Submissions

Are you ready to submit to the 2024 Jack McCarthy Book Prize?

LETS GO.

From April 1st-April 30, 2024 Write Bloody Publishing is accepting submissions from talented poets who are looking to publish a full-length book of poetry with us! Write Bloody plans to select 1-6 poets who will have the opportunity to publish a full-length manuscript (approximately 40-50 poems).

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: 

April 1st-April 30th: Submissions will open at 12:01 am Pacific time April 1st and will close at 11:59pm Pacific time on April 30th. No extensions will be granted.

May 17: Semi-finalists announced. Finalists will be announced on our website and across our social media pages (Instagram). You will also receive an email through Submittable alerting you if you have been chosen as a finalist or not.​

June 3: Finalists announced. Finalists will have access to an email where you must submit a 20-poem manuscript by 11:59pm Pacific time on June 17. (The five poems you submitted for round one can be included in this.) This will give us a better idea of what your full-length manuscript will be like.​

June 17: 20-poem manuscript due.

Video: Along with your manuscript, finalists must submit a video of themselves performing one of the poems from your 20-poem manuscript sample. Upload to youtube and send in email to us. (Full manuscript is 40-50 poems, not due at this time.) 

Please upload this video directly to YouTube and include the link. (Finalists only)

This video can be creative or simple. It can be done professionally or on your cell phone. It can be filmed at a reading or in your living room. Our goal is to hear and see how you read and perform your work out loud. *Please make sure the audio quality is good enough so we can hear you clearly.*

July 15th: By this date, all finalists will have received an email letting them know if they have been selected to publish a full-length collection with Write Bloody Publishing in 2024!​

Click here to view our Submittable page and SUBMIT. 

 

 Write Bloody requires that our authors be willing and able to tour with their book upon its publication. This means that if you are selected to join the Write Bloody team, you will be required to do at least 20 readings within the first year of your book’s release. These 20 readings can be in your home state, or you can hit the road as most of our authors do. 

If you are selected as a finalist for the contest, you will be asked to submit a 20 poem sampler on June 17, of 20 pages of your full 40-50 poem manuscript. 

Winners announced July 15.

*Submissions are open to U.S. citizens and U.S persons only. Must be 18 years of age or older at time of submission.

How to submit:

Submissions may be uploaded to Write Bloody’s Submittable page during the submission window (April 1st – April 30th). Please note that we DO NOT accept submissions before this and we will not be extending the submission period. Once you submit, you should receive an email from Submittable confirming your submission. 

*Please note that each person is limited to one, five-poem submission per contest. Multiple entries by the same person are not allowed and will be disqualified.*

Submissions will cost buying one Write Bloody book - you can screenshot the receipt and attach it to the application. 

What you will need:

1. A Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF with 5 original poems.*

2. A little something about yourself! (Please keep this to one paragraph.)

3. Proof of purchase of a WB book in 2024. Amazon screenshot, receipt, etc.

*Poems may have been printed in individual magazines or journals, but absolutely no work from any previously published books or full manuscripts. Poems from chapbooks without ISBNs are okay, as long as you hold all the rights to the submitted material.

HI!

Hello from the backend! It's Derrick. I have witnessed life as an author, performer, and publisher and I have seen my fair share of rejections and a few successes. My goal is to help as many poets as I can as I learn as much as possible and share the goods.

I have had a chance to peer behind the screen of publishing. I started to see trends and want to give feedback, but with 500-1000 submissions, the volume makes it impossible. If you read the books we publish you'll notice we are drawn to certain writing styles. This is why we have submiters buy a book.

Here are some things past winners did that you can use for submitting your poems to any submission contest on submittable, not just Write Bloody.

 

Last sentence above should say, Can your poem hold a true feeling, etc.