Bella Books is a press focused on publishing stories about women-loving-women, and they are interested in acquiring manuscripts that involve these stories across all genres, including romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc.
They are based in Tallahassee, Florida. The press is currently owned by Linda Hill who also owns Spinsters Ink and Bean Pole Books. They were founded in 2001 by Kelly Smith, and they have over time acquired a lot of the back catalogue of other presses. They have around 300 books in print, and publish between 24-30 new books a year. More than a hundred of their titles have won Lambda Literary Awards or Golden Crown Literary Society awards.
They focus on publishing books that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the lesbian, queer, bisexual, and gender non-conforming community.
It is easy to get a feeling for what they publish by viewing their catalogue here.
They have detailed submission guidelines that are available here. Please be careful to follow all of their requirements while submitting. They ask for a synopsis, a cover letter, and your full manuscript.
Once you submit they let you know if they are interested in your work within 90 days. They do not allow simultaneous submissions.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.
She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.
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