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.

City Key: Now Accepting Submissions

City Keys tagline is “Exploring the City through the Arts”. They are an arts journal that is focused on sharing experiences related to cities of every size. They believe that cities are a valuable source of inspiration for art and writing that “captures the human experience”. They are not interested in work that is not…

SPRY Lit: Now Seeking Submissions

Updated December 21st, 2023: They have temporarily closes to submissions, probably after hitting caps. Please check back in at the start of the next month. SPRY Lit is open to submissions of fiction, creative-nonfiction, and poetry, as well as art. You can  get a good feeling for what they have are interested, by reading their…

Icon Books: Now Accepting Book Proposals

Icon books is an adult non-fiction publisher that was founded in 1992. You can get a good feel for the books they publish here. The books they publish tend to fall into the following categories, Biography and Memoir, Business and Self Help, History and Current Affairs, Lifestyle and Travel, Literature & Language, Philosophy, Popular Culture,…

Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers This December

This list of publishers meet our guiding principles, but are only open to free submissions from historically underrepresented writers or focus on publishing content produced by historically underrepresented writers. Some of these publications are open to a wide range of writers including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, and those living with disabilities….

17 Magazines that Publish Writing for Children and Teens

Most children’s and young adult book authors struggle with creating a history of previous publications – a useful task when trying to find an agent or publisher for their work. The following list of publishers are all looking for work aimed at teens and children. So, not only do you create a history of publication,…

Good River Review: Now Accepting Submissions

Good River Review is the literary journal of the Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University.   They have published two issues a year online. They were founded in 2020. In that time they have already published a number of well-known writers, and have started to establish a reputation as publishing strong…

Tra Publishing: Now Accepting Book Proposals

Tra Publishing was founded in 2016 in Miami by Swiss-born graphic designer and author Ilona Oppenheim. They have good distribution and in North America their books are widely available in libraries and bookstores. While they publish excellent children’s books (I first encountered them through the book, The Rare, Tiny Flower by Kitty O’Meara), they do…

Dragonblade: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

This digital-first publishing house only publishes works of historical fiction with a clear focus on romance. Within the historical romance genre they are open to most subgenres including: Viking, Regency, Georgian, Tudor, Highlander, Medieval, Victorian, Roman, Civil War, Restoration, Edwardian, etc. They are interested in anything pre-20th century except Westerns and Amish. They are also…

In the Mood Magazine: Now Seeking Submissions

In the Mood Magazine bills itself as a “Pop Culture Journal about the Things We Like to Watch.” Their focus as a publication, is on the viewer, and their preoccupations. This is one example they give to try to make it clear what they are interested in learning about: “Why can’t we stop thinking about…

47 Romance Publishers Open to Direct Submission

For the first few years of Authors Publish, even though I only reviewed romance publishers that were over a year old, I had no lack of options in terms of romance publishers to review. They were the easiest genre to find publishers open to direct submissions, other than those focused on non-fiction. Particularly in 2016…

Walker Books: Now Accepting Picture Book Submissions

Updated April 14th, 2025, they are no longer open to direct submissions. Walker Books, an established and respected UK based publisher of Picture books, is open to direct submissions, but only of work that is already illustrated. So if you have an un-illustrated picture book, this is not the right home for it. Walker Books…

Ethicool Books: Do Not Submit

UPDATED NOV 21st, 2023: It has been brought to our attention that some authors who submitted to Ethicool, have been told their work is a potentially a good fit with revisions and directed to a portion of Ethicool’s site labelled Manuscript Assessment. We do not condone this, and feel this is unethical behavior. Which is…

riddlebird: Now Accepting Submissions

riddlebird is a beautiful electronic and print-based literary journal that was founded in 2022. They are focused on publishing creative nonfiction and short stories. They are not interested in flash or poetry. They publish a very small percentage of what they receive. Even though they are a newer journal, they are already respected. They nominate…

23 Memoir Publishers Open to 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. Persea Books Persea Books is an…

Agora Books: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries

Update April 28th 2024: They have closed their doors along with Polis Books. All that we know is shared in an update to the Polis Review. Agora Books is a  diversity-focused imprint of Polis Books, devoted to crime and noir fiction. In 2018, Publishers Weekly published this article about the initiative, and in 2019 Agora…

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