Agape Editions started out as an imprint of Sundress Publishing but it has been an independent press since 2019. Agape’s masthead is here and it includes a number of established and active members of the literary community, which is always a nice sign.
Agape is a small press with varying imprints, and a literary journal, that cover a lot of territory. They have also published a lot of authors who are part of the larger literary community and have a track record of serious publications, particularly in terms of poetry. Agape is only open to submissions for certain imprints at certain times. On their main submissions page they make it clear which imprints are open and which ones are not. If you submit to an imprint that is not open, they will delete your submission unread.
At the time of writing this review they are open to submissions for two of their imprints, Haunted Doll House, their horror imprint, and Kumquat Books, their children’s book imprint.
In terms of Haunted Doll House they are seeking full length books (that they will publish in print editions). They are open to horror, mystery, dark sf/f, genre-resistant writing. They are currently accepting both fiction and memoir and say “We especially want authors who identify as female, femme, enby, LGBTQIA+, disabled, working-class, or authors of color to feel welcome to send us work.”
You can read their full submission details here, and please follow all their instructions carefully, including a 250 or fewer word synopsis in the body of the email along with a 100 or fewer words bio and the manuscript attached as a Word doc and PDF.
You can see the books Haunted Doll House has previously published here.
Kumquat Books has only published one book so far, which you can see here.
You can see Kumquat Books’ submission guidelines by going here and scrolling down, but the main focus is a query letter. Please follow their guidelines carefully.
Like most micropresses they don’t seem to have established distribution outside of Ingram, but the books they publish are widely available online.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 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.
