Guidelines for March Street Press
3413 Wilshire
Greensboro NC 27408
Parting Gifts is looking for fully realized very short fiction (under 1000 words), memoirs, or prose poetry. Parting Gifts also publishes poetry up to two pages (about 50 lines).
March Street Press and Parting Gifts are suspicious of poetry that turns too heavily on rhyme or meter. Poetry of the kind that can be found in Hallmark cards, church bulletins, or high school haiku magazines will probably never appear in our publications.
We publish more poetry than fiction, but fiction is actually our first love. The problem is that we have such high standards and peculiar preferences that it’s hard to find fiction to publish. In addition to the demand for very short fiction, we require the language in fiction we publish to be as strong as the language in poetry—not a misplaced word. And it has to tell a story.
Chapbooks should be 25–50 pages. When we accept a chapbook, we often make suggestions—sometimes strong ones—involving inclusion and exclusion of poems or specific lines or stanzas that don’t work for one reason or another. That’s what real editors do. If you don’t think that your work needs an editor, you shouldn’t be sending it to one.
Something has come up twice in the past few months: a poet presents a book of poems, most of which had been published in another book with a different press, with a different title, and with a few poems added or replaced or changed. The ethics of fobbing off an already published manuscript would seem to be obviously suspect, but in both cases, the author seemed surprised to discover that it was a problem. In fact, it's probably not illegal--to receive a fresh copyright and to be considered a new work, we understand that the Register of Copyrights at the Library of Congress only requires a change of about 15%. The issue is further complicated because we love and respect the work of the two poets involved no less than we love the poets themselves. But small publishers put our hearts and souls (and not an insignificant amount of cash) into bringing obscure, unpublished poets a bit of the limelight. When we discover that we're just recycling the same few poems under a different title, we feel used and cheated.
We accept a crushing number of book manuscripts per year. It is literally all we can do to keep up with the demands of the press. The time constraints are crippling. Lately the editorial staff has begun to evince certain signs of age—backache, fatigue, and an existential concern about whether publishing poetry is truly something of value to mankind and whether it can be justified in the face of a world in such obvious ferment and decline. Plus, we have received unfortunate news from our doctors which could shorten our editorial careers considerably. We accept no government grants or loans. All the equipment and resources are paid for using the returns from the press with an occasional influx of capital from the dinner table, vacation fund, wallet, and credit card of the editorial staff. Because of the modest nature of the enterprise, we sometimes have to turn away or indefinitely delay excellent manuscripts for lack of resources to publish at a particular time. We wish we could publish everything of quality that we receive. No one in publishing can accomplish this. Not even Crown or Random House.
When we accept a manuscript, we send the author ten copies of the finished book free (a value of $90 to $200 at retail, depending on the thickness of the book—more about this later) and we are open to providing a limited number of review copies and promotional materials (such as postcards or posters for readings) on request, so long as the privilege isn’t abused.
Checks and money orders (U.S. currency only) should be made out to March Street Press.
March Street Press is always seeking chapbook manuscripts. Economic pressures have forced a $20 reading fee. We encourage authors to submit a computer disk with the manuscript in electronic form along with the paper manuscript. Include SASE with your submission. We can’t seriously consider a submission unless it is accompanied by SASE and reading fee. Please don’t send a selection of poems and expect us to make a decision about the entire book based on them. A worthy work of poetry or quality fiction cannot be represented by a selection of pages. If these pages are typical of the rest of the work, then it hardly seems worth the effort to read the rest. If they are atypical, then how can a judgment of the work as a whole be based upon them?
We’re sorry to offer advice so elementary, but there’s an overwhelming temptation for poets to be “cute” in a query or submission letter. One must resist this urge at all costs. At best, it looks unprofessional. At worst, it makes one come across as neurotic and pitiful. Or sadistic. Or childish.
A recent query letter suggested that we had our “ducks in a row.” People who know us would snort with derision at such a notion. But this particular blade cut more deeply. One February not too many years ago, we had to give three ducks away to a stranger. The ducks had been pets of our late mother who ate duck eggs for breakfast every morning and delighted in filling the kiddy pool with the hose and watching them splash around.
Fearing what might happen to her animal companions when she passed, our mother had wanted all of her animals euthanized on her death. But when the moment came, we couldn't do it. Probably the ducks were holiday dinners three years in a row (imagine the last lonely year of duck number three) and the memory haunts us to this day. We had to make similar choices for poodles and cats. And our son had to beat to death an opossum that his grandmother had been feeding because it was horribly injured, probably in a confrontation with a farm implement in a nearby field, and had taken up residence under the stairway between the main house and the garage. “Do us a huge favor,” our son said (not using the editorial “we,” but referring to himself and his sister). “Don't leave us a mess like this when you die.”
We noticed some years ago (from news reports) that if one fires a gun at random, the bullet will seek out the most valuable person in range and destroy his or her life. It was a summer of drugs and gangs and on holidays, one would hear automatic weapons’ fire. And the next day a headline would read, “Nurse Murdered in Her Sleep Two Weeks Before Retirement”—the bullet tunneled through the wall of the house and found her sleeping, the sole support of three children and her elderly mother. A woman who volunteered much of her time at the free clinic. A woman who personally saved many homeless families by lending them their first month's rent and a security deposit. Who kept a personal file of homeless men's birthdays and bought little presents and a cake for them with her own money to make them feel special. In short, a living saint who had left a deep impression in the earth where she followed in Christ's footsteps.
Think of cuteness as a random bullet. One can’t risk being anything but businesslike in one’s correspondence, lest one pierce some absessed week of misery still living in a stranger’s heart.
And now a word about a writer’s responsibility to his or her constitution. The ACLU is involved in a seemingly perpetual fight to protect our First Amendment rights. I hope you will drop a few bucks in an envelope and send them to the ACLU at 132 West 43rd Street, New York, New York 10036.
Any questions? Please send email to March Street Press.
Here is the "agreement" I try to attach to the first set of galleys I send to the author. It stands in place of a contract and returning the galleys to me represents agreement to its terms. The agreement can be nullified by either party notifying the other of its nullification.
Here are the proofs. Please print them out and mark them up in red or some other contrasting color and return them to me by first class mail. Be sure to make a copy of the marked up galleys in case the proofs get lost in the mail.
I will need letters of release from all the magazines listed on the acknowledgments page. Most magazines now put “all rights revert to author upon publication” on their copyright page. A photocopy of those copyright notices will do for a release. Write in pen on the copies which poems the page refers to.
I will need some blurbs, so make a couple of copies of the galleys and send them to buddies who have name recognition--poets, professors, whatever. Tell them to give you a 50-word blurb. Warning: you will have to do the same for them someday. Fifty words is entirely flexible. Some can't write less than 200 words. Some can barely squeeze out a sentence or two. A brief blurb is fine. We will work together to cut down an overly verbose blurb to around 50 words. Two or three blurbs is plenty. The real purpose of a blurb is to make the back of the book look less empty. More than three blurbs will probably have to wrap to the inside back cover or be printed in tiny type no one can read.
I will need a 50-word biography as well, referring to yourself in the third person. Include your career highlights and eschew cuteness (e.g. “Joe Smith is the father of three dachshunds named George Foreman. His hobbies include curling, tatting, and banging his head on the floor.”) My experience is that you’ll always regret being cute somewhere down the line.
When the book is printed for the first time, you’ll receive ten free copies. When I sell books, you’ll get 15% of whatever I get (royalties), so generally it’s in your interest to get a mailing list together, and we can cooperatively design and issue a release and order form. Fifteen percent of full cover price is more than 15% of the 50% of cover price that I get from distributors or 15% of 60% of cover price, which is what booksellers pay. And it's a lot more than 15% of the 55% discount Amazon.com requires. Therefore, I prefer to sell books directly from March Street Press to the end customer. For some reason many authors don't feel as if they've truly published until they can look their book up on Amazon. But a $9 book sold on Amazon nets about $4.05 and 15% of $4.05 is about 60 cents. If I sell the book directly to the customer, you get 15% of $9.00, or $1.35 per book. The best deal, of course, is if you sell the books yourself. You get a 40% discount, just like a bookstore, so you pay $5.40 for a $9 book and then sell it for $3.60 in profit.
Although I will give you the same 40% discount I give booksellers, I don’t pay royalties on books I sell to you.
If you place some books in bookstores, let me know how many and I’ll give you an additional 10% discount on those. You will be serving as a distributor, so it’s only right that you get the same rate as jobbers.
If you’d like some postcards, tell me how many and I’ll put those together for you. If you want a poster 8.5x11, I will design it and send it to you so you can get it reproduced at Kinkos or some other local copy shop.
I don’t do copyright registration. Technically, your work is copyrighted as soon as the ink leaves your pen, but if there were ever a dispute, it’s better to have the book registered with the library of congress. It costs a bit of money and they’ll want two copies for the shelves of the library. I will be glad to replace the copies. If you send out copies to review publications, I will replace those as well.
People have asked me to say a word about Poet's House, a poetry library in New York. I don't send my books there anymore, but I have in the past. I'd like to urge people to send two copies of all of their published books to Poet's House so it will have as complete a collection as possible.
http://www.poetshouse.org/
Poets House is located at 10 River Terrace, NYC 10282. The library is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Fridays 11 am until 7 pm and Saturdays 11 am until 4 PM. (212) 431-7920, info@poetshouse.org.
I no longer hand bind books, unless I have need for five copies or so. I’m working with a printer who does an excellent job. But he has requested that my orders be 50 or more. So, although I can provide you with five or ten or whatever you need or can afford at a given time, I humbly request that you order in quantities of fifty or more. Because this part of the operation is out of my hands, my general request is that you order books at least three weeks ahead of when you need them. If you email me to send you 50 copies overnight, I simply can’t do that.
When it comes time to start sending out copies, be sure people know I charge $2 shipping and handling for five or less, and for larger quantities, I pass along the shipping charge.
I try to be flexible about shipping and handling a small quantity of books. If I get a check for the cover price, I’ll ignore the postage, but most people don’t mind a nominal charge for delivery.
Let's discuss pricing. Generally if a books is under 40 pages, I charge a cover price of $9; 40 to 60, generally $15; 60 to 100, $18; more than 100, $20. There is a direct relationship between the size of the book and the cost of production. Lately, we have been trying to push the price down. The $9 range is much larger now. Because of special pleading from authors, we have lowered the cover price. We're not convinced that it affects sales, though this is generally the basis for the request to lower the price. This is an area that is under study and in flux. Please bear with us.
Your book will be listed on our online catalog and I will make every effort to get it out through Baker and Taylor, The Book House, Yankee Book Peddler, Emery Pratt and other distributors, and Amazon. I no longer deal directly with Amazon as I did in the early days, so I can’t guarantee the book will be up there on a specific date or that the picture will appear with it.
Once the book is on Amazon, please have all of your friends go to the Amazon page and write embarrassingly complimentary things about you and the book. If you have no friends (don’t feel bad—it’s not that uncommon among poets), log onto Amazon under several different names and write the embarrassingly complimentary reviews yourself. Far from being unethical, this sort of self-puffery has a long and distinguished history going back at least as far as Walt Whitman, and probably is as old as publishing.
That answers most of the common questions we get. If you have more questions, feel free to write to us at 3413 Wilshire, Greensboro NC 27408-2923 or email us at rbixby@earthlink.net.
