super excited and grateful for them and would love to pay them if we could. On that note, please consider donating to keep our journal running, as we’d like to keep the lights on. If you donate, please take a screenshot and include it in your submission email.
Manuscripts: We are also now accepting full-length manuscripts of fiction, poetry, and hybrid work. This includes novel-length fiction, short story collections, and full-length poetry collections, as well as other works that don't easily fit within these categories. Submit your interest and manuscript via email using the subject "Manuscript inquiry: [authors name]" and please disclose whether or not the work contains portions that have been published previously. If your attached manuscript exceeds 10 MB, please send to our Gmail address: dumbopress.submissions@gmail.com
Compensation: Authors do not recieve compensation for web feature publications, nor does the press earn revenue from their publication. For printed works, we offer authors two tiers of royalties: 40% and 80% of net revenue for both print and eBooks, depending on the author's involvment level.
Artists
If you’d like to work with our team to develop artwork for upcoming published pieces, we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email (inquiries@dumbopress.com) with your interest and a few examples of your work.
At this time we are unable to pay artist contributors, but we’ll do our best to promote your work on our website and social media. Good for you and us.