Ludlow Press Book
Submissions
Ludlow Press Book
Ludlow Press is seeking full-length book submissions!
That’s right! Please send us the following:
a) A short description of your tightly-written, carefully crafted novel.
Novels only please. Under 300 double-spaced pages with normal margins!
b) The all-important word count of the book (we need to know).
c) The critical first 50 pages. WITHOUT a SASE! We will contact you
(if we want to pursue the project). No email follow-ups, please.
Please be sensible when mailing!
NO express mail delivery.
NO signature confirmation. (Please!)
NO registered mail.
NO certified mail.
NO return receipt.
Please understand we don't have the extra time to spare
to wait on line for these items. We could be reading submissions!
d) Your marketing plans for the book (since you MUST be actively involved
[For more about this, please read Q&A with publisher Jun Da]).e) Please consider a purchase of a Ludlow Press title. Why? Click here.
Hey, we realize how tough it is out there. It's a cold, cruel world for artists and writers.
Check out this excerpt from The Losers' Club to see how one writer—
Richard Perez's alter ego: Martin Sierra—deals with the ordeal of “submissions.”
From Page 32 of The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition!
——————————————
That night, later.—
Bag of chow mein in hand, Martin entered the lobby of his apartment building, stopping at his mailbox. If there was one thing he truly dreaded, this was it .…
Anything? Hmm.
Bills, bills; then two padded business-size envelopes, each conveying Martin’s name and address, in an exact, if all-too-familiar typewritten style.
He knew what they contained without opening them, but opened them anyway.
In the first envelope, along with his returned, badly creased work, was the standard rejection form (dirty and illegible from being copied ad infinitum); in the second he found … nothing. Not even a small “no thank you” note. But wait! What’s this? … Martin slowly unfolded the rumpled page in disbelief. Across the face of one of his best poems—was it? Could it be?—A smeared mustard stain!? …
“Mutha’-fucks!”
14.
Once inside his apartment, Martin calmly locked the door, put down his belongings, unbuttoned his jacket.
That done, he sharply tore the rejection note and mustard-stained page in half—along with all the other ruined copies of his work—and, entering the room, flung them— “Join the party!”—onto the mountain of rejection letters building up in the far corner.
Regaining his composure, Martin regarded the news-print image of Charles Bukowski he had taped on his wall.
“Pop, how did you do it?” he asked aloud. “How did you fuckin’ survive?”
Although perhaps Bukowski’s pocked and ravaged face offered a clue.
“Us against them! Us against them! … ”
With Buk’s image giving him strength, Martin-the-martyr sat before his outmoded portable word-processor, printing out another stack of self-addressed envelopes. Preparing for his next assault.
Beyond the empty Chinese food containers, the fresh copies of his poems and stories—done that day at work— rested neatly in an open file folder on his sofa bed. On top was a fat roll of stamps.
The mind-numbing chore of submitting work to small press publications and periodicals involved the necessary inclusion of a self-addressed-stamped envelope with each manuscript. (Not including a SASE, it was said, would only confirm one’s … “amateur” status.)
Of course (sure as a hangover followed a bout of heavy drinking), it would follow that later—much later—it would be these selfsame envelopes that would return bearing the obligatory bad news.
And much of the humiliation, as Martin saw it, lay right there: it resulted not just from being rejected, but in having to provide your own envelope for it!
At times it was hard to imagine a worse co-dependent relationship.
The author, Richard Perez
“The Losers' Club is a vibrant and hopeful anthem for all of us 'losers' who choose not to wallow (for too long!) in our despair and who find the will to keep searching.”
— Heather Lowcock, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lexington KY*BOOK SENSE 76 TOP TEN PICK!*
Find out more about this great title!
Our humble address:
Ludlow Press
PO Box 2651
New York, NY 10009-9998
Attn: Editor
Please consider a purchase of a Ludlow Press title. Why? Click here.
Q&A:
Question: What kind of books is Ludlow Press primarily interested in?Answer: Lively, smart, funny, relatively compact novels. All work must be carefully
crafted and tightly written.The author is held accountable for grammar, story structure,
punctuation and editing: in effect for producing a finished, polished—but not necessarily “conventional”—work of art. Look here. Some of our favorite authors?Question: Will genre work be considered?
Answer: There are corporate publishers for that. And how. No—no Stephen King-type
horror, sci-fi, splatter-punk, no fantasy, no generic thrillers, romance, no mystery—except if the author offers something new. (Think Paul Auster, Patricia Highsmith, et al.)
Literary erotica is fine, but there must be a psychological subtext.Question: What book length is Ludlow Press primarily interested in?
Answer: Currently, novels under 300 pages (double-spaced). But all manuscripts will be considered regardless of length.
Question: Will you consider nonfiction manuscripts?
Answer: Only well-written literary memoirs. Show us 50 pages (no SASEs necessary!).
Question: Will you consider poetry collections?
Answer: No. Sorry. Our policy has changed. At this time, we are no longer considering poetry
collections! We will only publish poetry online.Question: Is everyone urged to buy a copy of WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes or
The Losers' Club by Richard Perez?Answer: Yes. Please support independent publishing. Keep in mind we need your help as much as you need ours. Our success depends on you.
Remember: "Gold has no value if it remains inside the mountain."
Help independent publishing to succeed!
And from all of us here: Thank you!
Ludlow Press
Influential authors and poets
Q&A with publisher Jun Da
