Submissions

General Information

Paper Airplane Publishing is generally interested in fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and graphic nonfiction, in novel, novella, or short story collections in these genres:

We are looking for…

Innovative and well-crafted, high-quality works by new and established authors. Additionally, we are interested in authors who have strong platforms and are able to connect with their audiences via direct engagement, whether by email newsletter, blog, podcast, face-to-face interactions (talks, readings, performances, etc.), or social media.

We are not looking for…

Unsolicited submissions in the following categories: genre fiction (romance, erotica, science fiction, horror, true crime, mystery, etc.), cookbooks, how-to books, self-help books, memoirs, autobiographies, political manifestos, or philosophical diatribes. Please DO NOT send self-published or previously published manuscripts.

Submission Guidelines

In one document, submit the following:

– Synopsis

– Word count (of complete manuscript)

– Genre and target audience

– Author’s bio and contact details

– 5-10 pages for full length

– *Platform: Discuss your author platform, its scope, and ways in which you expect to reach potential reviewers and readers. Please provide links to your website, blog, podcast, social media, etc. Also include details if you have access to special markets, audiences, or promotional opportunities for your book.

*Optional but including author platform info in your cover letter may give your manuscript an advantage over other, comparable manuscripts.

Paper Airplane’s Free Reads Short Stories page exists to encourage emerging authors and give them greater exposure and to promote literacy. What this looks like in action is payment to authors and free access for all on our website.

TL;DR: For Free Reads Short Stories submissions, we welcome humor, bedtime stories, literary, westerns, historical, romance, cozy mysteries, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Submit your original, unpublished, polished, family-friendly work of 500 to 2,500 words for consideration for our Free Reads Short Stories page.

Content. We are looking for the best stories and love to debut new authors. We get excited about well-written, imaginative, stories that have strong plots and compelling characters. We embrace cunning, unexpected, and crafty writing. We love stirring story arcs and snappy prose. Make us fall in love with your story. Be clever. Be beautiful. Surprise us. Engage us. Make us think. Make us feel. Keep us riveted to the story all the way to the satisfying ending.

Edits. We will consult you on significant editing performed on your submitted work, and you will have an opportunity to proofread for typos.

Payment and Rights. If your story is accepted for publication on our website, you will be required to grant us publishing rights via contract. After we have received the signed agreement, we will pay you $20 for your story. Our contract will require first serial world exclusive English language rights in digital, print, and audio. Rights will revert to the author 31 days after publication, while we will retain the (non-exclusive) right to keep the work posted on our website, in digital and audio formats, indefinitely (“archival”).

This means that we ask for no posting of the accepted story anywhere on the web, or in print, anywhere in the world, for 31 days after its exclusive appearance on the Paper Airplane Publishing website. After this period, all rights revert to the author, but we ask that you acknowledge Paper Airplane Publishing in any subsequent printing of the material published here, whether on the web, other digital formats (such as ebook), in hard copy, or audio. Since we ask for non-exclusive rights to keep your story on our website indefinitely (beyond the 31 days), you may request that we remove your story from our website after one year from the date it first appears, if you need it removed so you can sell it again.

No Previously Published Stories. Stories previously published online or in any form of audio, on blogs, personal websites, online literary magazines, forums, and the like, will not be accepted. If it has been displayed on your own blog or web page, it has been published. In addition, since there will be a gap of time between acceptance and publication, once we have accepted your story, it must not be published anywhere else before it is published on Paper Airplane Publishing’s Free Reads Short Stories page.

Simultaneous Submissions. We prefer not to be included in simultaneous submissions, but if you do this, you must contact us immediately to withdraw your submission if your story is accepted for publication somewhere else.

Multiple Submissions are fine, but you must submit each story separately. The exception to this is serials. Serials are acceptable if marked as such and sent together in a single document and the chapters clearly delineated. We must be able to read the entire work to decide whether we are interested in publishing the serial.

Format. Submit a single document in Word format (.doc or .docx). The first page should contain the story title, author’s name and contact information, and a short bio. We will not consider an anonymous submission.

Your Promise. You will warrant to us that you are the sole owner of all the rights to the story and have the authority to grant the rights without restriction, that the story is your original work, and that the story does not infringe or violate any copyright, right of privacy or publicity, or any other right of any third party, or contain any matter that is libelous or otherwise in contravention of the law. This will be in the contract.

Submit your manuscript

    Attach file

    Simultaneous submission?
    YesNo

    What to Expect

    Once your submission is received, we will assess content, subject matter, and suitability under our imprint.

    For full-length manuscripts, if we consider the work to be appropriate for our list, we will put forward an offer of publication, either under a traditional contract or a shared cost inclusive (hybrid) contract.

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