Articles by Emily Harstone

Emily Harstone is the pen name of a published writer. Her work has been published in ten countries, four continents, by over fifty different journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and editor. If she owned a dog it would be named Wystan.

The History Press: Seeking Manuscript Proposals

The History Press is based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Their name is pretty self explanatory, they publish historical nonfiction, as well as general nonfiction. They do consider memoirs. They do not consider direct submissions of poetry or fiction, so please do not submit it to them. You can learn more about the company here. You…
History Manuscript Publishers Memoir Non Fiction

49 Traditional Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Submissions (No Agent Required)

All of the publishers on this list publish children’s books. Some just publish picture books, some publish only middle-grade fiction, and some publish a wide variety of genres aimed at adults as well. Some are looking for educational work, others are open to anything. A number of these publishers are large and established. Others are…
Special Issue

Micromance Magazine: Now Seeking Submissions

Micromance Magazine is a Substack based publication focused on publishing “flash” Romance. Which is to say that they publish only stories firmly rooted in the Romance genre that are of varying lengths, but all under 1,200 words. They also publish Romance poetry. If you do not write Romance this is not the right literary journal…
Issue Six Hundred Seventy Three Literary Journals

Slashic Horror Press

Slashic Horror Press is an LGBTQ+ horror press. They welcome submissions from allies, but LGBTQ+ voices come first and foremost. They also state that “if you only have a gay character on page 50 and they don’t do anything except re-affirm stereotypes… then you aren’t an ally. ” They are only interested in work that feature…
Horror LGBTQ+

Dreamsphere Books

Dreamsphere Books publishes fantasy, science fiction, horror, thriller, and mystery books. They focus on publishing genre work, but are not interested in YA romance or adult romance as other imprints, Deep Hearts YA and Deep Desire focus on these genres. Dreamsphere is an imprint of Story Perfect Books which you can learn more about here….
Fantasy Manuscript Publishers Mystery Science Fiction Speculative Fiction Thrillers Westerns

CKN Christian Publishing

CKN Christian Publishing is an imprint of Wolfpack Publishing. CKN is currently open to unsolicited manuscripts in Clean Fiction. They are open to the following clean genres but prefer series to stand-alone novels: Romance, Historical Fiction, Western (including romance and non-romance), Amish, Mystery (all sub-genres, including cozy), Post-apocalyptic, Thriller. They do not share their definition…
Manuscript Publishers Mystery Romance Speculative Fiction Thrillers Westerns

Wild Heart Books

This small press focuses on publishing “historical romance novels set prior to 1950 and woven with the truth of God’s love”. You can see their staff page here. They were founded by an established Christian historical romance writer. They really focus on their niche, and seem to be successful within that context. A number of…
Christian Historical Fiction Romance

A Quick Start Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing

Writing for children and young adults is very different than writing for adults. Audience expectations are different. Picture books, for example, have completely different sub-genres than adult books. Whereas adult books have genres like science fiction and fantasy, picture books have sub-genres like fairy tale, alphabet, and bedtime books. There is a whole body of…
Special Issue Themed Calls for Submissions

Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Submissions in April 2026

This list focuses on ten publishers that we are excited about that are open to submissions this month. Some are only open for a short period of time, others will be open the whole month and beyond. At least four of these are presses we have not covered previously. Please note that if a publisher…
Issue Six Hundred Seventy Manuscript Publishers

Grendel Press

Grendel Press’s tagline is that they are “dedicated to publishing the finest works in dark fantasy, horror, and dark romance”. You can learn more about the press here. They are named after the antagonist in Beowulf. They say “By choosing this name, we pay homage to the complexity of Grendel’s character and the questions his…
Fantasy Horror Romance

Affinity Rainbow Publications

This small press focuses on publishing lesbian and women’s fiction, mostly within the context of the romance genre. They do not publish work outside of these genres. They publish in two formats: eBooks and print on demand. You can go to their shop to see how many books they’ve published over the years, but the…
Manuscript Publishers Romance Women's Fiction

Modern Artist Press

This small Northern Virginia based press was founded in 2023. The press makes it clear that they are women owned and are committed to amplifying the work of writers and artists who are “women, nonbinary; Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Arab, Asian; LGBTQ+; neurodivergent, disabled; multinational, multicultural, multidisciplinary; and those defining and redefining their identities”. They state,…
Literary Fiction Manuscript Publishers

27 Literary Fiction Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions – No Agent Required

Literary fiction is one of the harder genres to get published in without an agent. There are smaller presses that specialize in it, but unfortunately more and more of those presses are now charging reading fees. However, there are still good options for authors who are unagented and averse to paying reading fees. The manuscript…
Special Issue

42 Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions of Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction is generally defined as a genre of fiction where the setting is not in the world as we know it because of supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements. Three genres are covered by this umbrella term: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. This term is also used to cover work that doesn’t fit exactly in…
Special Issue

84 Specialized Manuscript Publishers Open to Submissions

All of the presses on this list meet all of our guiding principles, but some of them have such a specific focus that we cannot justify writing a full review and sending it to our full list of subscribers. Some of them we have full reviews on. There is no particular organization to this list….
Special Issue

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