Flying Ketchup Press ® established in 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri to develop new and diverse voices in poetry and short story. Our dream is to salvage lost treasure troves of written and illustrated work—to create worlds of wonder and delight; to share stories. Maybe yours.

What do we publish? Each year we create one dynamic, literary, and artistic anthology for poetry and one for short story. We emphasize fun, beauty, art, and artists in our books. Our books are known for our craft and design and are rated 14+ for adults and teen-friendly. They are entertaining, wonderful, and either make you think or make you feel good.

What are we looking for: poetry, we can't get enough that distills a great voice to move beyond prose and take us to new places. We chose our poetry for the voice, short stories for the choice. Short Stories will be evaluated on deep characters with hard choices, smart action, and excellent dialogue. We want to stretch our imagination in weird, wild new worlds. Is your story full of surprises, twists, adventures, mysteries, and new things we've never thought of? Then welcome home to Flying Ketchup Press. Be a part of the adventure!

Art: We enjoy art with great line quality, good contrast, and nice composition. We love art that mixes several ideas and images together. Our motto is post-modern: give us a good mix of retro and new. We love art with great texture and line quality for our paperback books in black and white. Ebooks in color.

Short Story Contest: Wizard of Oz- Extended
Ends on This opportunity will close after 50 submissions have been received.$5.00
$5.00



oz 

 Share your short stories for children, in true Frank Baum-Ozian style, the silly times and serious times, the best characters, the journey, the magic, a short story for children. Whether it's a culture in Oz explored in his fourteen volumes or whether it makes us catch our breath with something new, we want to hear from you. The most creative and child reader-friendly stories will be published in an illustrated anthology for children in both ebook, audiobook, and paperback.

Our books include a bio of each author, including a link to your author page on our website. Each winner gets a copy of the book and can buy author copies indefinitely for their personal events, promotions, and sales. 


Guidelines for each Entry: All work must be original and submitted by the author. If you are previously published, and you have retained rights, include the publication note and date of former serial publication.

How do we decide which work we select for this publication? Work will be evaluated on how they fit the theme as well as creativity, narrative, and craftsmanship. We love bright bursts of surprise, color, setting, and strong character voice. No name or other identifying info must be included in your submission manuscript text, so that your work may be read by our judges anonymously. 


How many stories can I submit? You may submit one story per entry in one document. You may submit up to three sketches to support your work.  All documents uploaded must be named: Author Last Name_Author First Name_Short Title_Oz.

How many times can I submit? As many as you like.

How long is your process? You should hear back from us within three months after the end of the contest. It takes twelve months plus to publish an anthology in book form, in order to include time for authors to work with our editors, and for the process of graphic design, illustrations, book cover, and layout.





 

Ends on This opportunity will close after 50 submissions have been received.$10.00
$10.00


salt 



Flying Ketchup Press has two Poetry imprints looking for manuscripts! Salt and Pepper Press is our Hybrid press, so poets can get a manuscript published with epic acceleration. 


We will publish 12 manuscripts a year. Would you like to have a full poetry collection published? Do you have a full collection of work, something 40 to 60 poems? Would you like an editor to guide you through the process of publication?

Poets who are selected will get 10 copies of their book and reduced cost author copies as many as they need. Their book will be published in both softcover and eBook editions with 

  • Barnes and Noble, Nook
  • Kindle, Kindle fire/ paperwhite
  • Apple iPad/iPhone
  • Kobo/Clara

There is a requirement in those accepting the hybrid publishing for a sponsor/ patron or donation of $400 for a black and white book up to 100 pages to help pay 50% of the publishing costs. However, we provide high-quality, professional library-ready work. We are also experts in art, graphics, design, layout, and creativity.

Guidelines for each Entry: Include your bio (and any website or author page link in the letter portion of your submission along with a summary of your submitted collection). All work must be original and submitted by the author. Author retains copyright of their work. There is no age limit-young writers are welcome to submit. 


Selection Committee: Poetry Collections by one author will be evaluated on how they fit the theme of “creative lyrical narrative” as well as craftmanship and poetic tools. No name or other identifying info must be included in your submission manuscript text so that your work is read by our judges anonymously.


Length: approximately 40 to 60 poems, 1 per page (left justified)


How many poetry collections can I submit? You may submit one manuscript per entry. Each manuscript MUST have page numbers and a table of contents.


$3.00

Coyote Point Press is the literary fiction imprint of Flying Ketchup Press, publishing short stories of the highest caliber.  We believe in exceptional fiction that pushes the boundaries of genres and spans emotional landscapes, taking readers behind the masks and under the skin of our evocative, complicated and frail humanity.  Our stories will thrill your heart with bouts of passion and fury, pleasure and tenderness, and most importantly, will awaken you to every sensual moment of hope and joy that makes you feel fully human and alive.

Call for Short Fiction Collections:

Coyote Point Press, the literary fiction imprint of Flying Ketchup Press, is now accepting submissions for our next published short story collection.  Note that writers must have enough polished work to comprise a solo collection of short fiction, 60,000-100,000 words.

We believe in short stories with all our hearts.  Stories allow us to visit the worlds of characters from every walk of life—and experience many of them in one collection or anthology.  We’re looking for soulful, smart, passionate, humorous, sensitive and heart-opening short fiction that moves us and makes us remember what it is to feel fully alive.  While many publishers are sidelining short story collections with the dubious thought that they “don’t sell well,” we’re celebrating them.  We are committed to the form, with its unique and rich ability to help readers quickly dive into the interior lives of protagonists and walk with them through their failings and faults, their joys and elations, their heartbreaks and healings.

Specifically, we are looking for upmarket literary and commercial fiction, book club and women’s fiction.  Please no science fiction, magical realism, or fantasy.  We are looking for the next short fiction author with quality short fiction for today's audiences.

No length restrictions.  Stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words are suggested, however we do not restrict writers in story length.  We do, however, in longer forms, want the story to compel us to keep reading.

How do we decide which collections are right for us?  Stories will be evaluated on creativity, narrative voice, emotional depth, and craftsmanship.  We love memorable characters, deep dives into the human heart, and stories that make us look deeply at who we are--fiction that changes us. (Our Flying Ketchup counterparts like to say Short story is about choice. Make sure your setting and dialog push your backstory and plot forward.)

How many stories can You submit?  One from your collection. **If you submit, please have enough polished work to comprise a collection so we can ask to see more.

How many times can I submit?  As many as you like. Runners up will be invited to post a story on our blog.

How long is your process? You should hear back from us within three months after the end of the contest.  Should your work be chosen, it takes eight months to a year to publish a full collection of stories in book form, allowing time for an author to work with our editors, and for the processes of graphic design, book cover, layout and production.

Guidelines for each Entry:

  • Please submit one (1) story from your unpublished short story collection.
  • Your unpublished collection  must be 60,000 - 100,000 words, with a little leeway.  We prefer at least 10 short stories for a collection.
  • Individual stories may be any length, shorter or longer, but the word count of the entire collection is important for publication.  (You must have enough work to constitute a full book.)
  • All work must be original and submitted by the author.  If you have previously published the stories in journals or other outlets, please include the publication and date of former publication.  You must own the rights to the story or stories to be considered.  If your stories have been published in Literary Journals, it is extremely likely that rights stay with you or revert to you after their publication.
  • We do all submissions through www.Submittable.com, which is free for authors to join.  A fee of $3 for processing is charged for your submission.
  • All documents uploaded must be named: Author Last Name - Short Story Title.
  • Please don’t email us to check on the status of your submission, and please allow 12 weeks for us to review your work.  We will contact you only if we are interested in your work

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUBMITTING!!  We believe in Fiction, and we welcome your work. Your voice is important. Write on!

Flying Ketchup Press