This list focuses on nine publishers that we are excited about that are open to submissions this month. Some are only open for a short period of time, others will be open the whole month and beyond. At least four of these are presses we have not covered previously.

Please note that if a publisher doesn’t have a specific submission window they can close at any time, and publishers that use Submittable can close at any point because of submission caps (although these publishers generally reopen to submissions at the end of the month).

If a publisher has closed to submissions unexpectedly, please send us an email at support@authorspublish.com.

Please read the full review, which we link to in the publisher’s name, and carefully consider fit before submitting work. I can not stress enough that you should only submit to presses that are a good fit for your work, and that you should carefully read and follow submissions guidelines before submitting that work. Over the past year we had several presses ask to be de-listed because they were deluged by submissions, even after moving to this format. Still more presses have had to temporarily close to submissions because of an influx of inappropriate submissions.

Vine Leaves Press
Vine Leaves Press is an international press with staff in the United States, Germany, Greece, England, and beyond. They were founded in 2011 as a literary journal and started publishing vignette collections in 2014. Vine Leaves Press publish books in a variety of genres including memoirs, coming of age, literary and multi-genre novels, poetry and short story collections, and reference books. heir open reading period ends on January 31st, 2025.

Parlor Press
Parlor Press’s motto is “equipment for living”. They are an independent publisher and distributor of scholarly and trade books. They publish work in print, and digitally. in high quality print and digital formats. They are only interested in submissions that are targeted specifically towards one of their existing book series.

Lawley Publishing
Lawley Publishing is an Arizona-based press focused on publishing books for children. Their motto is “Kids’ books with heart”, and their logo, a book with a heart in it, echoes that sentiment. They publish children’s fiction and nonfiction picture books, early reader fiction and nonfiction chapter books, as well as middle grade fiction and nonfiction. They do not publish board books, young adult fiction or nonfiction, or books for adults.

Expanse
Expanse is an imprint of Entwined Publishing, which focuses on publishing Romance that falls within the Science Fiction sub genre. Entwined Publishing used to be called The Totally Entwined Group. You can learn more about Entwined Publishing here. I really encourage you to read that review also for larger context about the company. One of the reasons I’m focusing in on Expanse, is that while Romance and Fantasy are such a common and well-established genre and are often called Romantasy, publishers open to Science Fiction Romance are much harder to find. If Romantasy is more your area of interest, Entwined does have a Romantasy-focused imprint called Enchant, which you can learn more about here.

Shadow Mountain
Shadow Mountain is an imprint of Deseret Books. Both publishers have their roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but Deseret Books focuses more on producing faith-based content. Shadow Mountain publishes primarily fiction and they have published a number of New York Times bestselling books. Because the company is run by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, books have to be approved by in-house censors in order to be published. They are very firm about publishing “clean books only”. However the authors need not be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shadow Mountain is only open to submissions four times a year for week long periods. They are currently open to submissions from the 1st of December through the 7th.

Shepheard-Walwyn
A UK based nonfiction publisher that was founded in 1971. The areas they most interested in are: Ethical Economics, Politics, Society and Social Change, Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Art History, Literary Criticism, Environmental issues, Self-Help, Personal Development, Autobiography, and Literary Memoirs. You can get a feel for what they have published in the past here.

Headpress
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.

Page Street Publishing
Page Street Publishing is a publisher of full color, mostly hardcover, gift books, cookbooks, and craft books. Most of them have an important visual component. To get a good feel for what they have published in the past you can go here. They are distributed through Macmillan in every country but Canada (where they have a different distributor). They publish around sixty titles a year. Page Street Publishing has also started to focus on publishing children’s and young adult books. They also have a new imprint focused on Horror fiction.

Harlequin
Most of the famous romance writers got their start at Harlequin. They were acquired by Harper Collins a number of years ago. Their submission process is very user friendly. First you create one account, with that one account you can submit to any of their divisions. After creating an account you fill out a form, upload a synopsis, and a manuscript. If your manuscript is rejected from one division you can always submit it to another.