Lantern Publishing & Media has a bit of unusual history, as they were initially founded as Lantern Books in 1999, which was a traditional for-profit press that was focused on the “principles of living with a greater depth and commitment to the preservation of the natural world”. Lantern Publishing & Media describes the work they do a little differently, but there is overlap: “We publish books, develop content, and promote ideas supportive of veganism, animal rights, humane education, recovery, therapy, and spirituality”.
The non-profit format of the company was founded in 2020. Non-profit presses of this kind have become increasingly common, and they are open to donation. Non-profit publishers still pay their authors via royalties. Along with being a non-profit press Lantern Publishing & Media also fundraisers for other non-profits that align with their values. In fact they feature those non-profits before their books on their main landing page, which is more focused on their overarching mission than recent releases. You have to scroll down a little, past two other sections, to reach their list of new and forthcoming books, but the books themselves are well presented, even if the covers are, in my opinion, very uneven.
I very much like that they go into details about their staff and board members and many of them have relevant experience. You can learn more about them by going to their About page and scrolling down. You can see their complete catalogue of books here, and audiobooks here. This is very much a press with a focused and goal-orientated catalogue, so please spend time with it to decide if your work is a good fit. I really appreciate the fact that they are actively publishing audiobooks.
They have pretty good international distribution which they list on their contact page. Their FAQ page implies they pay advances, at least to some authors, and it also communicates a lot of other worthwhile information.
They have already locked down their publishing schedule for 2023 but are considering work for publication in the years 2024-2028. I like that in their submission guidelines they link to good resources in terms of learning more about how to properly submit a manuscript. They also have clear proposal guidelines. Submissions must be made via email.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 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.
