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.

On AI and Accessibility

When I tell people I have a learning disability, people often say “Oh, almost everyone does, they just haven’t been able to test for it.” My learning disabilities were first discovered in second grade. Perhaps they would have been discovered in first grade if I had not been home schooled then. Right from the start…
Issue Five Hundred Ninety Three

The Importance of Trope Awareness

Over the last decade, the word trope has come to be used to describe commonly recurring motifs, clichés, and rhetorical devices in a wide range of creative works. Once you become aware of tropes, and how they’re used (and misused), they can become a useful tool in your writer’s toolkit. Some writers will say they…
Issue Five Hundred Ninety Three Special Feature

Wisdom Publications

Wisdom Publications is an established small press focused on publishing books about Buddhism, including works in translation, academic works, works focused on mindfulness, Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as children’s books. They are distributed by Simon and Schuster and their books are widely available in print in North America. They accept unsolicited submissions…
Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction Spirtual

Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Submissions in October 2024

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. We are still reviewing a minimum…
Issue Five Hundred NInety Two Manuscript Publishers

Blue Snake Books: Accepting Submissions

Blue Snake Books is an imprint of North Atlantic Book Company. You can see our review of North Atlantic Book Company here. Blue Snake Books, was founded in 2005. Since the start they have focused on martial arts. They break their catalog down in terms of type of martial art, covering Aikido, Baguazhang, Capoeira, Chinese…
Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction

Orison Books: Accepting Submissions in October

Orison Books says they hope to “publish spiritually-engaged poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of exceptional literary merit.” They clarify that spirtual writing, in their opinion, isn’t based on the subject matter but in the “transcendent aesthetic effect on the reader, and reading it can itself be a spiritual experience.” They go on to say “such work…
Manuscript Publishers

Entwined Publishing: Now Seeking Book Manuscripts

The Totally Entwined Group is an eBook, audiobook, and print publisher that was successful in its own right before being purchased by the Bonnier Publishing group. There have been some shifts in focus since Bonnier purchased it in 2015 but the group still has a mostly good reputation. For a long time its focus was…
Erotica Manuscript Publishers Romance

23 Memoir Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions

Memoir publishers that don’t require an agent to submit are few and far between. However, there are still options out there. Some are old and respected, others are new and still figuring things out. Not all the publishers on this list are currently open to submissions, but most are. Arcade PublishingArcade Publishing is an imprint…
Special Issue

7 Literary Journals that Accept Humorous Writing

Literary Journals as a whole lean towards serious writing, which means that writers that lean towards comedy are often left out. All of these journals focus on, or have a strong history of, publishing writing that is humorous. Please read their submission guidelines carefully and consider fit before submitting. Lowestoft ChronicleLowestoft Chronicle is an online…
Issue Five Hundred Ninety One Special Feature

61 Specialized Publishers Open to Manuscript Submissions

All of the presses on this list meet all of our guiding principles, but most of them have such a specific focus that we cannot justify writing a full review and sending it to our full list of subscribers. But they are still good publishers. Instead, we have compiled this list of mini-reviews. I have also…
Uncategorized

Why and Where You Should Start Submitting Your Writing This September

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged… I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.” — Erica Jong Starting to submit your work to literary journals is a hard task. Before…
Special Issue

9 Publishers Open to Submissions in September 2024

This list focuses on nine publishers 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. Please note that if a publisher doesn’t have a specific submission window they can close at any time, and…
Issue Five Hundred Eighty Eight

Finch Books: Accepting Manuscript Submissions

UPDATED October 2nd, 2025: The Totally Entwined Group reorganized and they no longer have a Finch imprint. They are still open to submissions in terms of other imprints. Finch Books is part of the Totally Entwined Group which you can read more about here. The Finch imprint was established long after the original review, which…
Manuscript Publishers New Adult Romance Young Adult

Paper Angel Press: Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Updated December 4th, 2025:  Their imprint Graveside Press is facing significant financial issues. The editor has addressed it themselves here, without going into much details. There are more details on Reddit here and even more on Threads if you search Graveside Press (I wish Threads allowed direct links). While social media is not always the…
Literary Fiction Manuscript Publishers Military

Second Sky: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Second Sky is a brand new Science Fiction and Fantasy Imprint of Bookouture, which is an established digital publisher of commercial fiction, and an imprint of Hachette UK. We don’t review publishers till they have been been actively publishing for a year, but we make exceptions for imprints, as there is already an established parent…
Fantasy Manuscript Publishers Science Fiction

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