Electric Book Award
About the Electric Book Award
The Electric Book Award is Alternating Current Press’ annual book award to recognize an unpublished adult manuscript of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, plays, novels, long novellas, creative nonfiction, literary memoir, essay collections, or hybrid, as a full-length collection or as a full-length single work. We especially want to hear from marginalized and underrepresented authors, and we are an LGBTQUIA+ safe-space.
Reading Period
Submissions open: JAN 1, 2024
Submissions close: APR 30, 2024
Winner announced: AUG 2024
Publication: 2025/2026
Current Status
The 2024 prize is currently open for submissions and will close on April 30, 2024. The 2023 winner and finalists were announced here.
The Prize
The winner receives $1,000 (upon publication), our gold Electric Book Award digital medallion, a certificate, and book publication on Alternating Current Press, which includes distribution through Ingram and all major online retailers. Publication is in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats, with possible audiobook publication, as well, and includes 5 complimentary hardcover copies, 20 complimentary paperback copies, a complimentary digital copy in all formats, and 50% net royalties. Publication also includes our standard publicity package, including a press kit, a book-club reading guide, a press release, multiple mailing-list email blasts, social media, review and contest copies, and more. Runners-up may also be offered book publication and receive our silver and bronze digital medallions.
Submission Guidelines
- Manuscripts may be of any length in any genre or style. Manuscripts can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, or hybrid. Choose the category of best fit.
- Manuscripts must be geared toward an adult readership. We are not interested in books for children.
- All work must be in English and must be the author’s own. Single work by multiple authors considered. We do not consider AI-generated work.
- Manuscripts are read incognito. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME OR ANY IDENTIFYING MARKS INSIDE THE FILE, including headers, footers, cover pages, acknowledgments, and file names. If you do leave your identifying marks inside the file, the submission will be read as-is, but the reader may disqualify the submission if he knows you on any personal level.
- If you need to adjust a submission, please use the Request to Edit option through Submittable. Please don’t request to edit for minor flaws, however—all accepted work will go through an editing process and will have the chance to be updated before publication, and your work will not be disqualified for a missing comma.
- All authors must be at least 18 to submit.
- Simultaneous submissions allowed. Please withdraw your manuscript through Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere.
- ACP and The Coil staff may submit work for publication consideration, but they are ineligible to win prizes while on our staff (including volunteers).
- Collections that contain previously published pieces are considered. Don’t include acknowledgments in the file.
- Submit via Submittable only. We do not accept email submissions.
- Straight or scholarly nonfiction should have reference pages.
- There is an $18 fee for each manuscript submitted. You may submit as many manuscripts as you’d like, but each one must be submitted separately with a separate fee. The fee helps us with needed administration and book production costs, but it’s not meant to be too inhibitive. If you are unable to pay, please email us for an alternative submission method.
- Each paid submission comes with a digital copy of our latest Electric Book Award winner, River Weather, a collection of dark Appalachian stories by Cameron MacKenzie ($7.99 value). There is an additional option to purchase the winning Electric Book Award print book (publishing in 2025/2026) as an add-on for a deep discount ($7.99 off the final cover price, shipped free worldwide).
- We will send a response and notification of the winner to every submission by the end of August. Form response only, unless we are interested in publishing your book. We are regretfully unable to provide feedback. We reserve the right not to choose a winning manuscript if there are no contestants that meet our high judging standards.
- If you’re ready to submit, head on over to Submittable.
Past Electric Book Award Winners
- 2023: Reliance by Julia Tagliere | (Shortlist) (Longlist)
- 2022: The Be-Everything! Brothers by Matthew Pitt
- 2021: River Weather by Cameron MacKenzie
- 2020: A Gospel of Bones by Suzi Q. Smith
- 2019: Wyatt Earp by Larry Beckett
- 2018: We Meant to Bring It Home Alive by Armin Tolentino
- 2017: What Shines from It by Sara Rauch
- 2016: A Room in Dodge City by David Leo Rice
- 2015: The Girl Wakes by Carmen Lau
Selection & Judging Process
We subscribe to the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Contest Code of Ethics: “CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1.) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2.) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3.) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.”
- We take submissions through Submittable and use its tools and our own to accept incognito submissions. The editor-in-chief has access to the information, but she does not read or accept submissions. While the editor-in-chief determines what is published on our press, she does not make judging decisions for awards.
- We ask submitters not to include their names, contact information, or any identifying marks within the documents, titles, and file names of submissions.
- Staff members of Alternating Current may have pieces published on The Coil or submit pieces for incognito submission consideration, but staff members are not eligible to win award prizes while serving on our staff. This includes volunteers while they are volunteering for our staff.
- For all awards, the editor-in-chief compiles a spreadsheet of all the eligible pieces, makes sure everything is stripped of any contact information, and sends that spreadsheet to the award editor. The award editor ranks the selections to choose the top finalists. The incognito judging decisions are final.
- While the manuscripts are read incognito, the editors are asked to recuse themselves from judging if there are any submissions that they may recognize as posing a personal conflict of interest. Once selected, we will reveal the winner’s name privately to the readers before announcement to clarify that there is no conflict of interest. Should there be a conflict, the next finalist in line without conflict shall become the winner, or judges shall recuse themselves from the ranking tallies. Conflicts of interest are defined as: close friends, relatives, students, and former students of the judges. We do not consider workshops to be disqualifying factors, unless the judge personally feels there is a conflict there. We leave the discretion of conflict identification up to the judges. Submissions that pose a conflict of interest may still be eligible for publication, even if they are ineligible for prizes.
- The winner is notified prior to announcement. The results are publicly posted online at The Coil and on the press website.
