Wordrunner eChapbooks
Website
From the Editor
Wordrunner eChapbooks is a hybrid online literary journal and chapbook series with a focus on short fiction. We also publish creative nonfiction and poetry in our annual themed anthologies. Previously we have published collections by memoirists and poets and may do so again. We are pleased and proud to showcase diverse and talented writers, whether they be emerging newbies or old hands with a long list of publishing credits. We read submissions blind (i.e., author unidentified), always on the alert for genuinely excellent writing. ALL AUTHORS ARE PAID and have been since the chapbook series launched in 2010. Many of the collections, which may be read free online, are also available as epubs, and the authors of epub collections receive 50 percent of royalties. We collect submission fees (and the occasional donation) chiefly so that authors can be paid (the remainder subsidizing classified advertising). Our staff are all volunteers. The annual anthologies may be read online or downloaded as pdfs. We are also considering a print anthology of the best of the best for our 13th anniversary. Each issue has its own professional design. We collaborate with authors to edit their work. In many (though not all) issues, hyperlinks to photos, videos, background articles, maps, poetry and artwork add new dimensions to the online reading experience. This online chapbook series evolved from publisher Jo-Anne Rosen’s decades long, home office print chapbook business, with the assistance of a support group of fellow writers and Rosen’s first social security checks, which, since she was still working full-time, served as a government grant to the arts. Before the publication was officially launched, from fall 2008 through spring 2010, she published poetry, fiction and memoirs by friends. The first call for submissions went out in summer 2010. Wordrunner eChapbook’s first paid and publicly promoted author was Michelle McEwan whose story collection Trouble was published September 2010 (https://echapbook.com/stories/mcewen). As of January 2023, we have published 47 online chapbooks — 25 fiction, 5 memoir and 5 poetry collections, each featuring one author — and 12 anthologies by multiple authors.
Submissions
We are looking for excellent, can’t-put-it-down, character-driven contemporary literature. Whether authors are submitting fiction, nonfiction essays or poetry, our preference is for emotional complexity. We are looking for flash fiction (500 to 1,000 words), short stories or CNF or novel excerpts, if they can stand alone (up to 5,000 words) and poetry (no longer than a page). We are not interested in genre fiction unless it transcends genre. Romance or gothic horror would be a hard sell. We do publish science fiction occasionally. Historical fiction is always welcome. We gladly read anything from surprising to traditional, as long as it is very well written. We are drawn to language that surprises us. For our one-author mini-collections we prefer the stories to be linked, either thematically or with recurring characters. Our anthologies are usually themed or, if not so indicated in the calls, somehow, they wind up with an underlying theme.
Information
Tell us about upcoming events or contests
Editors Name Jo-Anne Rosen
Print publication? No
Circulation 1900 subscribers
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL http://www.echapbook.com/submissions.html
Approx. Response Time? 3 months max
How often do you publish? 3 x a year
Year Founded? 2010
Do you pay? yes
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Mailing Address:
210 Douglas St., Apt. 311 Petaluma, CA 94962
Contact
Email echaps@wordrunner.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/echapbooks