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Book-Length Fiction

Reading Period

Submissions open: JUN, SEP, NOV
Selections made: Within 4 months
Publication: 2024/2025

Current Status

All book-length fiction manuscripts from all previous reading periods have been answered. If you did not receive an email, please check your Submittable messages as notifications get caught in spam from time to time. New submissions are open for September 2023 and will be answered by the end of the year.

Submission Guidelines

• We’re seeking book-length manuscripts of literary fiction, short stories, plays, novels, long novellas, flash collections, or hybrid. We especially want to hear from marginalized and underrepresented authors, and we are an LGBTQUIA+ safe-space. Manuscripts may be in any genre or style. 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.
• These manuscripts are not read incognito. It doesn’t matter if your identifying information is or isn’t inside your submission file, as long as your Submittable contact information is correct.
• 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.
• Collections that contain previously published pieces are considered.
• Submit via Submittable only. We do not accept email submissions.
• There is a $5.99 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 fiction book, currently Winter Dance Party, a collection of Buddy Holly’s plane crash in flash, by Brett Biebel ($7.99 value).
• We will send a response and notification to every submission within 4 months. Form response only, unless we are interested in publishing your book. We are regretfully unable to provide feedback. If you have not heard back after 4 months, please feel free to follow up (kindly).
• We acknowledge that we are headquartered on what should be Arapaho land on a street that is instead named for a dead white male president who owned enslaved people and severed Native American Nations apart irrevocably. To honor the reparations that this entire country needs to make, Black writers and Native American Indigenous (United States and Canada) writers may submit appropriate manuscripts for free to this open-reading period (please note that if the portal is not open, then we have reached our free-submission monthly cap until the beginning of the next open-reading period).
• If you’re ready to submit, head on over to Submittable.

Book-Length Nonfiction

Reading Period

Submissions open: MAY, AUG
Selections made: Within 4 months
Publication: 2024/2025

Submission Guidelines

• We’re seeking book-length manuscripts of creative nonfiction, literary memoir, essay collections, or hybrid. We especially want to hear from marginalized and underrepresented authors, and we are an LGBTQUIA+ safe-space. Manuscripts may be in any genre or style. Choose the category of best fit.
• Manuscripts must be geared toward an adult readership. We are not interested in books for children.
• Straight or scholarly nonfiction should have proper citations.
• 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.
• These manuscripts are not read incognito. It doesn’t matter if your identifying information is or isn’t inside your submission file, as long as your Submittable contact information is correct.
• 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.
• Collections that contain previously published pieces are considered.
• Submit via Submittable only. We do not accept email submissions.
• There is a $5.99 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 nonfiction book, currently The Uncertainty Principle: Essays on Infertility, Conception, Birth, and Quantum Mechanics by Joel Wachman ($7.99 value).
• We will send a response and notification to every submission within 4 months. Form response only, unless we are interested in publishing your book. We are regretfully unable to provide feedback. If you have not heard back after 4 months, please feel free to follow up (kindly).
• We acknowledge that we are headquartered on what should be Arapaho land on a street that is instead named for a dead white male president who owned enslaved people and severed Native American Nations apart irrevocably. To honor the reparations that this entire country needs to make, Black writers and Native American Indigenous (United States and Canada) writers may submit appropriate manuscripts for free to this open-reading period (please note that if the portal is not open, then we have reached our free-submission monthly cap until the beginning of the next open-reading period).
• If you’re ready to submit, head on over to Submittable.

Book-Length Poetry

Reading Period

Submissions open: JUL, OCT, DEC
Selections made: Within 4 months
Publication: 2024/2025

Submission Guidelines

• We’re seeking book-length manuscripts of poetry, experimental, prose poems, or hybrid poetry. We especially want to hear from marginalized and underrepresented authors, and we are an LGBTQUIA+ safe-space. Manuscripts may be in any genre or style.
• 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.
• These manuscripts are not read incognito. It doesn’t matter if your identifying information is or isn’t inside your submission file, as long as your Submittable contact information is correct.
• 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.
• Collections that contain previously published pieces are considered.
• Submit via Submittable only. We do not accept email submissions.
• There is a $5.99 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 poetry book, currently Him or Her or Whatever by Tyler Friend ($7.99 value).
• We will send a response and notification to every submission within 4 months. Form response only, unless we are interested in publishing your book. We are regretfully unable to provide feedback. If you have not heard back after 4 months, please feel free to follow up (kindly).
• We acknowledge that we are headquartered on what should be Arapaho land on a street that is instead named for a dead white male president who owned enslaved people and severed Native American Nations apart irrevocably. To honor the reparations that this entire country needs to make, Black writers and Native American Indigenous (United States and Canada) writers may submit appropriate manuscripts for free to this open-reading period (please note that if the portal is not open, then we have reached our free-submission monthly cap until the beginning of the next open-reading period).
• If you’re ready to submit, head on over to Submittable.

Publication

Selected manuscripts receive book publication on Alternating Current Press, which includes distribution through Ingram and all major online retailers. Publication is in hardcover, paperback, and ePub formats, with possible audiobook publication, as well, and includes 5 complimentary hardcover copies, 10 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. (Please note that manuscripts submitted during the open-reading period are considered for publication but are not considered for prizes; to be eligible for prizes, please submit to the Electric Book Award, Spark Translation Prize, or Front Range Book Prize instead.) We generally select 3 to 5 manuscripts for publication from our open-reading periods.

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