About

About Alternating Current Press

Mission Statement

Alternating Current Press strives to furnish challenging, thought-provoking, and enriching literature to a world that doesn’t have enough of it. Through diverse and immediate publications, ACP creates a space for necessary noncommercial works that provide an alternative to the mainstream and hold a unique place in the literary landscape. [Back to Top]

Your Donations Keep Us Going

Want to help us reach our mission? Please donate! As an indie press, our budget is small, and our finances can be unpredictable from month to month. Help us remain steady and thriving by pitching in any amount toward our annual fundraising goals. [Back to Top]

About Alternating Current Press

Alternating Current Press is an indie press dedicated to publishing and promoting incredible literature that challenges readers and has an innate sense of self, timelessness, and atmosphere. We love science, history, homebound roots, rural landscapes, sense of place, poetic literary fiction, diverse voices, and all that is electric in the literary world. We publish full-length books, multi-author anthologies, slim chapbooks, and various print and online journals featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work. What’s awesome about indie presses is that we can print what we love without any boundaries and without having to adhere to lame trends or commercial sales markets.

ACP began in 1993 in a small farm-town in rural Michigan, and though the press went through several name changes and differences of style, its heart has always remained the same. We started with cut ’n’ paste zines and photocopied chapbooks, all saddlestapled by hand, and in 2011, we moved entirely to paperback. Now, with over 200 books, chapbooks, and zines in our back catalog, we publish out of small spaces on Madison and Arapahoe in Boulder, Colorado, and stay very active in the local, national, and online literary scenes. We are a woman-owned and -operated press and a registered LLC in good standing [LLC public Colorado ID record 20241795052].

Our books are available globally in paperback, ebook, and hardcover through our website storefront (where the press and authors make the most money from your purchase!); via all major online retailers, including Amazon, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Gumroad, eBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Books-a-Million, and Waterstones; from your favorite bookstore, library, or university via Ingram, Asterism Books, OverDrive, and Bookshop; to the industry via Edelweiss+ (requires login to access), and in-person at tons of bookfairs around the U.S., including the annual AWP conference. For booksellers, industry buyers, book clubs, rights acquirers, and reviewers, please see detailed information here.

Meet our staff here. [Back to Top]

What We Publish

We seek literary fiction, general fiction (but not commercial fiction), literary historical fiction (most likely not commercial historical fiction unless it has a unique hook), quirky fiction, hybrid works, experimental fiction (such as a novel-in-vignettes, for instance), short-story collections, novellas, essay collections, creative nonfiction with a literary bent, memoir with a literary bent, plausible and realistic literary science fiction (not commercial space operas or fantasy, but something along the lines of Alexander Weinstein’s Children of the New World, for instance), linked-themed chapbooks (all genres), themed anthologies, historical writing, play scripts, and poetry (all styles, though we don’t tend to go for the ultra-experimental). We are a liberal press, an LGBTQUIA2+ and BIPOC+ safe space, and we seek work by writers of all abilities, ages, cultures, identities, and orientations. If this sounds like it fits you or the book you’re representing, submissions may be made by authors directly through our website here only when categories are open. If you’re a Duotroper and want to log your submissions, you can find us on Duotrope here (scroll down on the Duotrope page to see our list of open projects). Agents can find our agented-submission information at Publishers Marketplace. [Back to Top]

What We Don’t Publish

We are NOT interested in Christian fiction, religious work of any kind, holistic or spiritual writing, rightwing agendas, exclusivity, hate speech, quack or metaphysical sciences, self-healing or self-help, erotica, shock-value (overtly violent or sexual) transgressive literature, highly commercial work that follows formulaic genre rules, or any work that promotes gun violence, domestic violence, violence against women and underrepresented groups, cultist behaviors, or “Stockholm syndrome.” We are not the best home for personal or family memoir, any work that is too introspected to be universally enjoyed or understood, or any work that isn’t crafted carefully and thoughtfully with attention paid to the line level. We do not publish YA, NA, MG, picture books, or any books for children. [Back to Top]

Publishing Process Overview

We are a traditional press, but we have a small team, so we do things a little differently here to maintain sanity. The publishing industry moves like molasses, so if you are in some hurry to get your book published immediately, please go self-publish and do not submit to us because we aren’t the right home for you. We are a slower, meticulous press that focuses on the process and an amazing end result, and we don’t work with deadlines until we get to the ARC phase. Our books are pieces of art, and we take our time with each one, but the production pipeline can take up to two years.

The process begins with submitting your work, then we’ll issue you a contract if accepted, along with an author guide that walks you through every step of the process, so you aren’t in the dark. We have a tough editorial board with a low acceptance rate for most categories. Your book moves into line in the acquisitions queue, but we don’t look at dates, final materials, or publication-release schedules until it’s your turn in the queue. We work meticulously through the back-and-forth editing, set the layout and design, and complete an ARC, and then, we set a release date that’s eight months out from ARC completion to give plenty of time for promotion (two months of prep time, six months of promo time). It’s a no-pressure pipeline that allows us to focus on one project at a time from start to finish, so every author gets equal care and attention-to-detail and no book is rushed, but it can take a little bit to get to your spot in the queue. If you’re into churning out titles to make a quick buck, we are not your publishing house. If, however, your book is like a deeply loved and perfectly weird child to you, then we might just be the home that’s worth the wait.

Please note that, like all small indie presses, we have limited reach and minuscule budgets when it comes to publicity. We do our best with what we have, but please understand the limitations of a small press vs. a major press before submitting to us, so you aren’t disappointed when you don’t win a Pulitzer and get a spot on Good Morning, America, a bestseller selection on Oprah’s Book Club, and a rave review in The New York Times. [Back to Top]

Hours of Operation

Sunday: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (focus is on The Coil pieces)
Monday: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (focus is on business, orders, correspondence)
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (focus is on upcoming books)
Thursday: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (focus is on current, reprint, or upcoming books)
Friday: Closed
Saturday: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (focus is on reading submissions)

We are closed to the public on the 1st and 15th of every month for website maintenance, contest necessities, newsletter production, and/or to open/close submissions.

We are closed to the public over the third full week of every month for internal maintenance and staying on track. We do not answer emails during this closure, but we are working behind the scenes and all orders are still processed daily, as normal.

We are closed to the public and do not answer emails during all bookfair and conference travel and event dates where we are (wo)manning tables or hosting events.

Our main-office “holiday” closures are: Spring break (aligns with CU-Boulder’s spring break week, usually end of March), AWP week (aligns with the AWP conference, which can be anywhere from February to April), Earth Day (April 22), Birthday time! (July 10-12), Election Day (the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November), Thanksgiving week (aligns with CU-Boulder’s winter break week that runs over Thanksgiving), Winter break (December 17-January 3). Please note that some of our staff set their own dates for other holidays, events, and vacations and may not adhere to the main Boulder office’s hours. [Back to Top]

Seasonal Publication Schedule

Spring Season: March, April, May
Summer Season: June, July, August
Fall Season: September, October, November
Winter Season: December, January, February
[View Current Seasonal Catalog] [Back to Top]

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that we are headquartered on what should be Arapaho land with a warehouse on a street that is instead named for a dead white male president who owned enslaved people and severed Native American Nations apart irrevocably and an office on a street named after the very People whose land was stolen. To honor the reparations that this entire country needs to make, Black writers and Native American Indigenous (United States and Canada) writers may submit material to our press for free during all open reading periods. See the submission guidelines of each project for information. [Back to Top]

Code of Conduct

We are proud to pledge to VIDA’s code for making the literary community a safer place for all, especially those among us who are the most vulnerable.
Kindness matters.

ACP expects its authors to be kind literary citizens within the industry and to conduct themselves with decency in the public sphere, which includes social-media profiles. We reserve the right to sever ties and contracts with authors who target or harass others; use racist, homophobic, xenophobic, ableist, or otherwise derogatory remarks toward others in public media; publish external material that is harmful to others; or otherwise conduct themselves in a way that would reflect poorly on our press. Literary citizenship is important to us, and the literary community is small and tight knit. We all need one another, and we rise by lifting others. [Back to Top]

Privacy Policy

We never give out customer information, and we never sell our email mailing lists, including both general-public and private lists. For authors: We never give out any information that we gather from our authors, except for uses expressly noted in advance. We never sell your private information to any third parties unless explicitly mentioned. If your contact information is requested by any third party, we will confirm with you before we give out any information. We protect the pen names of our authors. [Back to Top]

Promotional Branding

ACP has a brand look that we maintain in the public and social spheres. Our colors are a bright yellow hex #FFFF00, a bright blue hex #308EE6, and a powder blue hex #6699cc. Our standard easy-to-read non-serif font for social graphics is Avenir Book. Our ACP official name logo is set in Portmanteau. You can download the following hi-res logos from our website: our lightbulb logo, the full website banner header, the plain ACP books background, our plain ACP logo with name, the yellow-tinted ACP logo with name and tagline, The Coil header banner, The Coil header title words, The Coil title runner on black background, The Coil title runner on transparent background, the Footnote journal title logo in blue, the Little Pigeon Series logo, the Violet Ray Series logo, and the Wardenclyffe Series logo. If you need further logos, images, or award medallions, please let us know. Author photos and hi-res book covers can be publicly found on the individual book pages and privately found in reviewer media kits (access required for media kits). [Back to Top]

Contact & Ethics

Office Mailing Address:
Alternating Current Press, LLC
2525 Arapahoe Ave, Ste E4 #162
Boulder, Colorado 80302 USA

**Ethics: This address is for mailing purposes only. Don’t mail manuscripts; we don’t accept submissions via mail. Don’t show up at the office without making an appointment; we almost always work from home and many of us are remotely spread around the U.S., so no one will be onsite. Don’t add us to your mailing list.**

Email:
altcurrentpress @ gmail . com

**Ethics: Don’t send us attachments without permission; we won’t open them if we don’t recognize the sender. Don’t email manuscripts (unless you are an agent); we don’t accept submissions from authors via email. Don’t query about editing or illustrating jobs, and please don’t send your résumé; we are usually not hiring, but if we have open positions, they are listed here. Don’t send us a direct email asking for a status update on your submissions; status requests should go through Submittable messages attached to the submission in question. Don’t add us to your email mailing list.**

Phone:
+1 (307) 900-2529

**Ethics: Please send us an email first, and only call if we haven’t responded to the email within a few days. Please use this number for only texting, if possible. If you have to call, please set up an appointment before calling. We will not pick up the phone on any number we don’t recognize because 99% of the calls are spam. Don’t add us to your calling lists. Verification codes cannot be sent to this number.**

**Ethics: Please don’t DM us through any social media; we have an email address specifically designed for correspondence. Please don’t @ us to ask about submissions, statuses, royalties, orders, etc.; again, louder for those in the back, we have an email address specifically designed for correspondence. The folks who are knowledgeable about your questions are the ones answering the emails, not the ones running the social media accounts.**

Meet our staff here. [Back to Top]