Submissions

Instructions

To submit, write an email to cigarcityyouthpress@papercrown.org. In the subject line, write “SUBMISSION:” followed by the title(s) of your work(s).

In the body, add your work, bio, and any comments or notes you may have. If your work has fancier formatting than email will allow, submit it as an attachment in a standard format.

Expect a response by the week after submissions close. Pay attention to your inbox so we can resolve any editing issues swiftly. If the timeline changes, it will be announced on our social media channels.

Expectations

Submitted works shall not contain content directing hate, malice, or violence to anyone, including on the grounds of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability.

Submitted works shall not be excessively inappropriate. This is not to exclude work regarding sexuality and sex, but we won’t publish work intended to arouse.

Cigar City Youth Press retains the sole right to decide if any submitted works are in violation of these expectations, or are otherwise unconscionable.

These expectations are a living document and are subject to change.

How We Will Treat Your Work

Cigar City Youth Press is dedicated to uplifting young, diverse voices. As such, we place no limit on where your work has or hasn’t been published before, or where it will be published after. You retain all rights to your work, you’re simply giving us permission to show it off.

During the editing pass, we’ll try to be conservative with our changes. We’ll remain in contact with you to review any changes you may disagree with.

Content warnings will be provided by page in the index of any issue and on each individual work. This is non-negotiable. We’ll do our best to make them unobtrusive, but the safety of readers is ultimately most important.

If for whatever reason, Cigar City Youth Press finds it irresponsible to continue publishing your work, your work may be removed from publication. Similarly, if Cigar City Youth Press is reasonably threatened with legal action to cease publishing your work, your work may be removed from publication.

If you decide you’d rather us not continue to publish your work, you may contact us and we’ll remove it from our publication.

At the present moment, and for the foreseeable future, Cigar City Youth Press is a purely digital publication. However, we may decide to print short-run physical editions of our publications in the future. In that case, visual works may be omitted from print editions and replaced with a note about their absence to avoid excessive printing costs.

Excerpts of submitted works may be used in promotional material.

There is no monetary compensation for publication at this time. If this changes, it will only apply to new publications thereafter.

Submission Rules

The following goes for all submissions, regardless of form:

• Works should be in their final state when submitted for review. Draft, edit, revise, whatever your process is, just make sure it’s done.

• Your work should be grammatically correct. Treat it as if you were writing a school paper. If your submission is accepted, we’ll do a quick editing pass, but don’t be sloppy.

• Fonts used in your submission should generally be normal, regularly used fonts. If it’s important for your work to use a more outlandish font, please provide the name of the font so we can use it. All used fonts must have a license that permits free use in print and digital, commercial or otherwise. Google Fonts is a good resource for this.

• You may submit works that have been previously published, as long as you retain full publishing rights for the work. Cigar City Youth Press reserves the right to use excerpts of works for publicity purposes.

• Include an artist bio at the end of your submission. It should not exceed 100 words. We are happy to publish your work under a pseudonym, via an internet handle, or anonymously if you wish. If you do not include an artist bio, we’ll write something to the effect of “X is an artist.” This bio will be placed at the end of the publication.

• If you wish, you may include links to social media and or a personal website in your bio.

• You may submit in only one (1) category per submission period.

• Submitted work should not rely heavily on other’s intellectual property. This is not to invalidate fanfiction, but we’d rather avoid any potential trouble.

• Unless otherwise noted, you should not submit more than one work.

• Any other works you quote or reference should be cited in MLA or APA format.

• Submissions should come from residents of the Tampa Bay Area (Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee) ages 13-25.

The following rules apply only to the associated category:

Poetry:

You may submit up to three poems per submission period. Please include all of them in one submission. Poems should be at least two lines, but not exceed one page. Fancy formatting is permitted as long as it can be displayed in a standard word processor like Word.

Fiction:

Stories may be up to 2,000 words (wiggle room provided). Flash fiction is accepted and embraced, so don’t feel it’s too short! Submissions should be formatted appropriately, and double-spaced in 12-point font.

Nonfiction:

All kinds of writing are considered, from memoirs to personal essays, critique, reviews, opinion pieces, and more. Writing may be up to 2,000 words (wiggle room provided). Submissions should be formatted appropriately, and double-spaced in 12-point font.

Visual arts:

You may submit up to three visual works per submission period. Please include all of them in one submission. They may be in color or black and white. Each piece should have a title. Please submit in png or jpg(jpeg) format. Concise descriptions of each piece (2-4 sentences) are required for accessibility purposes.

Promotion:

Subject to limited availability, we accept promotional material. Promotions should be regarding organizations local to the Tampa Bay Area, managed by youth, of concern to youth, or with youth in advisory or administrative positions.

Other:

If whatever your work is somehow evades any of these categories, congratulations! You’ve probably made something really interesting. We’d love to see it!