Emerging Writers FAQ

Absolutely not. Z Publishing House never charges "submission fees" or any other such nonsense. You will never be required to make a payment to the company--not before, during, nor after the publication of the book. We very strongly recommend against submitting to any publisher or company that does not maintain the same policy.

Our Copyright Policy (which can be read here) is non-exclusive, which means that even if we select your writing to be published, you still maintain the right to self-publish the writing or even submit the writing to other publishers/companies, so long as Z Publishing maintains the right to keep the writing in our own anthology and promote it to readers. So, yes, you absolutely maintain the rights to your work.

If you accept my writing, where exactly will it be featured?
For this series, we intend to publish multiple books per state--one book per genre we are accepting. For example, for California we will publish an anthology of literary fiction, an anthology of mystery/suspense stories, an anthology of fantasy, etc.

You will indeed be credited. In addition to your pen name being listed below the title of your poem, you will have the opportunity to include a 100-word author biography to be featured in the author index at the back of the book.

What is your selection process?
All submissions will be read by three in-house editors; writings must be accepted by two of three editors to be selected for publication.

The submission deadline is different for each state. Please see below for the deadline for each respective state.

What is the maximum word count per writing?
The maximum word count for each story you submit is 5,000 words. You may submit up to three stories per genre.

We will make small changes to the grammar and format of your writing, such that it abides by our submission and publishing standards. That being said, if a work is written well enough to be accepted, it means that there is very little we feel needs to be changed. Indeed, it is strikingly rare for one of our contributors to take issue with our edits. Still, once the book is proofread, we allow all contributors one week to review their updated writing and request revisions to it. If they are still entirely unhappy with the version of the writing, they can request for their writing to be withdrawn from the manuscript.

When we begin a new book or series, we run numerous online campaigns in order to ensure that we receive the highest quality writing possible within the submissions period. As you will read below, we like to fill half of a given book with writing from "invited submitters" and half of the book with writings from submitters who were not invited to submit. "Invited submissions" are accumulated by our communication department's reaching out to writers who've been published by reputable sources within each state. The other half of writings are accumulated more organically--word of mouth, online search engines, social media, and from our previous contributors who wish to be published again.

Invited submissions come from writers who have already been published in magazines, websites, journals, etc., that our editors respect based on their past research. In preparation for our first Emerging Writers series, our editors spent the eight months of 2017 reading through hundreds of journals and websites in each state to find the writers most qualified to submit to our series. In doing so, we kept records of our favorite journals, websites, and other sources of up-and-coming talent.

Because we are now constantly working to publish new books, we no longer have the time to read through third-party journals in our search for talent. However, if you've already been published in a journal that our editors know to be well-credentialed, it means your work is probably a good fit for this series as well, and someone from our five-person communications team may reach out to you to invite you to submit to this series. If this happens, your submission is an "invited submission." Those who have previously been published by us are similarly invited to submit. 

I was asked to submit as an "invited submitter." Does this mean that my work is guaranteed to be published in the series?

As an invited submitter, your work is not guaranteed to be published in this series. Indeed, we can not guarantee to publish any writing that we have never seen. However, for the reasons stated above, it means that you are highly likely to have at least one of your submissions published in the series, so long as you follow the submission guidelines. Typically, we publish roughly 80 percent of our "invited submitters," which is nearly six times higher than our acceptance rate for others.

You do not need to inform us; go ahead and submit! However, if you arrived at our submissions page after receiving an email from Z Publishing, it would indeed be helpful for you to respond to our email indicating whether or not you intend to submit, as these records determine how many more invitations we'd prefer to send.

Of course! We are always happy to receive more organic submissions, as it is a sign that our company is growing. If your writing is good enough, it will be published in this series, regardless of whether or not you were invited to submit. In fact, in our books, we like to publish about 50 percent "invited submitters" and 50 percent organic submitters.

This all depends on the quality and quantity of the submissions we receive for the given book. In the past, we've published anthologies featuring as few as 15 people, and we've also published an anthology featuring as many as 180 people. However, since we are dividing each anthology by genre, we have the liberty to publish much longer writings than before. We anticipate featuring around 15-20 writers in each collection.

Unfortunately, as a small press, we cannot yet afford to pay our contributors royalties. The best we can do is offer payments based on commission--that is to say, you will be paid for all of the sales that you personally generate. If your work is selected to be included in the series, you will receive a link to join our affiliates program from one of our editors. The program is entirely optional and entirely free. We are working hard to open new avenues of revenue for our authors, and we are proud to have recently begun offering distribution deals writers, poets, and other up-and-coming creatives. Find more information on our distribution deals here!

Yes; just use good judgment on how much profanity is too much for a family-friendly audience. Keep in mind, also, that if the piece is selected, some instances of profanity or violence may be toned down by our editors in order to abide by our publishing standards.

Can I submit pieces that have already been published elsewhere?
By submitting to one of our books, you are agreeing to our Copyright Policy; one provision of which is that the submitter confirms that they maintain full rights to the work being submitted. If you are not certain whether or not you hold full copyrights to the work, please hold off on submitting until you are certain and/or submit unpublished material instead.

Can/should I submit images as well?
No, please do not send us any images. We are a text-exclusive publisher.

Can I submit poetry?

Not for this series! Please submit your poetry to our Best Emerging Poets series instead.

Can I submit to more than one state?
We ask that you refrain from submitting to more than one state. Please submit to whichever state to which you feel the most allegiance. You may, however, submit as many genres as you wish.

I've submitted my writing. What is the next step?
That's it! Just be on the lookout for a possible acceptance email, which would be sent to whatever email you listed on your submission form. You may want to add books@zpublishing.net to your address book to ensure our emails are received properly.

Will I be contacted if my writing is not selected?
Due to the high number of submissions we receive, we do not send rejection emails.

Can I submit a draft of my work to learn if I am on the right track?
Please do not send us drafts, as we do not have time to read and give feedback on them while we work to publish our upcoming books. A better option would be to have a friend or family member look over your work before you make your submission.

Where will these books be sold/distributed?
Each book in our Emerging Writers series will be primarily marketed online. We are, however, slowly building a network of stores, markets, etc. across the country where we also intend to distribute this series.

If my writing is accepted, what benefits will I receive to my creative career?
As we are still a young press, an acceptance from us should not be viewed as a one-way ticket to literary stardom. However, we do all we can to help our contributing authors succeed in today's highly competitive literary world, including:

• Nominating our favorite writings at the end of each year for the Pushcart Award
• Offering our favorite writers solo-author book deals (beginning Spring 2018)
• Inviting all of our contributors to our private Facebook group, wherein our growing network of writers, poets, editors, agents, store owners, etc. can network amongst each other
• Offering all contributors preferred consideration for our career opportunities
• More to come!