I’m introducing a new rule to the Emma Press submissions procedure, by which everyone who submits to our books must be a member of ‘The Emma Press Club’.
In order to be a member of the Club, you need to have bought a book from the Emma Press website in the same calendar year as you are submitting, or to already have been accepted in an Emma Press book. Buying a book from the Emma Press site gets you membership for that calendar year, so you can submit to as many of our projects as you like in that year; being published in an Emma Press book gets you membership for life.
I’ve thought about it a lot, with Withnail’s ‘Free to those that can afford it, very expensive to those that can’t’ going round in my head, and I think that it is fair, so I hereby decree it and hope it’s received well. I’ve tried to anticipate the kinds of questions I’ll get below, but if I’ve missed any then let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter. If you’re wondering what submissions we’re looking for at the moment, check out our Submissions page.
Emma Wright
March 2014
How do I join the Emma Press Club?
a) Buy a book or ebook from our webshop. If you already bought one of those things since 1st January 2019, you are already in the Club. Or,
b) If you have already been accepted into an Emma Press book, whether it has been published yet or not, you are a member of the Club for life.
How many calls for submissions will you be doing each year?
We tend to publish 1-3 themed anthologies a year, sourcing the poems and stories through a mixture of invitations and open submissions. We really like discovering new writers, so we always try to include lots of poets who are early in their careers or who were previously unknown by us. You can see our current calls for submissions here.
I bought a book from your website in late 2018 – does this get me membership in 2019?
Sadly no. It’s easier for us to keep track of purchases within the calendar year, and to be able to wipe the slate clean at the end of each year.
Why are you making me buy a book in order to submit?
For these reasons:
- to make people engage with our work and think more carefully about what our books are like and what is the best choice of writing to send us, instead of just firing over whatever they want and wasting everyone’s time (this happened a lot before the Club began)
- to help with cashflow through increasing our direct sales a bit, which helps us to cover the enormous amount of admin involved in running open calls for submissions. Rest assured that no profit is being made – the sales come nowhere near to covering staff costs in running these calls for submissions. We do of course understand that money is an issue for some people, so of course we make exceptions (see below).
- to put some people off from submitting to us – we get a lot of submissions and it is very time-consuming processing them all, so it’s useful to be able to deter some people from the get-go. Some people get very angry at the idea of the Emma Press Club and it’s best for all concerned if our relationship ends at this point, rather than trudging on regardless of the basic incompatibility of our worldviews.
I am really broke but I would like to submit to one of your calls – is there anything you can do?
Of course! We too are always very low on money and understand your state. Just drop us an email at hello@theemmapress.com
