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 will also archive electronic versions of titles from independent authors and publishers, making them available here for public download. We know how hard it is to write good poetry (and how thankless a task it is), and we just don't think 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. Once a year, in late November, all poems published in the online magazine are published in a printed version and authors are given a copy. We also produce printed versions of our books and magazines on an on-demand basis.

How We Decide

Our Eclectic Tastes

What are our editorial tastes in poetry? The best way to determine what we like is to read through the Poets section.

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 are drawn to work that relies on strong, fresh imagery and metaphor. In general, we're not averse to rhyme and structure, as long as the work is fresh. Our tastes are very eclectic; publishing decisions for the online magazine often involve several editors with varying poetic sensibilities, with the Editor-in-Chief making the final decision on those poems that rise to the top.

We confess that we're not fond of haiku or any visual forms of poetry (e.g., "concrete” poetry). Positioning words in artful ways is hard enough in print; on the web, it's practically impossible. (But if you've got one that you think will change our minds, feel free to send it.) We also tend to loathe contrived or distancing perspectives, such as when the poet writes a poem about a painter painting a painting of a sculptor sculpting a sculpture. We'd rather the poet just wake us up with the poem!

Our Turnaround Time

Although we strive to respond sooner, please allow three months before querying about the status of your submission. Be aware that our annual book competition, which involves an added layer of judging and very careful scrutiny, forces us to put reading of magazine submissions on the back burner during the months of April through June. (This does not mean we will not accept submissions during this time; only that you should be more patient in these months.)

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 five pages of poetry or one long poem up to six pages. Optionally, you may also send a photo and bio, which can include your web site URL and email address if desired.

For full-length book or chapbook submissions, please submit the entire collection including any front matter. There is no need to query first. Additionally, for book contest submissions, please read the submissions guidelines shown under the Contest link.

We only accept the following document formats: HTML (.htm, .html), RTF (.rtf), plain text (.txt), Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx). We would prefer that you not send .pdf files of text (but see Artwork, below) because they do not convert well to formats we can use without having to do a lot of retyping, which could introduce errors and delay. We ask that you also please not type your titles in all caps.

The best way to handle poem titles is by using heading styles. For book-length manuscripts, if you do not know how to set up automatic headers, footers, and page numbering, please either learn how or do not use them at all. Use a hard page break code to start a new page, not multiple repetitions of the Enter key.

Reviews of Poets, Poetry Collections and Magazines

We consider reviews of poetry, no matter the source (e.g., chapbooks, magazines, individual poems, etc.). A review may be any length as long as it is tightly and clearly written and follows accepted guidelines for citing copyrighted material. Please include complete publication information for books and delineate blockquoted material.

Artwork

Artwork is considered both as a companion to a poetry submission or as a standalone submission that we will place on our site at our discretion. We consider any kind of artwork that we deem to be in good taste and suitable for our site. Generally, however—with the exception of cover art—we do not showcase artwork, simply because we are a poetry publisher. In any case, you will be given full credit as the artist and will have, like the authors, a bio page (with contact info and a link to your portfolio, if desired). Art students in search of publishing projects and credits (and gratitude!) are strongly encouraged to send us examples of their work.

We are especially interested in front-cover artwork suitable for our printed books and annually printed magazines. For cover designs, please supply a press quality .pdf file with a trim size of 6" x 9" and an extra .0125" on all four sides for bleed. Be sure to use CMYK mode for art intended for print publication. If your design includes text (as it normally will if we ask you to prepare a specific book cover from art you have previously submitted), please convert all text to outlines so we don't have to worry about installing fonts we may not have on our end. Be prepared (but only if asked) to supply us with the file you exported your .pdf from in case last-minute tweaks are needed at press time.

For all art other than cover art and photos intended for print publication, we are only interested in formats optimized for web display. Use RGB color mode and either .jpg, .gif, or .png format. A 72 dpi resolution is normally sufficient. Large files cannot be displayed quickly online and will not be considered. Try to keep any artwork under 200K, and much less than that if at all possible without sacrificing too much quality.

Audio

FutureCycle Poetry does not publish music per se, except as it may be incorporated into poetry readings. MP3 is the preferred format, but we will consider other formats. The smaller the file the better, as long as the sound quality is acceptable.

Simultaneous Submissions and Previously Published Work

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 to Submit

Because our editors live in different cities and must communicate electronically, we require that all manuscripts be submitted via our online submission form. The exception to this is poetry review submissions (see the Reviews page).  If you have suitable digital artwork or audio to accompany your poems, please include it with the submission. Please be advised, however, that "all or nothing” package deals will lessen your chances of being accepted.

To make it easier, we suggest you send your titles/documents together in one file, such as a Word Document. However, you may also send each file as a separate submission. But remember: Acceptable document types are doc, docx, rtf, wpd, pdf, and plain text.

Please note that we no longer accept email or snail-mail submissions. Both will be returned unread.

The online submission system allows you to send work for our magazine/website or for our annual contest. You will be asked to select the type of submission. However, do not send to the contest without first reading its specific guidelines. Also, do not submit to the contest outside the annual reading period (January 1 through March 31).

For regular poetry submissions made through the online system, you will be able to track the status of your submissions at any time.

Appearance

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 that we strive to make every publication look as good as possible. Design decisions, although our prerogative, are made with sensitivity to an author's wishes. Book authors who have strong ideas about how their book covers should look are invited to submit their own cover art for our consideration.

Authors should also be aware that the printed page does not always translate directly to the web. Thus, web versions of your work may have a somewhat different look and layout as befitting our online magazine's appearance. Additionally, different browsers may display pages differently based on the browser's handling of coding and individual users' settings. (This is especially true of ebooks. Poetry is extremely tricky to prepare for ebooks and takes at least twice as long to code as flowing text with only breaks at the end of paragraphs.) By all means, if you catch an error we missed, let us know about it! But please resist asking if we can "nudge this line over a little.”

Payment

We cannot pay contributors for work published on this website except for one copy of the annual printed anthology in which their work appears—usually published in late November. (The exception to this, of course, is our book contest.) In cases of print publication of non-contest book-length works, the author will receive 25 copies as payment. We will only ship these copies once at no charge, so be sure to notify us by email if your mailing address changes. All authors may purchase additional printed copies of their work at our cost plus shipping.

Copyright

All rights revert to the author on publication. We retain the right to print the work online on the FutureCycle Poetry website and in the printed issue for which the work was accepted. We also retain non-exclusive electronic publication rights for purposes of securing wider readership for our authors' work via downloadable ebooks; in cases where ebooks are published, we will secure the work against unauthorized copying using standard protection technologies.

Collaborations

We are always looking for new ways to showcase good poetry. If you have any creative ideas, please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief. We are open to collaborations with other presses and poets. Tell us your ideas!