This list focuses on ten 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 publish 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.
Roxanne Gay Books
Roxane Gay Books is a new imprint of Grove Atlantic. Roxane Gay has written about this new imprint here. Roxane Gay is the award-winning and bestselling author of a number of books, including Hunger and Bad Feminist. She’s a respected essayist, professor of writing, and one of the original co-founders of PANK. Their current reading period will close on June 1st.
Affinity Rainbow Publications
This small press focuses on publishing Lesbian & Women’s fiction, mostly within the context of the Romance genre. They do not publish work outside of these genres. They publish in two formats: eBooks and Print on Demand.
Cool Springs Press
Cool Springs Press was founded in Nashville more than 30 years ago. They initially only focused on gardening in Tennessee and the region surrounding it. However they were successful and started to expand even before they were acquired by The Quarto Publishing Group. Quarto incorporated it’s existing line of DIY focused book into Cool Springs catalog.
Grendel Press
Grendel Press’s tagline is that they are “dedicated to publishing the finest works in dark fantasy, horror, and dark romance”. You can learn more about the press here. They are named after the antagonist in Beowulf. They say “By choosing this name, we pay homage to the complexity of Grendel’s character and the questions his existence raises. What defines a monster? Who gets to tell the story? And what happens when we step into the darkness to see the world from a different perspective?”
Church Publishing Incorporated (CPI)
Church Publishing Incorporated (CPI) was founded in 1918. They publish about 60 new titles per year. They have four imprints, all of which focus on publishing work that sparks “reflection, dialogue, hope, and action”. Besides books they also publish church supplies like parish registers, as well as digital platforms supporting ministry. You can learn more about the company and their imprints here.
Forever Yours
Forever is the romance imprint of Grand Central Publishing. Grand Central Publishing is an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, one of the big five publishers. Forever Yours is the digital sister of Forever, they focus on publishing unagented authors, and often publish authors without a publication history. They publish eBooks, but they an option to print on demand any book over 50,000 words in length.
Exposit Books
Exposit Books is an imprint of McFarland & Company Inc. Exposit books focuses on publishing work that focuses on a popular topics, like serial killers, and approaches that subject seriously. They encourage proposals for nonfiction manuscripts on a wide range of true crime subjects, including but not limited to: murder, serial killers, heists, robberies, abductions, kidnappings, missing persons, con artists, hoaxes, deceptions, organized crime and espionage. They also welcome proposals for books about sexuality, the paranormal, cryptozoology, death, gravehunting, and forteana.
CF4kids
CF4kids is the children young people focused imprint of Christian Focus Publishing. Christian Focus Publishing is an evangelical Christian publisher based in Scotland. They say, “Our calling is to share the incredible message of the gospel and help people grow in their faith through the power of books.” The company as a whole has excellent distribution. We’ve reviewed Christian Focus Publishing separately as they have very different submission guidelines.
Wisdom Publications
Wisdom Publications is an established small press focused on publishing books about Buddhism, including works in translation, academic works, works focused on mindfulness, Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as children’s books. They are distributed by Simon and Schuster and their books are widely available in print in North America. They accept unsolicited submissions from authors and agents but only on topics directly related to Buddhism. Authors should have relevant professional, academic, or Dharma-teaching credentials. Please do not submit to them if this is not the case for you. If you meet their qualification needs, I very much encourage you to spend time on their website, verifying that they publish the kind of work you are interested in.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2025 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.
