Most of publishing is built to say no. We are here to say ‘not yet …. but here's how.’
We are interested in emerging writers whose work isn’t ready yet but could be. This is where the most interesting writing of the next decade is coming from.
Folly is a working press, and home to an award winning and bestselling international literary journal. We curate across the English-speaking world and read for what's culturally alive, this is more important to us than technically excellent writing.
When you work with Folly, you work with people who are passionate about growing emerging stories that are culturally resonant.
The distance between a story with promise and a finished work is enormous, and crossing it takes real human time and expertise. In publishing, the work that isn’t ‘publication ready’ traditionally gets lost in the slush pile. Folly wants to change this. We endeavour to mentor and work with writers over a longer period. Sometimes this occurs organically. Sometimes, writers approach us for additional support.
We acknowledge author services aren’t for everyone. But if you want the faster route — straight, frank advice from the people who decide what gets published, this is it. This service is a result of requests from writers for more support and advice than our team is able to provide to everyone who submits via Submittable.
Author Services
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Up to 5000 words
Investment: $175 USD
Book here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRmfZi3MT61u85K7qp2cg01
Designed for the book or stories still being written. Send us a collection of works you want advice on, or your opening and synopsis of a larger work, and we'll tell you whether you're driving in the right direction — before you write thousands of words that aren’t.
Writers often use this option to send us a large body of their work - stories, essays and poetry - to gain a steer in advance of submitting about which of their pieces is most aligned with any of our upcoming anthologies.
We will be frank if what you have crafted isn’t for us (and if that’s the case we will advise you on where it may find a home, and how to develop it for submission). For those who are writing within the Folly genre, the advice and guidance out of this will give you the greatest chance of successfully developing your work for submission.
This is not a requirement to be published by Folly. This service is a result of requests for fuller assessments than our team are able to provide with our time and resources within Submittable - for those writers who want more feedback, more human time over their work, and a greater sense of how close their work could be from a ‘yes.’
Our submissions portal remains open for anyone who wishes to submit without an assessment.
Submission fees range from free - $30 depending on the category. These fees support us to bring beautiful books to the world. Because as much as we love creating art, doing so isn’t free.
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For when there is a whole book behind your submission (30,000 - 80,000 words).
NOTE: Please book a Folly Steer first. The cost of the report will be deducted off your full assessment if we agree your work is ready for this service.
Often, the first piece of advice an agent or a publisher will provide a new writer is to have their manuscript professionally assessed. You could go to any number of freelancers to do this, but if you are serious about being a Folly author, work with the people who are genuinely looking for culturally resonant work to take forward.
This is not a requirement to be published by Folly. This service is a result of requests for fuller assessments than our team are able to provide with our time and resources within Submittable - for those writers who want more feedback, more human time over their work, and a greater sense of how close their work could be from a ‘yes.’
Our submissions portal remains open for anyone who wishes to submit.
Submission fees range from free - $30 depending on the category. These fees support us to bring beautiful books to the world. Because as much as we love creating art, doing so isn’t free.
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Many authors and emerging writers approach Folly for advice on their personal branding, social media strategy and publicity, including how to go about gaining media coverage and reviews for their book.
At Folly we don’t view books as a product, we see them as culturally resonant objects and target our media efforts toward audiences who will appreciate the learnings, insights and tone of each book. We are happy to share this advice to support your author journey.
Because we are an international press, we look widely for audiences and this means a more nuanced approach than mainstream coverage.
We acknowledge this is a specialist service not within the budget of all writers. For those who do have the means to invest in publicity, we align our fees with industry standard and provide advice starting from $500 USD. Enquire directly to editor@follyjournal.com