Updated September 24th, 2025: Their website has been down for at least a week, because they appear to have exceeded their bandwidth.
Headpress was established in 1991 although the publishing arm wasn’t active till 1992, according to their FAQ. Headpress focuses on publishing nonfiction. The subject matter they publish varies widely. They say “When Headpress first started, much of this was considered the counterculture. Now it is pop culture.” They publish work on cult film, strange music, pulp literature, fanzines, conspiracy theories, sex and gender, occult and folklore, true crime, etc. It is still run by one of the three founders, David Kerekes.
They are a little unusual as they do a mix of print-on-demand and traditionally published books. They have electronic versions of most of their books. You can get a good feel for what they publish by visiting the main page of their website. It’s the kind of niche independent publisher where it should be pretty easy to figure out quickly if they are the right fit or not for your work.
Their covers seem like a good fit in terms of the content.
If you have a nonfiction book proposal or ideas that you think they may be interested in, please email them. The email address is on this page.
In the initial email, submit a brief outline of the proposal plan, and any other relevant info. Also include a short text sample. All of this must be in the body of the email. No attachments.
They respond to all submissions with four weeks, and they allow for querying, if you haven’t heard from them in this time.
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 2022 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.
