Vocamus Press is a Guelph, Ontario publisher with a mandate to support local literature.
We publish poetry, short prose, and literary fiction by Guelph and area authors.
We publish chapbooks, broadsheets, and cards under our Vocamus Offcuts imprint.
We republish editions of historically valuable Guelph books through our Vocamus Editions imprint.
We provide editing, typesetting, and cover design services to help writers publish more professionally.
Vocamus Press is always looking for submissions of full-length manuscripts of poetry and literary fiction, but there are some things you should know before you get in touch.
- We only work with Guelph and area authors. If you don’t currently reside in Wellington County, even if you’re otherwise awesome, we’re not the press you’re looking for.
- We prefer to work with people we already know through our community. Come on out to the events run by our Vocamus Writers Community non-profit arm, submit a poem to the annual Rhapsody anthology, or email us to arrange coffee some time. That’s your best way to get started.
- We only publish poetry and literary fiction. If you write other stuff, our Vocamus Writers Community non-profit arm is happy to sit down and talk about options for your book. We can put you in touch with other local publishers, help you write a query letter, even get you started with self-publishing, but it isn’t something we’ll publish ourselves.
- We only do a couple of books a year. By a couple, we literally mean two, one in the spring and one in the fall. That’s it. So don’t be too disappointed if your book isn’t selected.
- We only accept electronic submissions. Make sure you send your manuscript in a nice clear font and saved as a .docx file to info@vocamus.net.
- Be sure to include a cover page. We like to know about our authors, so let us know a bit about you, your publishing history, your book, and whatever else you think might interest us.
- Please be patient. We’re a small press, so it may take us some time to get to your book. We will reply though, we promise.
Our Offcuts imprint is also always looking for submissions of chapbooks, broadsheets, postcards, pamphlets, or whatever other handmade forms you can come up with. Here’s what you should do:
- Pitch us the whole project We don’t just want your text, we want a concept for what form it should take and how it should look. Let your creativity flow.
- Be prepared to get involved. If we pick your project, we’ll want to have you come in, get your hands dirty, and work with us to make it come out just right.
All submissions can be made to vocamuspress@gmail.com.