Cornerstone Press is a traditional press in that it doesn’t charge its authors, but they are an unusual press in that it is run by students at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. You can learn more about the press and how it is run, here. The masthead is also included at the bottom of the page.
They say “All books are produced in classes and internships offered by the Department of English. From editing and cover design, to media and sales, our undergraduate students get a chance to work in all the fields of professional publishing. The Cornerstone Press provides students with the unique opportunity to work within a professional, working literary press at the university level. Student staff work primarily in editorial, cover design, social media/marketing, and events management, as well as local sales and campus outreach.”
They are currently open to submissions of short fiction collections for their Legacy Series, as well as poetry collections for their Portage Poetry Series, and creative nonfiction books for their Back Home Series. They are not interested in any work outside of this content. You can see the books they have previously published here.
They are distributed by Ingram Lightening Source, which is not ideal, but they also are in a few local bookstores and they encourage interested readers to buy directly from them. You can learn more about this here.
They generally focus on publishing emerging regional authors, but they will consider all original, well-written, and polished submissions from authors.
You should read their complete submission guidelines carefully before submitting.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 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.
