Ask not What Secret Acres can do for You

SO we’ve seen the number of submissions we receive increase significantly over the past year. This is great because we love seeing new work! Unfortunately, based on our day jobs and hectic production schedule, it sometimes takes us a very long time to read submissions. We do the best we can, but seriously, we have stacks of comics to read. It was much easier to find the time to enjoy comics before we started publishing them!

In the interest of making our process totally transparent, here are some guidelines and helpful info for submitting your work to Secret Acres:

1) Know our books. As much as we like to believe that we don’t have a particular aesthetic, there are books that really don’t make sense for us to publish or carry. These include illustrated novels (meaning prose with some pictures, not graphic novels) and manga inspired work (If you are a traditional manga-ka  as it were, it’ll be tough to stand out, so please be prepared to dazzle us if you’re going to insist.). It is really obvious to us when we receive submissions from folks that are not familiar with the work that we already carry/publish. And it is kind of insulting to get these blind submissions since it distracts us from reading other submissions.

2) Don’t expect a response. There was a time when we could respond to everyone, but the stack these days is out of control. Yes, it seems mean and callous that you won’t hear a yes or no from us, but we don’t have the resources to respond to every submission we get. If we like what we read or want to carry your books, we will absolutely let you know. If you don’t hear from us, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we hate your work, only that it wasn’t right for us or we haven’t gotten to it yet. While every publisher says something along those lines, we generally don’t hate stuff, unless we really, truly deeply hate it – and you’d have to be utterly ignoring what we actually publish and distribute to send us comics we will outright hate (though hate can be amusing, and, really, if you’re not reading our books, you’re not reading this, either, so we will surely continue to be amused by our hatred). Along with this, please don’t send an SASE for a response or work that you expect to be returned to you.

3) Don’t send us pitches, especially if you are unpublished. When it comes to comics, it’s important for us to be able to see and read the work. If you’re an emerging artist that sends us a script or a pitch, we don’t have enough to go on to consider publishing you. Anything you show us should be mostly finished.

4) Send us submissions. Handing us submissions at conventions probably seems like a much more personal, effective way to get your work to us, but the truth is that we are usually busy at conventions and your comic may not make it to the Secret Acres Submission drawer. We love meeting new people and talking to creators, and we’re likely to read anything that gets handed to us at a convention, but we may not specifically treat your comic as a submission. Just a warning for the friendlier cartoonists. This isn’t to say we’ve never given anyone live feedback at the table, but that doesn’t qualify as a submission.

Secret Acres is small. We publish two to three books a year and operate a small online store for books and mini-comics. Our publishing schedule is usually booked two years ahead of time. It’s good to understand this when you send us work so you understand how we operate. Our tastes are quirky and individual, but we truly love what we carry and publish and we are always interested in finding new comics to love.

Now, go vote for Monsters over here!

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

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