Updated January 14th 2021, Contracts continue to ask for rights in perpetuity. This is in no way standard or acceptable practice.
Updated November 3rd 2020 – The last contract I saw asked that the author surrender copyright. This means you could lose all rights to your book. This is in no way standard or acceptable practice.
Updated June 2020 – I have recently seen an update contract and there are some small improvements involving rights, but still no automatic limit length. They are no longer asking for IDs. I would not submit to them based on this contract.
Updated January 2020 – Having now seen a contract offered to an author from the press I would tell anyone to approach this press with extreme caution. The rights they are asking for exceed normal expectations and are in-perpetuity unless the author moves forward with a lengthy opt out. They have also asked for copies of ID which is in not standard practice.
Histria Books was founded in 1997 as an academic press, it has since become an independent one. It is now based out of Palm Beach and Las Vegas.
They publish general interest books, fiction and literature, and children’s books, as well as scholarly books in broad range of categories. Starting June 1st they have an excellent international distributor, Casemates.
They have five imprints with the following focuses:
- Vita Histria – an imprint dedicated to academic books on a wide range of subjects;
- Gaudium – an imprint dedicated to books on contemporary lifestyle, culture, sports, and politics, as well as biography and autobiography;
- Center for Romanian Studies – an imprint dedicated to books on the history and culture of Romania;
- Addison & Highsmith – an imprint dedicated to works of adult fiction, including historical fiction, science fiction, detective novels, and other categories of fiction.
- Histria Kids – an imprint dedicated to books for children and young adults.
It is important to note that they are just starting to publish fiction. This means they have an unproven track record in that area. To learn more about what they have previously published you can see their back catalog here.
They acquired an imprint a year ago that written up in Publishers Weekly, but that imprint was in fact a vanity press. That makes me nervous.They have specific submission guidelines that you must follow to submit. They all still seem geared towards nonfiction submissions.
To learn more or submit go here.
Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser. You can follow her on Facebook here.
