Updated August 2023

Pelican Publishing Company is a publisher based out of New Orleans. They have been around for a long time and they published William Faulkner’s first trade paperback book. They have a back list of over 2,500 titles. They publish around 30 titles a year. They now focus on publishing adult nonfiction, including art/architecture books, cooking/cookbooks, culture, biography, humor, music, sports, and young adult fiction and nonfiction including regional history, biography, and adventure. They also publish middle readers including regional history, cooking, and adventure, as well as juvenile picture books including holiday, regional history, biography, adventure

They were purchased by Arcadia Publishing in 2019 and at first there were no major changes, but now their web presence has shifted to the Arcadia website and they’ve changed some of their genre requirements. Since the move their covers have generally improved. Browsing through their catalog does help you get a feel for what they publish, and what they say sells. You can access their catalog here.

They have very detailed submission guidelines that you should review thoroughly before submitting. They have separate guidelines for children’s picture books, but all other books have the same guidelines.

To learn more, read their submission guidelines 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: https://www.facebook.com/emilyharstone/