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.

Small Beer Press: Now Accepting Book Submissions

Updated February 2024: Due to ongoing health issues they are closed to submissions for the foreseeable future.  Small Beer Press has now been around for over a decade and published some rather well known authors including Ursula K. Le Guin. They publish literary work leaning towards the speculative. Although, to really know what they publish…
Issue One Hundred Eighty Five Manuscript Publishers Speculative Fiction

Fifteen Major Book Publishers Always Open to Submissions

Many publishers open and close their doors to unsolicited submissions on a routine basis. It can sometimes be hard to determine if they are open or shut to submissions and when you should submit. These fifteen publishers featured are always open to submissions from writers without agents or previous publishing experience. All of them are…
Special Issue

Kensington Book Publishing: Now Accepting Book Queries

This large independent publisher is based out of New York. They publish a wide variety of mainstream fiction and nonfiction books, with a particular focus on romance. They publish an average of 600 books a year, so they accept a lot more submissions than most independent publishers. They are distributed through Penguin Random House. To…
Historical Fiction Issue One Hundred Eighty Four Manuscript Publishers Mystery Non Fiction Romance Women's Fiction

Free Spirit Publishing: Now Accepting Submissions

Updated March 2025 Free Spirit Publishing is an established publisher with good distribution that is part of the larger company Teacher Created Materials. They publish primarily non-fiction, mostly curriculum based, where they have a number of niche focuses. They also have a new imprint called Shell Materials which focuses on material for educators. They do…
Children's Books Issue One Hundred Eighty Three Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction

The 8 Major Publishing Trends of 2016

I am starting off this article with a disclaimer. This article is not going to tell you what publishing trends are up and coming. I don’t know if books about rock stars are going to be the new YA trend or not. That isn’t my area of expertise, and frankly it is not where my…
Special Issue

The Ten Best Manuscript Publishers: 2016 Edition

There are a lot of publishers out there and it can be overwhelming to find the right ones. We help authors by reviewing one publisher a week. Some of these reviews are glowing, others are deservedly mixed. This year we were excited about most of the publishers we reviewed. We reviewed a larger proportion of…
Issue One Hundred Eighty Eight

Ten Wonderful New Literary Journals

The following is a list of 10 very new literary journals. There are many reasons to seek publication in these journals. In my experience, the benefits can be greater than publishing in a well established journal. When a literary journal is new the editors tend to be a lot more passionate. I have gotten handwritten…
Always open to submissions Creative Non Fiction Fiction Genre Literary Journals Music Paying Market Poetry Special Issue

Lyrical Press: Accepting Manuscript Submissions

Updated September 2025 Lyrical Press is an electronic only imprint of Kensington, a large independent publisher. Kensington and Lyrical both publish mainstream novels and seem to put a fair amount of pressure on the author to promote their books. They publish a large number of books per year. Lyrical publishes books in all romance genres…
Issue One Hundred Eighty One Manuscript Publishers Romance Women's Fiction

How to Make Time for Focused Writing

“All writers have this vague hope that the elves will come in the night and finish any stories.” ― Neil Gaiman Time for writing doesn’t make itself. This might seem like a ridiculously obvious statement, yet it is a trap writers fall into all the time, myself included. If you have a good writing habit…
Issue One Hundred Eighty One Special Feature

12 Great Publishers of Literary Non-Fiction

Literary nonfiction is an interesting genre. It can involve anything from a research based essay to a short personal story, to a combination of the two. Literary nonfiction can even have a fictional element, for the sake of the story of course. If you are writing a nonfiction book manuscript, particularly one that is a…
Special Issue

How Publishing Really Works

When I first approached publishing every part of it seemed overwhelming. Like most people I didn’t understand how publishing really worked. This is partially because it is portrayed inaccurately in most novels, for example The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair and I Regret Everything: A Love Story, and movies including The Proposal and Girl…
Special Issue

Turner Publishing Company: Now Seeking Submissions

Updated August 13th, 2025: Please note that the vanity press Turner Book Writers is in not linked to Turner Publishing and Turner Publishing has added a note about this to their about page and their submissions page, so they are aware of the situation. Turner publishes books in a wide range of categories and formats—fiction…
Children's Books Fiction Issue One Hundred Seventy Nine Non Fiction

Thirty Literary Journals That Pay Their Authors

“It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.” W.H. Auden As someone who makes their living writing about writing and publishing, I can attest to how truthful Auden’s quote is. It is hard making a…
Special Issue

HarperLegend: An Imprint of Harper Collins Is Now Accepting Submissions

UPDATE January 2019 – They have not been open to direct submissions for over a year and it seems unlikely that they will reopen to submissions at this point. HarperLegend is a digital first imprint from HarperOne which is itself an imprint of Harper Collins. What I mean by digital first is that they publish…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Eight Manuscript Publishers

21 Publishers Seeking Young Adult Manuscripts

Young adult is one of my favorite genres to read now, even though when I was a young adult myself, I really struggled finding good 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…
Special Issue

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