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.

McSweeney’s: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

UPDATED October 2022: They have been closed to submissions for over two years now. McSweeney’s is one of my personal favorite publishers. They publish literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I own a large number of the books they have published in the last decade. McSweeney’s was founded in 1998 by Dave Eggers. They originally started out…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Seven Literary Fiction Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction Poetry

Waywiser: Accepting Queries

UPDATE July 2022: They seem closed indefinitely to prose submissions, and charge for poetry submissions. Waywiser is a small independent press based in the UK.  They host a yearly contest called The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, but they charge a fee for that. They seem to focus on literary prose and poetry. They publish fiction…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Six Literary Fiction Manuscript Publishers

How to Submit Your Manuscript for Publication

When I finish the first draft of a novel I always have a great surge of adrenaline. When I was younger I would enjoy the thrill of completion for days and then start on a new project. It should surprise no one that my early efforts were not published (thank goodness). Now that I am…
Special Issue

Arcade Publishing: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Arcade Publishing is an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, a large independent publisher with a number of imprints. They have good distribution, and while there have been complaints about their behavior in the past, over the past two years they seem to have cleaned up their act. To learn more about Skyhorse as a whole, please…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Five Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction

MARY: Now Seeking Submissions

MARY: A Journal of New Writing, is a thoughtfully designed online journal sponsored by the MFA in creative writing program at Saint Mary’s College of California. MARY is buzzing with daring, strange fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid writing from both new and established authors. They’ve published work by D.A. Powell, Dorathea Lasky, Peter Orner, Bruce…
Creative Non Fiction Fiction Genre Issue Two Hundred Ninety Five Literary Journals Paying Market Poetry

78 Poetry Manuscript Publishers Who Do Not Charge Reading Fees

Most traditional poetry manuscript publishers charge their readers a fee to submit. You can read about why that is the case here. This article focuses on a number of poetry manuscript publishers who do not charge submission fees to writers, which is good news for poets. This is the longest and most accurate list of…
Special Issue

Whiskey Tit: Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Whiskey Tit attempts to restore degradation and degeneracy to the literary arts. We are unwilling to sacrifice intellectual rigour, unrelenting playfulness, and visual beauty, often leading to texts that would otherwise be abandoned in a homogenised literary landscape. In a world gone mad, our refusal to make this sacrifice is an act of civil service…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Four Literary Fiction Manuscript Publishers Memoir Poetry

Prometheus Books: Accepting Submissions

Updated September 17th, 2025 Prometheus Books is an established publisher of what they like to call “intelligent non-fiction”. They specialize in publishing non-fiction books that fall into the following categories: Popular science, philosophy, atheism, humanism, and critical thinking. Prometheus books was started in 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz, who was also the founder of…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Three Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction

Five Journals Open to Submissions this January

All of these literary journals just re-opened to submissions on January 1st. As always, all of the literary journals do not have a reading fee. The literary journals are in no particular order. Naugatuck River Review This print journal focuses exclusively on publishing narrative poetry. Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story or has…
Creative Non Fiction Fiction Issue Two Hundred Ninety Three Literary Journals Poetry

Self Promotion For Introverts

  “Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.”  ― John Green As an introvert, a writer, and a very reluctant self-promoter, this quote has always struck me as being particularly profound. Not just because…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety Three Special Feature

10 Literary Journals that Publish Longer Fiction

Most literary journals are only interested in publishing short stories that are up to 3,000 words or so in length. So it can be harder for someone who wrote a longer short story to place it in a good home, unless they are publishing a collection of short stories. The following literary journals are all…
Special Issue

Polis Books: Now Accepting Book Queries

Updated April 28th, 2024: They went under quickly and all that was really shared was a twitter post here, with the sreenshot below (from the founding editor) Polis Books is an independent publisher of fiction and nonfiction, founded in 2013. Their focus is on publishing new voices. They are a technologically driven company. They publish…
Horror Issue Two Hundred Ninety One Manuscript Publishers Mystery Non Fiction Offers Advances Science Fiction Speculative Fiction Young Adult

Why Writers Need To Be Readers

“You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I…
Issue Two Hundred Ninety One Special Feature

42 Literary Journals that Publish Genre Writing

Most literary journals are interested in literary work, by which they mean, not genre work. The definition of genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. However, in the context of writing, genre can refer to poetry, prose or nonfiction in terms…
Special Issue

ThunderStone Books: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Update March 8th, 2023: Website not working. Consider defunct. ThunderStone Books’ motto is global education for young minds. They focus on publishing children’s books with an educational aspect. The attention is particularly on books exploring a new language/culture in a fictional setting. Their area of primary focus is Mandarin Chinese (language, culture, setting and/or mythology)….
Children's Books Issue Two Hundred Ninety Manuscript Publishers

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