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How to Submit to Pudding House Always include SASE no matter what they tell you at writers conferences. Always include email. If you don’t have email you might consider how serious you are about writing beyond a decade ago. If you’re reading this at a library because you can’t afford a computer, I praise you. Life’s tough in 2009 and you’re doing something about it. Never send certified, registered, or anything that requires a signature. We do not make the special 7 mile trip to our post office to pick up that mail since another post office is right across the street. Never individually fold poems one after another—we’ll slather you with peach preserves and feed you to the yellow jackets. Absolutely anyone can figure out why that’s horribly piss-offing to an editor. Never enclose postcard instead of SASE without that being approved in the guidelines and never do it to us. We will throw away the postcard and you won’t hear from us. We’re not obligated to respond since that is against our guidelines. We require SASE with adequate postage to cover your poems and our response. Don’t use your fame to grant yourself permission to ignore our policies. Big names don’t turn our heads. We’ve turned away poems from far bigger names than those we’ve accepted and we’re proud of it. Well, that statement will get me on somebody’s black list. Don’t use your fame to send us your weaker poems. I’d rather publish a “c” poem from a beginner than a “c” poem from a better known. Don’t tell us we “probably won’t be interested but...”; don't set yourself up for failure like that. Don’t tell us how long you’ve been submitting your work without success (go back to work on the poems, take a workshop); don’t tell us what we can see for ourselves (that there are poems enclosed, for example); don’t tell us anything obvious. Expect good things to happon if you hope to be aligned with Pudding House. Read Tell us which project you’re submitting work for but realize that we consider all your poems for all projects. Prove to us you know our press, that you belong here. We’re not just a shot in the dark. Why should you do that? Does the poem speak to us or not? Sure. But we enjoy publishing poets who are onboard re: “applied poetry” (David Chorlton, Jeanne Lohmann) or who exhibit a bit of over the top wisdom or artistic stretch (Mark Hartenbach, Ron Moran, Fred Bruey). Prove to us you’ve grown beyond writing about parents, cancer, or the way the moonlight comes through your bedroom window (I’ve read every moonlight journey there is). OR, take up my dare to write any of that in a way we’ve never read before. You probably won’t be successful submitting work to Pudding House if: your poem starts out with snow on the daffodils, your hand upon your girlfriend’s breast, the way the wheat dances across Kansas. Have you read any of that before? Sure you have if you kept reading beyond 4th grade. If you’ve ever read it before, don’t send it here. Are there any other editors out there shaking their heads YES? We don’t want religious stuff or sentimental and rarely anything that rhymes unless you’re subtle. Read Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry, Revised and Expanded Edition by Stephen Corey and Warren Slesinger (The Bench Press) and apply nearly every contributor’s essay to Pudding House. Even where we act differently, the book will serve you in your efforts here. Send us some of the same poem/s other publishers rejected. We don’t mind folds, we praise you if you re-use poems/paper and don’t print out new (we care about the planet and loathe the notion that freshly printed poems are “professional”; they are only wasteful). If that’s professional, please don’t be for us. Care about the landfill instead. Never tell us to recycle your way when sending unsolicited manuscripts. That’s presumptuous and often that message feeds a more wasteful process. Destroying paper and re-making it into new paper takes energy and various resources as well. Instead, for as long as you can, re-use first, before you “recycle.” I only have a right to tell you this if you want to deal with us. We are all at different places in our wisdom. I’m stupid about other things but not this. If you write “please destroy manuscript if you can’t use; I can print out another” in your cover letter you have a giant step against you here. 44 cents is an efficient amount to pay for return of your poems, a well-designed and relevant response form, and possibility for more information about calls, etc., and not adding to the landfill. Additionally, we love discovering new talent and especially love finding value in what other editors over-looked. As long as we can read it clearly, we don’t care if the page has folds in it. Use at least 11 pt type. 12 or 13 pt even better. I might be going blind. Really. Do not staple, paperclip, or bind chapbook manuscripts or any other submissions for any project. Provide full name and address block on every page of poetry except for chapbooks where that should appear on a cover page. Specifics for projects: Magazine & anthology submissions by email only: 1-4 pages of poetry identified w/full name/address block including phone, email on each page. State which project you’re submitting to. Chapbooks general submission by email only: 10-32 pages of poems (21-29 preferred). Be sure to include title page, about the author statement, acknowledgments/credits, table of contents, poems. Black and white cover art is optional and appreciated and at the discretion of the publisher. Cover art is a marketing issue and therefore the publisher's choice. Include SASE and email address. Must have email and ability to put manuscript into email attachment that is in Microsoft Word format for Windows systems. If accepted specifics will come w/acceptance letter. $15 reading fee for general submission chapbook manuscripts. $20 reading fee for annual chapbook competition. See our chapbook competition. Don’t send too many poems for individual consideration. Over ten pages is a chapbook and demands a $12 reading fee so in that case you might as well send 28 and call it that. That’s not a joke. We prefer 3-7 poems well-chosen for our editorial tastes and slant. Don’t know what that is? Read us. We can continue to exist only if you read the authors we publish. If your work is accepted, you’re going to hope someone will buy it and read it, right? We receive and ask for no grants (there were 2 special grant projects over our 27 years) so we have to actually sell our books. We can’t pay off the printing plant any other way. I’m done being humble about this. Remember when I used to be humble and sweet? There's too much to lose. If I publish you, you'll want Jennifer to remind folks to consider purchasing your book. If I talk you into buying a few books, the potential pay-off for you is too great for me to be shy about this. Want to get to know Pudding House? Increase your chances here? Here's the perfect way: "The Getting to Know Pudding House Package--two anthologies, two chapbooks, one Greatest Hits, one copy of Pudding Magazine, approximate value over $70 at a minimum, your price $45 postpaid, our choice of the good books. Quote the full deal; we'll send it right out. Where we are: In the sky with space junk We no longer have the Johnstown storefront operation. We're hosted by a web hosting firm in Tennessee. Jen answers the phone at 614-986-1881 when she's not on the road. 81 Shadymere Ln Columbus, OH 43213 |