RAIN TAXI SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

To submit a review | To submit a book

Reviewer Submissions

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING YOUR REVIEW TO RAIN TAXI

Rain Taxi publishes work by writers in all stages of their careers. Our quarterly magazine provides a place for the spirited exchange of ideas about books, particularly those overlooked by mainstream review media. While Rain Taxi focuses on reviews of current releases (generally those published within the last calendar year), it also devotes space to interviews, essays, and reflections on older works that continue to resonate. We are especially interested in book coverage by and about BIPOC authors, LGBTQIA+ authors, and writing that has been marginalized for presumed strangeness, difficulty, or other reasons.

Our Print Edition appears in March, June, September, and December. An accompanying Online Edition with additional, unique material is published shortly after each print issue. Submissions are accepted year-round, except for the months of June and December. Please note also that we do not accept submissions of original poetry or fiction.

HOW TO SUBMIT

1. We encourage you to submit by email. Send your review submissions to info [at] raintaxi.com. Please submit your review as a Microsoft Word attachment or as plain text in the body of your email. If sending via snail mail, please use our postal address, and include a SASE or email address for response:

Rain Taxi
PO Box 3840
Minneapolis, MN 55403

2. In your message to us please include answers to the following questions: 1) how did you acquire a copy of the book?; 2) do you have any connection to the author or publisher?; 3) have you read and agreed to our ethical and editorial guidelines?; and 4) is this review submitted or published anywhere else?

3. We also encourage you to include in your message to us a bit about your background, reading interests, favorite authors, and other publications (if any).

4. We welcome pitches or finished submissions. If pitching a piece, please explain why you wish to write it; word counts and deadlines will be determined upon assignment. If submitting a finished review, send something up to 500 words in length (or make the case to submit a longer piece if you feel it’s warranted). Make sure to include book title, author, publisher, and price at the start, as well as page numbers for all quotations. If submitting an interview or essay, these can be larger in scope; please provide any background information that may help us evaluate your proposal.

5. We do not accept simultaneous submissions—if a piece is under active consideration anywhere else, we will not be able to consider it. We normally respond within one month. Please do not send submissions during the months of December and June.

ETHICAL AND EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

    • Rain Taxi is dedicated to publishing unbiased, objective reviews. If you have a connection with the author or press, please disclose it upon submission. Not all relationships constitute conflicts of interest, but we respectfully request your candor. If you are friends with an author, please feel free to email us and suggest we assign a review to someone else, or consider pitching an interview instead.
    • We discourage reviewers from having any direct contact with the author or publisher prior to submitting a review. Our editorial staff will perform fact- and quote-checks prior to publication and serve as the go-between for any necessary communication. If you feel it is essential that you contact the author or publisher, please check with us prior to doing so so that we can help you design a course of action.
    • Rain Taxi publishes original work that has not appeared previously in any other venue, including magazines, newspapers, personal web sites or blogs, and mass emails.
    • If you have published a different review of the same title anywhere, we are unlikely to consider a new piece for publication in Rain Taxi. In a time when so many worthwhile books are being published by such a large number of presses, we encourage reviewers to write a single piece on a worthy book.
    • We reserve the right to edit, though edits are always discussed with the writer before publication. We also reserve the right not to publish work that we feel does not meet our editorial standards or is in conflict with our mission and aesthetic.
    • Material may be published, at our discretion, in either our print issue, Rain Taxi Review of Books, or in our Online Edition at www.raintaxi.com. Feel free to let us know upon submission if you have a strong preference for either format.
    • While we generally prefer to use our limited space for discussion of books that are worthwhile, negative reviews that engage larger issues are certainly welcome.
    • Rain Taxi holds the copyright to all articles published. Copyright reverts to the author one year after publication, though Rain Taxi should always be credited as the original source. Please discuss with us any reprint plans.
    • Our contributing writers are truly “contributing”—as a small nonprofit organization, Rain Taxi does not issue payments on a per-piece basis, investing our resources instead in maintaining our high circulation and good reputation, thus making Rain Taxi a place where our contributing writers will be widely read and proud to be published. At the end of each fiscal year, we do issue honoraria to those writers who have contributed multiple pieces over the course of that year, however. 

Publisher and Author Submissions

HOW TO SUBMIT A BOOK FOR REVIEW CONSIDERATION

Rain Taxi generally considers books in the categories of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, art, and graphic novels, unless there is a book in another genre with a significant literary connection. We review children's and young adult books, audio books, and chapbooks, though less frequently.

Please understand that we can review only a small percentage of the books we receive. We appreciate the opportunity to consider work from a variety of publishers, and all books are considered fairly. As a quarterly publication, we often take several months to consider a book; please do not send follow-up queries. We will notify you if your title is selected for review, and we always send tearsheets or links upon publication.

Also note that we DO NOT accept electronic files of any kind—only printed books (finished books or bound galleys) are accepted for consideration.

Publishers or authors who would like to have a new release considered for review are welcome to submit review copies and any relevant press information to our mailing address:

Rain Taxi
PO Box 3840
Minneapolis, MN 55403

Rain Taxi’s chapbook series does not accept unsolicited manuscripts at any time.