Submissions
We read everything that comes in, and we say yes to a small amount of it. What follows is an honest description of what we publish, how to send it, and what happens afterwards, so nobody spends a month waiting on a guess.
What we are looking for
Colliding Lines publishes experimental literature and interactive art objects: graphic writing, concrete and visual poetry, asemic and ergodic work, erasure and found text, collage, typographic experiment, instruction scores and sound pieces. We are interested in writing that uses the printed format as material rather than as a container — work where the fold, the paper, the sequence or the object itself is doing part of the reading.
We are equally happy to receive work that is hard to categorise. If you cannot tell us which genre it belongs to, that is usually a good sign rather than a problem.
What we are not the right home for
Straightforward lyric collections, genre fiction, memoir and academic writing are all better served elsewhere. We are a small press with a specific remit, and sending that work to us wastes your time more than ours.
How to send work
- Print and text work — send a PDF that shows the work as you intend it to be read, including any spreads, folds or unusual page order. Ten to twenty pages is plenty for a first look; whole manuscripts are welcome if the piece only makes sense entire.
- Objects and editions — photographs or a short video of a mock-up tell us far more than a description. Rough prototypes are fine.
- Sound work for the radio show — a private streaming link and a short note on how the piece was made. Length is flexible; see the Radio page for the sort of thing that gets broadcast.
Include a couple of sentences about the work and about you. We do not need a publication history and we do not care whether you have one.
Reading periods and replies
General submissions are read in batches through the year, and specific themed calls open separately — those are always listed on the Open Calls page with their own deadlines and guidelines. Expect a reply within eight to twelve weeks. If a piece is being seriously considered we will usually say so earlier and then ask for time.
Simultaneous submissions are absolutely fine. Tell us if the work is placed elsewhere and we will close the file with no hard feelings.
Rights and payment
You keep copyright in your work, always. We take first publication rights for the edition we produce and a non-exclusive right to show the work in our own promotion and archive. After publication the work is yours to reprint anywhere you like; we only ask that the first edition is credited.
Contributors are paid a share of the run — copies of the edition as standard, and a fee or royalty split where the project is funded. The terms are set out in writing before anything goes to print.
Access
If the submission process itself is a barrier — formats, deadlines, the cost of posting an object — say so and we will find another way. We would rather adjust the process than lose the work.
