Chapbooks FAQ
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What do I get if you decide to publish my chapbook?

Our package includes the following:

• an honorarium of $150
• editing and proofreading of the text
• cover design
• visual artist payment of $150 if you decide to contract for a cover image
• publication of an excerpt in a regular issue of Chestnut Review
• publication of an exclusive interview with you in the same issue
• promotion of your book as part of our series
• 50 free author copies
• 30% royalties on sales
• in-person and virtual events and promotion opportunities

Are there any costs for me once publication is offered?

Absolutely not.

Can I choose the cover?

We always work with authors on cover design. We do expect you to find or commission art for your cover. Any design is subject to approval by our Art Editor, and we ask that you do not design the textual elements yourself—that is best added by us once the image is agreed upon. As part of your publication agreement, we will pay $150 for commissioned art that you purchase from an artist. This can include photo manipulation, illustration, and/or digital or physical artwork. We ask, however, that you not make any oral or written agreement with an artist until the proposal has been approved by our Art Editor.

I’d like to publish an e-book of my chapbook. Can you help?

Chestnut Review does not provide e-book versions of the text. We will deliver the Adobe InDesign file for your book on request if you wish to use it as the basis of an e-publication. We cannot provide any technical assistance in preparing such publication.

How do author copies work?

You receive 50 author copies for free; if you want more, we can add them in to the first order. We never charge you retail cost for copies: you pay what we’d pay, the author rate, usually $2.15 a book plus shipping. So your cost would be $2.15 x the number you need plus the shipping cost. (We do not charge shipping if you add copies to the first free copy order—that’s on us.) After the initial free copies, we can order author copies for you at any time, but please plan in advance because sometimes printing takes longer than you’d think. These orders have to occur within our Amazon account, so authors cannot order them on their own.

How do royalties work?

We pay 30% on net sales, delivered annually in January via Paypal for the preceding calendar year. Our chapbooks sell for $9.99, which means a total royalty of $3.84 from Amazon, of which you’d receive $1.15. Do realize that in online sales, chapbooks don’t make much money. The best way for you to earn profits on your chapbook is by holding readings where you also sell copies. Per our agreement, when you sell that way you keep all the profit. For example, if you paid for author copies @ $2.15 apiece and sold them at a reading for $10, you’d have $7.85 in profit per sale. This example doesn’t take into account shipping cost for those copies or sales tax, but hopefully illustrates how in-person sales are much more lucrative than online. Do note that the online retail sale price of your book is set by Chestnut Review and is not negotiable.

What advertising will you do for the chapbook?

We will promote your book most heavily during its launch, when a representative piece is published in the Review and your author interview appears in our newsletter and social media, which will put it in front of over tens of thousands of readers. We will always promote it as part of our chapbook line and use it for promotions and giveaways to stoke interest. The chapbook will be listed for sale on our website and on Amazon.

We attend AWP each year and have attended other one-off events in the past. We regularly plan special events and signings with our authors and contributors.