What do we consider?

We are predominantly a poetry press, but we are open to other excellent writing that remains within the limits of a chapbook: short concise fiction or nonfiction — memoir, essays, short stories, comics-style stories, are all possible if your proposal includes the following: 

Excellent Writing
We publish new and established writers both, and we are looking for top-notch work.

Creative Vision
We need an idea of what your book will look like. A prototype is ideal, since we need to be able to assess whether the proposed project is do-able and feasible. If you’re submitting your work online instead of through the mail, send detailed photos of your prototype from multiple angles, including close-ups of book binding techniques. If you have a chapbook manuscript but aren’t too keen on book design, we might be able to work with you, or find an artist or artisan who would be excited to collaborate.

When considering design, here’s what we think about:

• Does the form or art of the book complement the theme of the writing?
• Is the structure of the book manageable to read?
• Is the final book object something we can reasonably ship through the mail?
• Are the materials used to craft the book selected with purpose?

Submission Requirements:

Chapbook Design Concept and/or Prototype
Include a mockup of your creative concept for the construction of your chapbook and/or photos of the prototype chapbook you’ve created and/or the prototype itself.

Manuscript
Submit your polished manuscript in a legible font.

Creator CV(s)
Include a CV for yourself as well as any collaborators on the project. We would love to see your past projects and get a sense of your creative experience and vision.

Project Budget
Since we are working with individual creators, we need to have a sense of what producing your work will cost. Project your costs for producing 75 copies of whatever your book design entails. This will likely include the following:

• Cost of materials
• Printing costs
• Labour costs to assemble the books

You are welcome to submit the budget in whichever format works best for you. If you’d like a template to start from you are welcome to use our budget template.

Publishing with JackPine

If your submission is selected for publication, we pay $2,500 in three installments to facilitate the production of 75 hand-made, high quality chapbooks.

JackPine hosts one to two launch events annually to celebrate and showcase new work. Aside from paying a reading fee to every JackPine author at these events, we will work with you for travel and accommodations for the launch of your book. After launch, we manage sales through our website, take your work to book fairs, work with you to market your chapbook, and do our best to make sure your chapbook is recognized and enjoyed. We regularly submit JackPine chapbooks for consideration of awards like the bpNichol chapbook award, and we want to continue to publish prize-winning work.

Our staff and board is made up of writers, artists, arts enthusiasts, and other knowledgeable creators. We care about the chapbooks we co-create as well as the authors, artists, and creators we work with.