Submissions guidelines

The Dark Mountain Project is committed to publishing original writing and art which touches on the themes of our work. We are not interested in whether you are famous or unknown. We are particularly interested in new writers.

We are looking for innovative, challenging, brave writing and art, which responds to the challenge that Dark Mountain lays down – to find new stories, and new ways of telling them.

However – before you submit anything for one of our books, please read the guidelines below, so you know what we do and what we’re looking for.

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1. Read our manifesto, and have a look around this website. Make sure you like what you see, and you know what we do.

2. We publish fiction, non-fiction, poetry, visual art and sometimes work that is entirely non-categorisable. We encourage you not to get bogged down by form.  Challenge us.

3.  All work must be your own. When you submit it, please tell us who you are, whether you have written or produced anything before, and if you have any web presence. We rarely reprint work that has been published elsewhere – we are looking for original work. But if you do submit something for re-publication, please tell us where it appeared first.

4. We do not have strict word limits for short stories or non-fiction, but we are more likely to print pieces that are 6000 words or under. Please strive for sharpness and originality, both in what you are saying and how you are saying it.

5. If you are submitting poems, please submit no more than five. There is no line or word limit. If sending several poems, please include them all in a single document.

6. If you are submitting artwork, please send us your files as email attachments. We will happily look at web pages displaying your work, but only if they contain specific images you would like us to consider. We don’t have time to sift through your website looking for something that might fit.

For the book, we ask that you present your files as follows:

Dimensions:
The maximum printable area for images: 180mm [height] x 110mm [width]
However, if you’re presenting a sequence of images, then please bear in mind that the first page of the sequence will contain the title and artists name, so the height of the first image will have to be reduced or cropped to make space for this, or contact production for an amended exact height size. (See previous issues of Dark Mountain)

File formats and colour profiles:
Please apply the appropriate specification to your digital file artwork
(or alternatively post your flat artwork to us and we will scan and convert it to the appropriate profile and file format for you.)

Colour images:
Digital file format: .Tiff. Resolution: 300dpi minimum. Colour mode: CYMK

Greyscale images:
Digital file format: .Tiff. Resolution: 300dpi minimum. Colour mode: greyscale  (15% dot grain)

Black & White images:
Digital file format: .Bitmap. Resolution: 1200dpi. Colour mode: bitmap

['Greyscale' refers to images with variations of tones i.e. mid-tones, whereas 'Black & White' refers to images which are made of 100% black i.e. solid black lines with no variation in tone (no grey). If your image is intended for use on the regular book paper (as opposed to the colour plate sections) it is recommended that you present your images in Bitmap format for the best results.]

7. Please email submissions to info [a] dark-mountain.net, with ‘BOOK FOUR SUBMISSION’ as the subject line. Please send your submission as an attached document in Microsoft word or compatible format, rather than in the body of the email.

8. Please be patient! It will take us a few months to get back to you, but we will reply to every submission we receive.

9. If we do accept your work for publication, we may get back to you with some suggested changes or improvements. We often like to work with authors to get the best out of their work.

10. We are currently unable to pay for work that we publish – we hope this will change in future – but we do send you a copy of the book on publication, and we guarantee you a smart and growing audience for your work. All copyright remains with the authors, but we ask that you let us know if you republish accepted work elsewhere, and that you don’t do so before the book is published.