THE SLEEPERS ALMANAC NO.7
SUBMISSIONS COVER SHEET
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST
When we first called for Almanac submissions in 2004, the Australian literary landscape was
different. It was before Melbourne was declared a City of Literature, back when there were fewer
short story anthologies and journals. There weren’t all that many places for short story writers to
send their work.
Since then, new magazines and anthologies have sprouted, new editors have renovated
existing journals, and the result is that, for the short story writer, there are now many places with
arms open for short story submissions. This is incredibly exciting news, and it has created a
coterie of short story writers whose names we, the readers of short stories, are coming to know
and love. Many of the writers who we first published in early Sleepers Almanacs have gone on to
be published in other publications, and many of them have since published books of their own –
both short story collections and novels. That’s the greatest outcome we could have hoped for.
You mention any and you accidentally leave some out but there are loads of goodlooking places for short stories, including but not limited to: Overland, Southerly, Island,
Meanjin, Quadrant, Voiceworks, Wet Ink, Harvest, Going Down Swinging, Kill Your Darlings,
The Lifted Brow, The Best of and New Australian Story collections, Griffith Review and Cutwater.
While financial rewards are still small, as writers we are wealthy when it comes to the
numbers of – and quality of – the publications available to us to send our stories to. At Sleepers,
we believe this has changed a little over the last seven years, and it means that the Almanac is
now one of several collections offering short story writers a place to publish; when we began, we
were one of few.
One of the initial goals of the Almanac was to find and showcase new writers, so with the
seventh Almanac we are specifically on the lookout for new writers – writers who have never
been published as well as writers who have hardly been published. That’s our target for
submissions. It doesn’t mean that we won’t publish any writers who have been published before,
but we are specifically looking to unearth new talent. Teachers (and many of you that we first
published way-back-when are the teachers now): tell your students! When we read submissions
for the Sleepers Almanac No. 7, this is what we hope to find: fresh newbies, possibly a little
green, probably a little bashful, but with a blaze of talent just too bright to ignore.
Name:
Phone number(s):
Email address:
Postal address:
State:
Country:
How I heard of Sleepers:
Title of your piece:
Word count (n.b. limit of 10,000 words):
Postcode:
 I am sending only one submission.
 I have read a previous Almanac.
 I understand that if I haven’t heard from Sleepers by August 31, 2011, I have not made it into
the Almanac. Note: please pop that date in your diary, to be sure.
Submission Guidelines for The Sleepers Almanac No. 7
READ THESE CAREFULLY
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Sleepers reserves the right to only accept submissions that comply with these guidelines.
We encourage submissions from all around the world.
As per usual, we will publish a limited number of illustrations and poems in the Almanac
(see previous ones for examples).
Submissions must be accompanied by the correct, completed cover sheet – ‘The Sleepers
Almanac No. 7 Submissions Cover Sheet’ (this).
We will accept only one submission per person.
The word limit for a submission is 10,000 words.
By submitting your work, you are granting authority to Sleepers to publish your piece in
print, as well as epublishing rights, including on Sleepers and affiliated distribution sites,
and in their iPhone App.
Please do not submit work that has been published elsewhere.
Your submission must be typed in Word, double-spaced, in 12-point Times.
Please make sure your name appears only on this completed cover sheet and not on any
of the pages of the document.
Please number your pages.
Send submissions via email only (submissions sent in the post will not be accepted).
Prepare your submission as a Word “.doc” (not “.docx”, rtf or PDF) format and submit it
with this Cover Sheet to: almanacsubs@sleeperspublishing.com
Closing date for submissions to The Sleepers Almanac No. 7: July 1, 2011. NB: Early
submissions are encouraged and will be looked upon favourably!
All authors whose pieces are accepted will be notified by Friday August 31, 2011.