Submissions are now closed. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us!
We received over 750 submissions, and are doing our best to read them all in a timely manner! We will reply to everyone who submitted a comic by the end of December, but are hoping to be able to reply earlier than that. Thank you for your patience!
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Silver Sprocket is excited to announce twice-yearly open submissions for minicomics! In the past, we have been closed for unsolicited submissions due to the small size of our team. However, we’ve grown in recent years, and we’d like to create an opportunity to meet new artists outside of conventions and social media algorithms. We look forward to reading your work!
We hope to respond to all submissions within a reasonable time frame. Once the submission period closes and we know the volume of submissions, we will post an estimated time frame for responses. Thank you for your patience!
Not ready to submit? Don’t worry! We will re-open submissions in 2024 for another round.
What are the requirements?
For the purposes of our submission process, your minicomic should be:
- Between 24 and 48 pages
- Fiction or nonfiction are accepted
- A self-contained concept (no series)
- Comics/sequential art (no prose or art books)
- All rights fully owned by the author(s)
- Aligned with Silver Sprocket as a publisher
- Emotional, political, experimental, queer: yes. Superheroes: no. If you’re unfamiliar with Silver Sprocket, take a look around our website! If you’re in doubt about whether or not your comic would fit in at Silver Sprocket, just pitch it. We have varied tastes!
What should be in the submission packet?
If your minicomic is already complete, please include the following in ONE PDF:
- Your completed minicomic
- A document that includes the following:
- Title of your comic
- Logline: 1-3 sentences that sums up what your comic is about. Sometimes it helps to imagine that you’re trying to sell the book to someone at a convention—what do you tell them to make them want to read it?
- Audience: Who do you imagine reading your comic? This can include any established audience you may already have, or something as broad as “people who love their pets.” You can also include comparable titles here, if you know of a book that you think would have a similar readership to yours.
- Bio: A short biography of yourself—tell us any previous books you’ve made, your social media (if any), and anything else that you feel is useful. Please also share a link to your portfolio if you have one.
- Contact information: Please include an email address for us to reply to you!
If your minicomic is not complete, please include the following in ONE PDF:
- At least 5 pages of sample artwork. It’s preferable that the pages are from the comic you are pitching, but it’s not a requirement. They do, however, have to be reflective of the style that you envision for the completed comic.
- A document that includes the following:
- Title of your comic
- Logline: 1-3 sentences that sums up what your comic is about. Sometimes it helps to imagine that you’re trying to sell the book to someone at a convention—what do you tell them to make them want to read it?
- Summary: Bullet points or paragraph summary of the beginning, middle, and end of your story. You can be plain and direct here—no need to use “marketing language.”
- Audience: Who do you imagine reading your comic? This can include any established audience you may already have, or something as broad as “people who love their pets.” You can also include comparable titles here, if you know of a book that you think would have a similar readership to yours.
- Bio: A short biography of yourself—tell us any previous books you’ve made, your social media (if any), and anything else that you feel is useful. Please also share a link to your portfolio if you have one.
- Contact information: Please include an email address for us to reply to you!
Check back here for a link to the submission portal on August 1, 2023.
If your pitch is accepted, your minicomic will be contracted as a full Silver Sprocket title! We will:
- Work with you on deadlines and scheduling
- Provide editorial feedback and proofreading
- Collaborate with you on cover and interior design
- Print and distribute the comic to comic shops, bookstores, and our own retail shop
Everything published by Silver Sprocket is creator-owned. Thank you for considering us as a potential home for your comic!
Frequently asked questions:
Q: What is the pay? Is there an advance?
A: Our first step on any project is a conversation with the creator about goals, resources, expectations and the rest. There is no “one size fits all.” Based on that conversation, if we’re a good mutual fit, we’d offer a contract for the creator to carefully evaluate, get outside advice on, and have the choice of accepting, rejecting, or asking for edits. Our standard royalty is splitting profits 50/50 after costs are covered, and (so far) mini’s have gotten a $500 advance.
Q: Can I submit multiple comics for consideration?
A: No, please only submit one comic per submission period.
Q: Can I submit my comic if it’s available online or has been self-published?
A: Absolutely! As long as you fully own the rights to the comic and don’t have a deal with a different publisher, please submit your self-published work. Lots of Silver Sprocket’s comics were previously self-published!
Q: I’ve never been published before? Can I still submit?
A: Yes! We’d love to hear from artists who have not been published yet.
Q: Can we submit a pitch as a writer/artist team?
A: Yes! There can be more than one author on the pitch.
Q: Can I submit a pitch if I don’t live in the US?
A: Yes! International artists are welcome to submit their work.
Q: Will there be feedback if my pitch is not accepted?
A: Unfortunately, no. We’re still a small team, and won’t be able to give individual feedback for all submissions.
Q: Is there a limit to how many pitches will be accepted?
A: No, there is not a set amount of slots. That said, we will be limiting the number of pitches we accept based on our bandwidth as a publisher, to make sure that we’re not overstretching ourselves and that everyone we publish gets our full attention.
Q: Can I submit a comic that I made with AI?
A: Absolutely not. AI uses stolen, copyrighted material from artists, and goes against our ethos as a publisher.
Q: I have an agent. Should I still submit through open submissions?
A: If you have a comics agent, they can submit your work through our agented submission process.