Our new seasonal literary magazine
“Introducing Capsule Stories” by Natasha Lioe was originally published on capsulebooks.com on January 17, 2019
We’re super excited to announce that we’re now accepting submissions for Capsule Stories, our seasonal literary magazine. If you’re a writer, or you know a writer, submit your short story or poem to us for a chance to be officially published in our magazine, to be released March 1.
We’ll be accepting short stories and poems and some select essays if they’re beautifully written. What we’re really looking for are stories that can touch the heart. Stories that come from the heart. Stories about love, identity, the self, the world, the human condition. Stories that show what living in this world as the human you are is like. We’re most interested in the voice of our generation.
Writing, for me, has always been a way to learn more about what I am feeling. In college it became, how do I depict the feelings of this one moment? And structuring an interesting character and narrative around that was the challenge. Sometimes feelings are elusive and confusing, and writing has always been able to illuminate why I was feeling a certain way, and how I can use that new knowledge to make decisions and improve my own life.
We’ve been dreaming of a day when we can finally afford to launch this. Publishing is what we really want to do—and we want to change the status quo. Publishing is a ripoff for the writer, the true brains of the operation. I remember looking up how much a writer makes per book, when I was seriously considering becoming a writer for my career, and it’s abysmal. Writers make so little for the tremendous amount of joy, knowledge, thinking, and progress they bring to the world. I want to pay writers fairly. The norm for the percentage of royalties that a writer receives is between 5–15 percent of the net profit or the gross list price. For example, if a book is priced at $10, writers receive between $0.50-$1.50 per book sale. The rest of the profit is absorbed by the distributor, the retailer, and the publisher. You’ve probably seen all the razor brands, the clothing brands, the accessory brands, that are trying to do the same in their industry. But the book industry is largely untouched. We want to publish, print, and distribute the book, and give the writer at least 25 percent, if not more, of the revenue.
But this is a big dream that is still many steps away from being a reality. It starts with this literary magazine. With one story. With you.
Submit your short story, essay, or poems here.