Introduction
FutureCycle takes a different approach to publishing. We do not wait until we have a collection of poems for our print magazine before publishing them on our website. If we accept your work today, it will be online within two weeks of acceptance. This work will also appear in a future issue of our magazine's printed edition.
Nor do we limit our website to titles published under our FutureCycle imprint. We also archive titles from other authors and publishers, making them available here for public download. We do not believe good work should be allowed to die on dusty shelves or computer disks.
Poems that we accept for our FutureCycle imprint are permanent. We do not rotate the poems published on this website.
For all titles, books or magazines, we produce printed versions upon demand. Authors are paid in copies of the book or magazine issue (see Payment below for details).
What to Submit
Poetry, Prose Poems, Chapbooks and Full-Length Books
We are open to any style or subject (except hard-core pornography, spoken or visual). We eagerly look for new poets, but only those who have learned the craft. We are not interested in poets who consider themselves amateurs.
For individual poems, please limit your submission to four pages of poetry, or one longpoem up to six pages. Optionally, you may also send a bio and photo.
For book or chapbook submission to our imprint, please submit the entire collection. There is no need to query. For book contests, however, please read the submissions guidelines shown under the Contest link.
For book or chapbook archive submissions of other publishers, also submit the entire collection.
Reviews of Poetry by Individuals or Reviews of Collections, including Poetry Magazines
We consider reviews of poetry, no matter the source (e.g., magazine, individual, etc.). A review may be any length as long as it is tightly and clearly written.
Artwork
We consider art in formats suitable for the web (JPG or GIF). Large files cannot be displayed quickly online and will not be considered. Artwork is considered both as a companion to any poetry you've submitted or as a separate item.
We consider any kind of artwork that we deem of good taste and suitable for our site. As a rule, however, we do not showcase an artist, simply because we are a poetry publisher. In any case, you will be given full credit as the artist and will have, like the poets, a bio line, but your artwork may be placed on any of our pages as we see fit. Please submit with that in mind.
Audio
MP3 is the preferred format, but we will consider others. The smaller the file the better, as long as the sound quality is acceptable.
Previously Published Material and Simultaneous Submissions
We reluctantly consider simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
We consider previously published work only if it has not appeared in any printed or online publication during the past ten years. For books and chapbooks, however, we expect some, if not all of the contents to have been published in magazines.
How We Decide
What are our editorial tastes in poetry? We are eclectic but not easy. We want (but seldom find) poetry that achieves the "electric effect." We'll consider lower-voltage work, however, if it's otherwise well-written. We tend to like work relying on strong imagery and metaphor. The easiest way to determine what we like is to read through the Poets section.
One confession: We're not fond of haiku or any visual forms of poetry (e.g., "concrete" poetry). If you've got one such that will change our minds, though, feel free to send it. In general, we're not averse to rhyme and structure, as long as the work sounds fresh.
How to Submit
You may submit via e-mail (preferred), or upload the submission file to our server (see our Upload page). We no longer accept postal submissions.
For e-mail submissions of poetry or essays, send to submissions@futurecycle.org. You can include the poems or other work in the body of the e-mail or preferably as separate file attachments (HTML, plain text, MS Word, ZIP only).
For e-mail submissions of reviews, sent to the Review Editor, David Chorlton, rdchorlton@netzero.com. You may also send review copies of books and review manuscripts via US mail to David at the following address: 118 West Palm Lane, Phoenix AZ 85003. Do not mail review books to our Tallahassee FL address.
For submission uploads, you may compress several files together into a single file, using one of the popular compression programs, such as WinZip, WinAce, WinRar, etc. You may also compress files together as an attachment to e-mail submissions. You can then transmit the file(s) from our Upload page. See our Upload page for easy instructions. Thirdly, you may on the same upload page transmit up to 6 individual files (e.g., four poems, one bio, one photo).
If you have suitable artwork to accompany your poems, please include it in the submission. We also consider audio files of readings, even if it is a reading of only one poem that you have submitted to us. Please be advised, however, that package deals will lessen your chances of being accepted here. That is, if you submit artwork with a poem on the condition that either both or none be accepted, then "none" will be our answer, unless, of course, we like it all.
The only restriction on audio files is length. This means filesize. All audio files that we publish are available for online listening and download. If your audio file exceeds eight megabytes in size, then you should query us first with a sample and description. In any case, do not submit audio files via e-mail. Instead, go to our upload page and transmit the file over the internet. The other alternative is submitting a link to your file that we can download directly.
Appearances
We take pride not only in what our publications say but also in how they look. Issues of the magazine and chapbooks are professionally designed to the limits of our budget. Often we will produce four-color publications, with suitable design and illustrations. Of course, this is all dependent on the funds available, but rest assured we strive to make every publication look as good as possible.
Authors should be aware that web content does not always translate directly to the printed page. Thus, web versions of your work may have a somewhat different look and layout as befitting the FutureCycle site.
Payment
We cannot pay contributors for work published on this website or in our printed materials, except in copies or in cases where we have sponsored poetry competitions with a fixed or conditional prize amount.
In the case of chapbook publication, the author will receive 25 copies as payment. In addition, we provide chapbook authors with a press-ready PDF file of the book that can be cheaply printed and bound at any Fedex Kinkos Center. Contributors to the magazine will receive payment in the form of one copy of the issue in which the work appears. Additional author copies of magazines or books may be ordered at our cost.
Copyright
All rights revert to author on publication. We retain the right to print the work online on the FutureCycle Poetry website and in the printed issue for which your work was accepted. We also retain anthology rights.
Affiliation
We are always looking for new ways to showcase good poetry. If you have any creative ideas, please e-mail the editor. We are open to collaborations with other presses and poets. Tell us your idea!