Cider Mill Press is an independent publisher of cookbooks, humor books, children’s books and a variety of nonfiction related to alcohol. Most of what they publish could be loosely categorized as “gift books”. They are based out of the Maine in the United States. They do not accept unsolicited fiction submissions, but are open to a wide range of submissions outside of that. You should spend some time with their new releases before submitting to get a better feel for what they publish.
They have great distribution, both nationally and internationally. In the US and Australia they are distributed by Simon & Schuster. You can learn more about who distributes them elsewhere here.
In the period after I wrote the bulk of this review, but before it was published, Harper Focus acquired Cider Mill Press, and this might bring changes in the future. You can read the article stub here (and the whole article if you are a member of Publishers Marketplace).
When you submit your proposal to them it should include the following:
- Cover letter giving a brief description (what is the book, and what is its purpose?) of the project and what is included in the package. Please include the title and subtitle of your book.
- Samples of illustrations or photographs (i.e., duplicates rather than originals).
- Where appropriate, a proposal including outline, introduction, illustrations list, sample captions, and text/chapter samples.
- Competition: An analysis of the potential market for the project, including title, publisher, and date of all similar projects, with an explanation of how your proposal differs from each. This is especially important in terms of marketing your book.
- Author/illustrator/photographer biography that includes publishing credits and credentials in the field.
They try to respond to all submissions within four weeks. They prefer submissions via email to postal submissions but accept both (SASE required for postal submissions).
To learn more, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
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