33 ⅓ is an imprint of Bloomsbury. Their motto is “Small books. Big Albums”. Their highly acclaimed main imprint focuses on publishing books that cover popular LP’s. For example they have published books on Cher’s album Believe, and Sufjan Steve’s album Carrie &. Lowell. Some of the books are by famous authors, like Jonathan Lethem, and others are by established writers. You can see their full publication list of their signature series here.
They are not currently open to submissions of proposals for their signature series (although they plan to reopen in 2026), but they are open to proposal submissions for their Genre: A 33 ⅓ series which focuses on publishing short books that guide you through a musical sub-genre. You can see the books they have published in this series so far, here.
To submit a proposal for the genre series, please follow the proposal submission guidelines for the 33 ⅓ series, which you can see here. Although please note that genre books must be 40,000 words in length. Proposal submissions are encouraged via email.
They are also open to submissions of writing for any of the 33 ⅓ Global series. This includes 33 ⅓ Brazil, 33 ⅓ Japan, 33 ⅓ Oceania, 33 ⅓ Europe, and 33 ⅓ South Asia. These are in-depth examinations of some of the most important albums from around the world.
If you would like to submit a proposal for the global series, they ask that you please follow the directions for the academic proposal submission process found here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2025 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
