The guidelines for submissions to Matchbook are pretty simple, but they really need to be followed. If they aren't followed, submission emails run the risk of getting routed to the junk mail folder. We don't check our junk folders frequently, and have things set up so that properly submitted poems get sent right to our Inbox, ready to read.
1) We only accept submissions as Word or text documents attached to an email sent to [email protected]. This is to ensure that the poems we read are submitted as intended, with any formatting (italics, bold, etc.) and line breaks or unusual spacing intact.
2) Please put the text "Matchbook Submissions" in the Subject line of your email.
3) We accept a maximum of five submissions per person at a time. After we respond to your submissions, you are free to send in new submissions. If you send in more than five submissions at a time, it's entirely possible we'll reject them immediately.
We don't mean to sound difficult to get along with, but we really do feel that the three simple guidelines are just that: simple. They should be able to be followed easily, and indicate at least a cursory attention to detail. If these instructions aren't followed, we probably just won't respond to the submission (most likely because we won't even see it in our inbox).
We'll get back to you as quickly as possible (and we mean it). If we put your work in one of our issues, you'll keep full copyright credit, and we don't care if you submit it to another magazine later. The submission process is all about you, not us.