Submitting work to Reality Street
Like any publisher, large or small, Reality Street gets regular publishing proposals from writers and would-be writers - far outstripping our capacity to satisfy this demand.
Currently, we publish four new titles a year - this is likely to go up to six from 2011, but it's still a tiny output, even compared with some other innovative poetry and prose presses. Therefore we cannot even publish everything that we like.
Even more to the point, we cannot cope with the large number of inappropriate submissions and proposals we receive. But we don't want to close the door to new work (and believe it or not, a few of the books we've published recently are the result of unsolicited submissions from poets and writers who have done their research properly!).
So here are some guidelines:
Reality Street publishes contemporary imaginative writing - both verse and prose - that is innovative, i.e. not unthinking pastiche of writing of the past. We publish writing in English, primarily from writers based in the UK, but also from elsewhere in the world, and sometimes in translation from other languages. At present our list divides into two: the Poetry series and the Narrative series.
Poetry series
The kinds of poetry Reality Street publishes have had many labels applied to them: linguistically innovative, experimental, language-centred, avant-garde, post-avant, British Poetry Revival poetry, Cambridge poetry, parallel tradition. None of these will do, but if you recognise some of these inadequate tags you will know what we mean.
We are looking for single-author collections from 64 pages upwards (very occasionally anthologies) that work coherently as books in some way. We do not publish chapbooks or pamphlets, and we don't generally publish online.
Please take a look at the large range of poetry and poets we publish. If you haven't already read any poetry by these authors or others working in similar vein, if you don't possess any of their books, indeed if you don't recognise any of the names, then it's highly unlikely you will have anything to interest us. Sorry, that's the way it is.
Narrative series
This is a relatively new part of our list. Apart from one 1998 title, it didn't get going until 2005, but is now an important ingredient of Reality Street's output. We're interested in imaginative prose writing that is not necessarily prose poetry, although it may have poetic qualities. Although "narrative" is in the series title, it could be non-narrative or even anti-narrative writing, or writing that problematises or subverts or questions narration. Or it could be straight narrative with a quirky approach. Or simply prose writing that breaks marketing boundaries.
It is important to state what the Narrative Series is not looking for. We don't want literary novels that aspire to the big publishing houses but haven't quite made it. We're not looking for genre fiction - thrillers, murder mysteries, science fiction, romances - though writing that uses and/or subverts the conventions of such fiction may interest us. We definitely don't want confessional narratives of misery and redemption.
More about the Narrative Series here.
What to do
If you've read thus far, and still think you have something to interest us, please contact us. If we like the sound of your proposal we may ask you to email a manuscript as an attachment (Word, rtf or pdf). The chances are not high, but there's always a chance. If you don't get a reply to your message within two weeks, you can assume that your proposal hasn't found favour.
Reality Street is not run for profit, but is a project dedicated to the furtherance of the imagination. We have minimal resources and run on a shoestring. We would love our books to be available in every high street bookstore but alas, in the present market framework that is not possible. Reality Street will not make you rich and famous; indeed, although we are meticulous in paying royalties due to our authors, in the vast majority of cases this will never amount to even so much as one month's payment on an average home mortgage. We don't have extensive contacts in the London literary world. We have on rare occasions got authors on the radio, but not yet on TV. There won't be nationwide tours and book signings organised by the press. If these things are important to you, look elsewhere.
Equally importantly, Reality Street is not a vanity press. A proposal from you to invest your own money in your publication, or contribute to production costs, will not cut any ice with us.
Having said which - we depend crucially on our Supporter Scheme. If you'd like to help us, and do yourself a good turn at the same time by exposing yourself to exciting and interesting new writing, then we'd be very grateful for your joining. It isn't a condition of your being accepted as an author, much less a passport to such acceptance. But it may be of mutual benefit.
