Alternating Current Press

neicolec · Dec 9, 2014

Has anyone heard of this press or worked with them? They favorited me in #SFFPit. I don't see them mentioned here or in preditors and editors.

aleighrose · Dec 9, 2014

This appears to be their site: www.press.alternatingcurrentarts.com
When I try to go to their website, it says "Server not found." Maybe it's just down for maintenance. It's hard to judge anything if the site isn't working.

neicolec · Dec 9, 2014

It may be down now, but I got to it earlier. It is an odd duck, though.

Helix · Dec 9, 2014

Here is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alternatingcurrentartscoop

neicolec · Dec 9, 2014

Yes. And here are some pages from their site: https://alternatingcurrent.submittable.com/submit. The rest of their site was up earlier, but seems to be having problems now. This page has a bunch of contests you can pay to be in. Hmmm. And they tweeted "If we favorite you for #SFFpit, then you have the kind of book we'd like to read for our #ElectricBookAward! alternatingcurrent.submittable.com/submit." So, in other words, if they favorited you, they think it'd be great if you went and paid them $7.49 to be in their contest?

Bicyclefish · Dec 9, 2014

Their Facebook page labels themselves an "arts co-op" with "Book & Magazine Distribution · Publisher · Promotional Item Services". Their website won't load for me either, so I resorted to Google cache.

Alternating Current is pleased to offer editing services to writers in all stages of their writing careers. Whether seeking syntax or story, we’ll help you create a strong finished product of which you can be proud. We are lucky to have Eric Shonkwiler as the head of our Editing Services Department [...]

$2.25 per page/copyediting
$3.55 per page/developmental

From the cached About page:

Alternating Current began in 1993, first under the Lansing-/Detroit-based Broadway Kids Productions, then the Chicago-based Spy Kids Productions (Yes, prior to the ridiculous movie!), then the Seattle-based Indie Arts Co-op, then the Boston-/Cambridge-based Alternating Current Arts Co-op, changing as we transitioned through time and puberty and high school and college and cities and interests and hobbies. We are San Francisco-/Palo Alto-based pseudo-adults now, with art, science, and history backgrounds, who have merged the best of all of these worlds to form a company that encompasses a whole spectrum of different meanings and evokes beautiful, intense, and passionate imagery [...]

We encompass an independent press company, Alternating Current, that features numerous ongoing publications; an independent arts catalog and marketplace, also under the umbrella of Alternating Current; a record label, Not Really Records; a theater company, That Other Theater Co., an online library of independent zines and small press publications, Izla; and a burgeoning history documentation project, History Deletes Itself; as well as sponsoring the annual writing awards, The Luminaire Award for Best Prose and Best Poetry and The Charter Oak Award for Best Historical. The company’s founder, Leah Angstman, is a jack-of-all-(art)-trades, schizophrenically specializing in and bouncing between writing, editing, publishing, musical theater, and history. The company’s other founder ... well, he’s an anonymous scientist.

[...] we work hard to bring you materials and resources that are effective and inexpensive. The large majority of the money we make off the selling of products or benefit shows goes back into making new products and bringing new art to the mainstream. The little bit left over to feed us Ramen noodles and to buy a few postage stamps barely covers the costs of the Alternating Current rental space, so any donation you could give out of the kindness of your creative mind would help us immensely in furthering our efforts to keep art from being just a luxurious afterthought. Please donate what you can; no amount is too small.

We give you many resources and opportunities to make amazing art and to market it to the masses. So you have no excuse.

JulieB · Dec 9, 2014

Just a note that their hosting is through 1and1, which currently experiencing a DDoS attack. That likely explains why no one can get through to the site.

aleighrose · Dec 9, 2014

From a cached version of the homepage:

We never have free reading periods for manuscripts because we read only for the Electric Book Awards, which are generally our only published books per year. But if we favorited you on Twitter for #PITMAD, then that means that you have the type of book we’d really love to read for our contest, so you have a better chance of winning the monetary prize and top-notch publication, plus fantastic marketing products, like audiobooks, book trailers, book tours, and more. If you get chosen, we promise to love your book so hard that it is sure to be a success. Each submission also comes with a complimentary PDF copy of one of our books, too, so you never go home empty-handed.

Oh dear. As if the information Bicyclefish found weren't enough to scare me away from this publisher, now they sound like they're promising a win to every author they contacted through Twitter. And free PDF copies?

Also, the page states that their site is only under construction (no hosting problems), so it should be back online soon.

SparkleHorse224 · Dec 10, 2014

Alternating Currents

I'm glad you all are talking about this. I was also favorited yesterday. My first instincts were, "Hellno. Money flows TO THE AUTHOR." But I looked at their site and I waffled. (I can see the site, no problem.) I emailed a couple of friends and asked what they think...

oceansoul · Dec 10, 2014

They favourited one of my #SFFpit tweets as well. I'm not going to submit to them because I don't want to enter a contest.

CaoPaux · Mar 8, 2016

Main URL: http://www.alternatingcurrentarts.com/

Currently offering "digital catalog for life", for $45.

Stytch · May 23, 2019

Anyone have more recent dealings? I'm trying to figure out what they pay in their The Coil magazine, they don't say out right. It does seem like they've grown a bit since some of these initial posts.

Sonya Heaney · May 23, 2019

Stytch said:
Anyone have more recent dealings? I'm trying to figure out what they pay in their The Coil magazine, they don't say out right. It does seem like they've grown a bit since some of these initial posts.

Well, that was a weird few minutes reading the seventy-bajillion rules on their website. I'd be running for the hills.

Got to say that they're unique: I've never seen a publisher set all kinds of fees just to submit. And - bonus! - you get to pay more if you want "brief feedback" with your rejection. Unless you fit into their marginalised categories, in which case they let a few people a year submit for free...

Our feedback is sincerely honest. It’s not always sweet, and it’s not always kind. It’s rarely going to be in your favor, but it will make you a better writer. Listen: We pride ourselves on that, and we aim to keep it that way. We don’t hold your hand or coddle you. IF YOU CANNOT TAKE TOUGH CRITICISM, DO NOT ASK FOR FEEDBACK.

Nobody expects hearts and flowers, but that's just rude.

And then:

Responses can take up to 6 months, but we aim to have responses back within 2 months. Please do not follow up on your submission. If we decline your submission, it isn’t personal. Please refrain from sending snarky response emails, and try again with something new. If we accept your manuscript, then it is automatically sent to the semifinalist round for your respective category award, and you’ll hear the results during award-announcement times. We often accept submissions several years out, so do not expect instant publication. DO NOT approach our readers about your manuscript before they have read it, or it will be disqualified and rejected unread.

So, after six months of waiting for an offer (after PAYING them to do their job), you get to wait YEARS to have your book published by a press nobody has ever heard of? Ok-ay, then. :Huh:

Sonya Heaney · May 23, 2019

Stytch said:
Anyone have more recent dealings? I'm trying to figure out what they pay in their The Coil magazine, they don't say out right.

Did you see this in their Submittable section for The Coil?

We pay a tiny token for all the work we accept.

That's the most information I can find.

Stytch · May 23, 2019

Yes, that's why I was looking around trying to see what that meant in actual numbers. *shrugs* I was interested by the aesthetics, but I didn't pay much attention to all the guidelines for their other stuff.

Sonya Heaney · May 23, 2019

I figured that's what you saw. The word "tiny" is worrying, but I suppose it's more about getting the work published than about getting rich off it... You'd think that with all the money they're making off submissions they could bump the pay up a bit more.

novicewriter · May 24, 2019

Stytch said:
Anyone have more recent dealings? I'm trying to figure out what they pay in their The Coil magazine, they don't say out right. It does seem like they've grown a bit since some of these initial posts.

I had a poem accepted by them, a few years ago. I submitted during one of their fee-free months. The pay was a little over $5 for me and a couple of other poets, whose work was included on the same page, along with mine. If I remember correctly, I was informed that the amount was based on the number of clicks others viewed the page, for the entire month when the work was published.

After acceptance, it took a slightly over a year before it was published.

Alternating Current Press

neicolec

Just getting started

aleighrose

neicolec

Just getting started

Helix

socially distancing

neicolec

Just getting started

Bicyclefish

Pedaling Pescado

JulieB

I grow my own catnip

aleighrose

SparkleHorse224

oceansoul

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless

Stytch

Sonya Heaney

Sonya Heaney

Stytch

Sonya Heaney

novicewriter