Cartonera

Cartonera is a social, political and artistic publishing movement that began in Argentina in 2003 and has since spread to countries throughout Latin America and, more recently, to Europe and Africa. The founders, Washington Cucurto, Javier Barilaro and Fernanda Laguna started Eloísa Cartonera in Buenos Aires in response to the 2001 economic crisis in which the Argentine peso plummeted to one third of its value. The difficult economic situation led to an increase in the number of cartoneros, people who make their living collecting and selling salvaged materials to recycling plants. Cartonera books are made from cardboard bought from cartoneros at three to five times more than the price set by recycling plants. The cardboard is then used to create covers for short books of prose or poetry.

From the Wikipedia article “Cartonera”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Large trade publishers generally accept manuscripts only through literary agents, while many independent and small presses accept direct submissions during reading periods. Before submitting anywhere, read the publisher's current guidelines, study recent books on its list, and never pay a reading or publishing fee to a traditional publisher.