A chapbook should be between 20 and 60 pages of poetry. The poems should all be speculative in nature. You do not need to have a special theme, story or gimmick to tie all the poems together, but it wouldn’t hurt either. Chapbooks will be available as paperbacks and ebooks.
Poetry collections should be at least 70 pages of poetry. A good amount of the poems should be speculative, but in a collection you can include your non-speculative poems as well, since collections are designed to showcase a wider range of your work than chapbooks. Collections will be available as hardbacks, paperbacks, and ebooks.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but be courteous and inform us immediately if a work gets accepted elsewhere.
We do not accept reprints of chapbooks or collections. Please submit new books only. Individual works within a chapbook or collection can be reprints.
We accept only human-created poetry and art.
We cannot pay contributors up front yet. However, the creators will receive yearly royalty payments.
We don’t charge submission fees; however, there is a tip jar if you are feeling generous.
We offer three free copies and the opportunity to purchase more author copies.
Island of Wak-Wak reserves the right of first publication for all work it publishes. You retain the copyright. We will keep the book available via print-on-demand for five years.
Formatting and Submitting a Poetry Chapbook or Collection
Poems should be sent together in the same document, one poem per page (unless you have some small poems grouped together —e.g., 5 haiku about flies). Have an acknowledgment page listing where poems were first published. Don’t worry about a table of contents (our typesetting program will create one automatically), but have the poems in the order that you want them to be. If accepted it could be that we might suggest changes to the order or the removal of some poems. For example, we prefer to have two-page poems start on an even page, so the reader doesn’t have to turn the page to finish the poem.
Submit via Duosuma.
Submission to Island of Wak-Wak constitutes acceptance of these terms.
Reading Periods for 2025
Coffee Table Chapbook Series
January 1–March 31, 2025
Cabin Reading Series
April 1–May 31, 2025