Call for Submissions: Rosedale Press

Online writing sucks. Yes, all online writing sucks. Why? Because the inherent qualities of the medium itself. It starts with the quality of mind that a reader brings to a piece of online writing. It’s fundamentally lower than if they were reading that same piece in a book or a magazine. That’s why the best readers print out the articles they’re interested in before diving in.

I encourage you to do this. If you adopt the practice, what you’ll soon discover is that most of the writing you’re excited to read online, becomes entirely disinteresting on a physical page.

This is for two reasons.

The first is that we have expectations for writing on a paper, especially when it’s bound in a book. We expect a high level of coherence, internal logic (even in fiction), pacing, and progression. We expect an editor, a copyeditor, a proofreader, and many others to have reviewed the text before it is delivered to us. At the very least, we expect a level of quality and consideration because books are costly. These expectations disappear, however, when it comes to online writing.

The second reason is a tessellation of the first. Writers who create for the online medium, regard their work with an offhand disposability that isn’t present with print writing. That’s because the cycles of online production are so much faster that a writer can’t afford to linger on one idea for too long. In this way, the internet is a great place to test and experiment. It’s a terrible place, however, to refine prose, develop style, and actualize the depths of an enduring idea.

At some point, writers need to take themselves seriously. Those who are terminally online, never end up doing so. Those who have the guts to eventually jump ship, end up writing books. It’s a shame at first, when one of your favorite online writers disappears to focus on print. However, it is much more rewarding when two years later, they come up for air having something profound to show for it. When they do, they’re never the same again. Every piece of writing they produce for the online world is just a marketing piece to sell their book—the thing that actually matters. Once you cease to be an online writer, you never really come back.

This should be the goal for all of us.

Which brings me to something important….

Rosedale Press is now accepting submissions for its first literary annual.

This will be a limited-run, beautifully designed physical publication featuring work from Austin based writers. The finished book will be edited, designed, printed, and produced with absolute thoughtfulness and care.

Our goal as an organization is to make beautiful, literary objects worth keeping.

The theme for this first issue is “Firsts”

The interpretation of that theme is up to you. It can be a first love, a first failure, a first betrayal. It could be the birth of your first child, the first city you moved to alone, or the first death in your family. It doesn’t have to be a personal first, however, it can be the origins of a company, an empire, a machine, a city, a sport, an illness, or a tradition.

The theme does not need to be taken literally, in fact, we encourage you to make this as abstract or as tangential as you desire. Works submitted do not need to be personal, nor do they need to be sentimental. A piece about the origins of Ferrari could fit. So could a piece about losing your virginity. So could a story about the first lie a character tells and never takes back.

We are looking for work with personality, and clarity, and force. Work that was made for, and deserving of, print.

We are accepting complete, standalone pieces of writing in the following forms:

• Essays

• Memoir

• Fiction

• Poetry

• Interviews

• Criticism

• Reported pieces

• Literary nonfiction

We are not accepting photography, visual art, book excerpts, unfinished drafts, or pitches for open submissions. Each submission should be a complete work that can stand on its own.

You may submit one piece only.

Essays, fiction, memoir, literary nonfiction, and reported pieces: up to 5,000 words
Interviews: up to 6,000 words
Criticism: up to 3,000 words
Poetry: up to 3 poems

Please do not submit more than one piece. Instead choose a single work you most want considered.

All subject matter is welcome. The work can be intimate, political, religious, sexual, strange, funny, difficult, uncomfortable, intellectual, personal, historical, or otherwise.

Previously published work may be submitted only if it appeared online. Work that has already appeared in another print publication is not eligible.

Submissions will be reviewed anonymously. Your name and email will be collected through the submission form, but the editorial team will review the work without seeing your identity.

Please make sure your manuscript does not include your name, email, bio, acknowledgments, or any other identifying information. We want each piece to be judged on the strength of the writing itself.

The submission form will ask you to include a short note explaining how your piece relates to the theme of “Firsts.” This does not need to be long. A few sentences is enough. The note should help us understand your relationship to the theme, but the piece itself should still stand on its own.

Submissions will be reviewed by a small editorial team. Final selections will be made by the Editor. We expect to publish approximately 12 to 18 pieces.

Accepted pieces will go through editorial review and revision. This is part of the purpose of the publication. We want to help selected writers bring the work to its strongest possible form.

Selection does not mean your piece is already finished. It means we see something in it worth developing and placing in the final book. Writers whose work is not selected will receive a simple decline email. We will not be able to provide individual feedback on unselected submissions.

Accepted contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the finished book and will be included as contributors in the first literary annual from Rosedale Press.

You retain copyright to your work. By accepting publication, contributors grant Rosedale Press the right to publish the selected work in the printed annual, sell and distribute that annual, use brief excerpts for promotion, and identify the contributor and title in publication materials.

Rosedale Press will hold exclusive publication rights for 90 days after publication. After that period, you may republish the work elsewhere, provided future publications acknowledge that the piece first appeared in Rosedale Press.

All submissions are due by Friday, July 31, 2026 at midnight Central Time. Late submissions cannot be considered.

This first publication is the beginning of a larger undertaking. We are not yet an institution, but we are choosing to take our work seriously from the start.

If you have a piece that fits the theme or a piece you believe could rise to the level of the object we are trying to create, we hope you’ll submit it. Send us the work you would want to see printed, bound, and treasured.

Submit through the Google Form here:

SUBMIT YOUR WORK HERE

Thank you,

—Zac