Beacon Press is an established publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. However they are only open to direct submissions of nonfiction proposals. Works of fiction, poetry, and self help, will not be considered.

Beacon Press was established in 1854. They have published a number of bestsellers and seminal works. They’ve published a number of respected authors including James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Mary Oliver.

If you want to know more about their history, you can read this PDF they put together as part of their 150th Birthday celebration.

Their current current program emphasizes religion, history, current affairs, political science, gay/lesbian/gender studies, education, African-American studies, women’s studies, child and family issues and nature and the environment. They are a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. They have excellent distribution.

The mission of Beacon Press is “to affirm and promote these principles: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in society; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence; and the importance of literature and the arts in democratic life.”

You can learn more about the specifics of what they publish by starting off on their home page and accessing their list on the upper left corner of the banner.

Please do not submit a query to them unless it seems like a good fit within the parameters of what they currently publish.

All queries describing proposals must be made via email. They can be no longer than 250 words in length. They will respond to you within three weeks if they are interested in seeing your full proposal.

To learn more or to submit, go here.