Submissions

Promo for Dithering Chaps’ submissions window

We are open for submissions

( or, if you prefer, competition entries!)

Submission Guidelines

We publish three poetry chapbooks each year, and at least one will be by a poet who has not previously had a full poetry collection published.

Our submissions process functions much like a competition, which is why you may have discovered us through listings such as the National Poetry Library’s Competition page.

Reading Periods

We run two reading periods each year:

  • April – September

  • October – March

This means you can submit at any time. All submissions received by the cut‑off dates (end of March and end of September) will be considered for the next available publication slot.

For example:

  • Submissions received up to March 2026 will be considered for November 2026 publication.

  • Submissions received between April and September 2026 will be considered for May 2027 publication, and so on.

Special December Cut‑Off

At the end of December, we will select one poet who has not yet had a collection published. That poet will be offered publication the following August. If you wish to be considered for this special opportunity, please state clearly in your submission email that you have not previously had a collection published before.

What Doesn’t Count as a Published Collection

You are still eligible for the special December cut-off opportunity if your work falls into any of the following categories:

  • Self‑published collections (print or online)

  • Pamphlets or chapbooks with fewer than 30 pages of poetry

  • Individual poems or sequences published in magazines or anthologies or

  • Hybrid publications where you covered the costs yourself.

A Final Word

We know submissions can feel daunting—every publisher has different requirements, and it can seem like a minefield. For us, the most important thing is the quality of your writing. It helps if you follow our guidelines, but don’t worry if you miss something. We’ll still give your work the careful consideration it deserves and, if you’re chosen for publication, we’ll give you our full support to ensure your collection is the best it can be.

Supporting local marginalised writers

We are proud to work with two local organisations who support writers sidelined from society. Both are based in Boscombe, Dorset: Vita Nova and The Outsiders Project.

Sharing their belief that writing can be a route to healing, self-expression and even redemption, we offer writers from both groups the opportunity to submit their work to us without payment of our reading fee.

We are sorry, but this means we are unable to accept submissions from other writers who have difficulty paying to submit.

If you’d like the opportunity to work with us, please read on …

What we are looking for …

We are keen to publish thematically-linked sequences of poems: works that riff on a core conceit, event or narrative voice. Cohesion is important to us, as is consistency of register and attention to form.

However, we don’t want to be too rigid, as much of our favourite poetry is shape-shifting and studded with chameleonic surprises, even within a single poem.

We are happy to consider any mix of longer and shorter poems (or poetic prose pieces).

We want to be surprised (even shocked) by the way your words and poems work with - and against - each other.

At this stage, all we ask is that you submit up to ten A5 pages of your work in Arial 11 point font or similar, along with a 200-word treatment, explaining your vision for the collection as a whole. If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to submit your full manuscript.

We are happy for you to include previously published work (or work posted on social media). Where previously published, please add a footnote on the relevant page(s), giving publication details.

We understand that most of us will use AI in some aspects of our writing, from spell-checking to researching our subject matter. However, we ask that you do not include any writing in your submission that has been created directly by AI. Generally, this stands out a mile. (There may be valid exceptions to this rule, eg a piece written as a dialogue between AI and human might be intriguing. If you’re doing something of that sort, best let us know!)

How to submit your work …

Before you submit, you will need to pay our submission/ reading fee and make a note of the date and order number.  Our reading fee is £10. Please pay here before you submit anything to us.

If you would like to understand more about why we make this charge, please see below, or read our blog here.

Please email your submission to our Lead Editor, David Herring, via ditheringchaps@gmail.com

In the body of your email, please include:

·      details of your submission fee payment – name, date and order number (eg 00335). We cannot consider your work until we can match it up to a payment on our system.

·      a 200-word ‘treatment’, consisting of a brief introduction to yourself and your work and a brief description of the full collection - please note you are only submitting an extract at this stage.

Your work should be attached as a Word or .pdf file, consisting of no more than ten A5 pages of Arial 11 point (or similar) and saved in the following format:

[Your Name] - [Title of your collection] - [Your order number]

eg ‘David Herring - An Editor’s Life - 007’

In the same file, at the front of your submission, please provide a contents page for the full collection. (This does not count towards your ten page limit).

You may submit more than one document at a time, but each work must be submitted and paid for separately.

Please let us know if you have not had a poetry collection published previously. (This will allow us to consider you for our December cut-off - see details above).

We have no problem with you submitting to other publishers at the same time as sending your work to us, but please let us know if your collection is accepted elsewhere. (We’re afraid that our submission/reading fees will not be reimbursed in these circumstances.)

It would be a great help to us in targeting our marketing efforts, if you could please let us know, in your submission email, where you heard about Dithering Chaps.

What happens next …

We will let you know the outcome within two months of receiving your submission.

We like to think our USP is the feedback we provide at this stage - 200 to 300 words per submission - in which we seek to give a positive appraisal of each of the ten-pagers you send.

We will indicate, when we share our feedback, whether you are in the running for our longlist or not.

A shortlist of around five poets will be announced on our website and social media a couple of weeks after each of our three cut-off dates (ie mid-April, mid-October, mid-January).

Shortlisted authors will be sent further information about the next steps.

The poet(s) we choose from each shortlist will be offered a publishing contract with us. We prefer to develop this on a case by case basis, depending on a variety of factors affecting each project.

Typically, our initial print-run will be 100 copies, which will include a small number of author copies.

Bearing in mind that a large proportion of poetry chapbook sales are author-driven, we offer a generous twenty-five per cent share of all sales income as their royalties. (As publisher, we take the larger share so, when we sell out a print-run, the income we have received allows us to finance our next publication).

We provide each author with a page on our website to promote online sales of their chapbook. We also publicise their work via our blog page and social media accounts, by provision of review copies to literary magazines and entries to relevant competitions.

Good luck, everyone!

Why we charge for submissions

We want to be upfront about why we are asking you to pay a small reading fee to submit your work (£10). We are a non-profit publisher and receive no external funding. We offer our own time and expertise free of charge for the work we do at every stage of the process leading to publication. However, there are naturally costs associated with publishing our chapbooks, principally: printing, cover design and hosting our website. The income we receive from reading fees, along with sales, simply allows us the chance to break even. Please be assured that all income we receive goes directly to covering our publication costs: it might be some consolation to know that, if you are unsuccessful this time, your payments are helping another writer achieve their dreams…

Before you submit

Before you submit anything, we ask that you check you have sufficient poems of the right quality to be published in chapbook form. We would usually expect to print up to thirty to fifty A5 pages of poems, in 11 point font, per chapbook. However, we will also consider shorter (or slightly longer) collections, and are always ready to vary our formats to present your writing in the best way possible.

What we will not accept

We reserve the right to reject material that is offensive or considered to be hate speech. This includes content that is racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic or discriminates on other grounds, eg religion. It is, of course, acceptable to tackle these topics in your writing, but not if the content is directly discriminatory.

BEST OF LUCK WITH YOUR SUBMISSION -
WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU INTO THE DITHERING CHAPS’ FOLD!