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.

24 Publishers Seeking Young Adult Manuscripts

Young adult is one of my favorite genres to read, even though when I was a young adult I struggled to find good YA books. These days the young adult genre is profitable, diverse, and covers a wide variety of genres, from science fiction to romance and everything in between. A lot of young adult…

Seventh Street Books: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Updated March 2023: The website is fully functioning again, and they haven’t altered any of the text in it, but the last book they released was published last summer. For some publishers this is a fine pace, but Seventh Street Press has generally been pretty active in terms of their publication schedule, and they haven’t…

25 Publishers with Excellent Distribution That Accept Unsolicited Submissions

All of the publishers on this list sell thousands of copies of physical books. All of them have books that are available not just at stores near you, but at libraries as well, because they have good distributors. If you want your novel or book to have a good chance of being placed on bookshelves…

Literary Wanderlust: Accepting Submissions

Updated March 13th: I was just directed to this older FB post at Writer Beware, which you can see here. I’ve posted the screenshot below if you do not currently have a FB account: I’m sorry I missed this earlier, and I personally don’t know if anything has changed since 2022 in terms of the…

33 Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Picture Books

All the publishers on this list focus primarily on publishing picture books. There are a lot of myths about publishing picture books, and one of them is that you have to supply your own illustrations. This is generally not the case. Most picture book publishers will match your work with an illustrator for you, some…

Biblioasis: Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Biblioasis is a literary press based in Windsor, Ontario. They publish poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. They publish short story collections and translated works. The books they publish have beautiful covers. Within Canada they have good distribution. Unlike most Canadian presses they accept international submissions, however they use the term “select”. If you are submitting internationally,…

Dalkey Archive Press: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

UPDATED DECEMBER 2021: They have been acquired by Deep Vellum press, and now they focus on scholarly work. They also now say “ To make this program possible, authors of scholarly works supplement some of the publication costs involved in bringing their book into print. This is most often achieved through subventions from their institutions…

Four Journals to Submit to at the Start of the Month

The following four journals all accept a limited amount of free submissions at the start of the month. We are publishing this article on the last day of February. All of the journals should be closed to free submissions at this point, but starting March 1st, all of these journals should be open to free…

The Top 38 Publishers for New Authors

The writing market can be overwhelming, particularly for new authors who do not have a history of past publication. It is important to note that no legitimate established presses specifically look for unpublished authors. The presses on this list were chosen because they have published a number of debut books before. The publishers on this…

Arsenal Pulp Press: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Updated September 2025 Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian small press based out of Vancouver. They have won the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award (from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia), and they have been a finalist for Small Press Publisher of the Year (awarded by the Canadian Booksellers Association) five…

aunt lute: Accepting Submissions

aunt lute is a multicultural women’s press. Their priority is to publish work by women, both transgender and cisgender, particularly women of color. They publish both fiction and nonfiction. They also publish poetry but only as part of an anthology or a larger prose work. They were founded in 1982. They do not accept the…

How to Get Your Writing Published This Year

I was a writer for over a decade before I realized the important role submissions play in being a writer. I don’t know why I expected an editor to arrive at my door with a request for my work. In fact, if an editor or publisher you don’t know approaches you in order to publish…

Five Journals Open to Submissions this February

All of these literary journals just re-opened to submissions on February 1st. As always, all of the literary journals do not have a reading fee. The literary journals are in no particular order. Switchback Switchback Journal is an online publication of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.  They publish a variety…

Skylight Press: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Skylight Press is a small, UK-based publisher. They publish 12 books every year. They publish serious esoteric and occult books (focusing on things like paganism, and Arthurian/Grail traditions), as well as literary fiction, and non-fiction with a history or horticultural focus. They also consider literary analysis, although they do not publish much of it. They…

An Argument for Writing Short Stories

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.’ — Ray Bradbury “A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.” -David Sedaris Writers who are serious about improving and developing their…

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