About and Guidelines for Submission

About the label:

Hello America Stereo Cassette is an audio book record label for writers established February 5th, 2021. We release cassettes of fiction, poetry, activist writing, and memoir. The releases are curated by Adam Gnade and the label is based out of a small brick and mortar shop in Lawrence, KS at 1204 Oread inside the ECM. We are looking to build a scene and community of audio literary artists. If that's you and your work is good, we want to be friends.

Payments: 

We pay a 50/50 artist/label split of what we receive (minus Bandcamp's 15% fees) for all downloads, paying out weekly once it accrues $20. For physical releases, we pay the same rates after the release makes back its initial manufacturing cost (usually about $360 per 100 copies. So, once we sell 36 of your records, we pay you $5 per album sold and half of what we get for each download, as well as half of any Bandcamp tips we receive, i.e. when a buyer opts to pay extra for the album or track).

Important: What we're NOT looking for:

1) That awful, swingy-voiced spoken word/poetry slam delivery with unnatural emphasis on random words and dramatic, gasping pauses. A little theatre is fine in your delivery but extra points for conversational tones and using your natural speaking voice and style. Just as bad as the slam-style delivery, we very much will not accept readings with that overly-urgent, pushy, faux-confrontational style with the big gasps between each line. Cut that shit out. No one likes it. It's fucking stupid.

2) Racist, sexist, transphobic, ablest, fascist, homophobic, and/or right wing writers please go elsewhere aka go fuck yourselves. 

3) Tracks with vocal mistakes. If you stumble over a word, if you slur a word, record the track again.

4) Overly abstract, obtuse, or surreal writing. Please make sense. Communicate to the reader. 

5) We don't want fantasy, mystery, dystopia, slasher, horror, or sci-fi writing. We want writing about people, about your life, about the world as it is now. Write about your life. Speak directly.

6) Generally if you're going for a "creepy," gross-out, gory, shock value vibe, we're not the place for you. 

7) No academic bullshit either.

What we are looking for:

We are currently looking for submissions for our Spring Collection 2025 compilation. Tracks due March 19th, 2025. See last year's fall compilation for ideas. We are also looking for digital singles and EPs. Example here.

Submit in .wav file to helloamericalit@gmail.com We're accepting tracks with musical accompaniment and without. Email the same address with any questions.

We're also scouting out artists for full-length cassette releases but mostly just single tracks. If we like your submission well enough we might pitch a cassette idea. Showing up on one of our comps is a good way to get your foot in the door and allow us a chance to get to know you and see how you are to work with. We don't offer full-length releases often or lightly.

What we are looking for more specifically:

1) New, unreleased work. 

2) Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, we are looking for literary realism or something close to that. Think: Ocean Vuong, James Baldwin, Maggie Nelson. 

3) We like short pieces of writing (fiction, memoir, poetry, scenes from your life, activism, weird shit that's on your mind) as well as short pieces of writing backed by original music.

4) Our current vibe is "say something important and say it well." Here's a good example.

How to submit:

Submit in .wav file to helloamericalit@gmail.com  VERY IMPORTANT: We don't accept tracks that aren't recorded as .wavs. Even if you've recorded it as an mp3 then converted it to a .wav file afterward, we can't use it. Record it in .wav format to begin with.

Check out our releases on Bandcamp before submitting so you know what we're looking for.

We encourage young writers and writers of color, women, queer, trans, and nonbinary authors, and authors outside of the US to submit work. This place is for you.