Submissions

Grayson Books sponsors two annual contests; one for full-length manuscripts and one for chapbooks. See the Contests page for more information.

Poetry Books
Grayson Books, a small, independent press, publishes a handful of books each year. We value the opportunity to work closely with our authors, but our standards are high. If you are interested in publishing with Grayson Books, please send a sample of 6-10 pages of the manuscript, along with a statement of your qualifications and publication credits, expected audience and promotion ideas. To do this, email the editor: gconnors@graysonbooks.com with your information and attach a Word document with your sample poems.

You will receive feedback on your proposal within two months; very often it only takes a couple of weeks. If your proposal seems promising, we will ask for a complete manuscript so we can give it more thorough evaluation. Currently we publish 5-10% of the poetry books we are asked to consider.

The hybrid publishing model is used for many of the books we publish. (Prize-winning collections and anthologies are published under different arrangements.) When we agree to publish a collection, we ask the author to contribute toward costs of publication. In return we offer very generous royalties. We work closely with the author, including editing, proof-reading, and mutual decision-making. Our books are professionally typeset, and the covers are professionally designed with input from the authors. Authors receive a number of copies as well as the opportunity to purchase additional, discounted copies at any time.

Our books are featured on our web site and available through amazon.com. Although we send out press releases and some review copies, our most successful authors do a lot of their own promotion work.