Queerteen Press is an imprint of JMS Books which we’ve reviewed here. Please read our full review of JMS Books, alongside this review, as there is some helpful context there.
Queerteen Press accepts and publishes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender fiction which is focused on a younger readership. The books they publish feature main characters that are between the ages of 12 and 18. They go on to say “Just because a story contains young characters doesn’t automatically make it a YA story. If your story doesn’t speak to today’s teens, then it isn’t right for our readers.” They also stress that “While we understand sexual exploration is a part of growing up, we cannot accept any books with explicit sexual content for our Queerteen Press line.” You can get a feel for what they publish here.
This is their full list of what they do not accept in terms of submissions:
Our tastes are broad, but we don’t accept the following:
- Anthologies
- Erotica or any “onscreen” sex
- Excerpts from longer works
- General Fiction
- Heterosexual Romance
- Literary Fiction
- Memoirs (real or fictionalized)
- Poetry
- Stories without LGBTQ content
They also stress that song lyrics are prohibited and must be removed before submissions. They stress that “third-party quotes must be approved by Queerteen Press and may be removed prior to publication if copyright infringement is suspected”.
If your work falls more into the new adult category, JMS’s main imprint is open to publishing it.
They publish the ebook edition first. If a manuscript sells 50 electronic copies within six months of release it is eligible for print publication, but that is not guaranteed. They print on demand via CreateSpace.
The manuscripts they publish are between 40,000 and 130,000 words in length. Work does not seem to receive much if any editing pre-publication, so do keep that in mind.
They do not pay advances and authors are paid royalties quarterly that are 50% of the net.
Please read their full guidelines carefully here. All submissions must be made by email.
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.
