GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
Mercy Seat Press is a small press run by two people. By small press standards, we’re small. A small press, that is. We are both of average height. One of us is of above average weight.
Because of our size, we anticipate that in the next year or two, we will be putting out one or two new titles per year. (In the future, we expect to be a monolithic publishing juggernaut who will have Oprah begging us to allow her to hawk our books on TV. ) At present, we publish chapbooks with print runs between 200 and 700 copies. Chapbooks cost relatively little to produce and they also tend have a limited market, often selling mostly in the author's own community. The projects we have done to date have been marketable on a modest scale.
We are interested in good quality poetry, short fiction, essays, and nonfiction short works. We look for good writing and do not function as a vanity press. Our authors are not expected to front any money. On the other hand, as is true of almost all book publishing, authors must be able to market their own work—through their own connections and through their willingness to get out and read and sign. Chapbooks have traditionally been best marketed by this kind of personal approach.
Our experience has been that there are a lot of fine writers who do not get published because they write material that lacks broad appeal but is excellent nonetheless. It has also been our experience that some writers do not get published because, bluntly, their work is interesting to the author but not necessarily to a range of potential readers.
A distinctive feature of our work is that it is closely related to charitable enterprise. All of out authors agree to donate portions of proceeds to a charity of their choice. As publishers, we reserve the right to decline to publish a book which supports extremist, advocacy charities, but our intent is to permit broad leeway in our authors’ choices of charities. As examples, charities which have benefited from Mercy Seat sales include the American Cancer Society, a rape crisis/advocacy center, a church youth group, and a youth-oriented art program.
Because we do not function as a vanity press, Mercy Seat accepts financial risk by printing books which may not sell. At the same time, we look to authors to aggressively market their own work. An important part of the process, therefore, is for Mercy Seat’s editors to conclude that an author has what it takes to move his or her own books. We will also actively participate in the process but, due to the size of our press, we are limited in what we can do.
Chapbooks are typically 20-60 pages, center-stapled, with a card stock cover printed in color. To date, we have not published a perfect-bound book with a spine.
We handle the design and formatting of the chapbook including cover art, but we work with authors in this process.
If you think you have work that might be suitable, here is how you may proceed, in six simple steps:
Send us a letter of inquiry, telling us about your work and what you would like to see in the way of a chapbook.
In your letter, provide ideas about how you would personally be able to market your book. (If we respond with interest in your project, we will describe our role and we will reach a written agreement before moving forward).
Enclose with your letter a sample of your writing. Three to five poems, an essay or something that will give us a good representation of the kind of work you seek to have published.
If you anticipate a chapbook made up of several pieces (poetry, essays) we strongly encourage development of a unifying theme.
We strongly prefer working with authors with some previous publications, such as pieces published in magazines, journals, and websites (other than one’s own). Please do not refer us to the Internet to read your work—provide hard copies. Provide information about a charity you want to support. These charities may be national or regional, but we urge you to consider supporting a charity in your community.
Provide a brief bio and contact information, including email and telephone numbers. If we are interested in your work, we will get in touch with you and work toward negotiating an arrangement. Ultimately, we will need to establish a written agreement.
Here's the address:
Thanks for your interest!
