Written by Emily Harstone November 21st, 2019

Three Rooms Press: Open to Submissions

Important: Read This Before Submitting Your Manuscript

Seven common manuscript submissions mistakes that are very easy to avoid.

Updated March 7th, 2024

Three Rooms Press is an independent press that is inspired by “Diversity, Dada, Punk, and Passion”. They were founded in 1994. They have good distribution and I’ve encountered their books in libraries and bookstores. You can learn more about their history here.

They stress that. “Our press is inspired by diversity, dada, punk, and passion: please keep this in mind when submitting.”

They publish literary fiction, nonfiction including memoirs, and YA. They are not interested in collections of poems, short stories or essays.

The books they are interested in publishing are over 65,000 words in length. I recommend reviewing their catalog before querying.

This is what they say they are most interested in seeing:

  • Authentic stories written from diverse perspectives, across all genres (see Disasterama by Alvin Orloff).
  • YA Fiction with fully realized casts of characters, including female, LGBTQ+, and underrepresented leads (see Quiver by Julia Watts)
  • Unique, brilliant, and extremely well-written punk rock memoirs and biographies (see Punk Avenue by Phil Marcade)
  • Inventive riffs on existing genres, particularly noir and cyberpunk (see Scavenger by Christopher Chambers)
  • Biographies of unusually noteworthy people and events that deserve a place in history books (see BAD: The Autobiography of James Carr)
  • Diversely populated worlds, including those with speculative elements (see The Door to Inferna by Rishab Borah)
  • Imaginative and innovative plots, particularly YA and adult novels exploring friendship and coming-of-age (see Nirvana Is Here by Aaron Hamburger)
  • Reimaginations of folktales, legends, and fables (see Tink and Wendy by Kelly Ann Jacobson)

Include the following with your proposal:

  • 1-2 paragraph synopsis of your book
  • Why Three Rooms Press is a good fit for you
  • At least 3-4 similar books published within the past two years
  • A basic marketing plan and a description of how you can contribute to publicity
  • The first three chapters of your book, or at least 50 pages

They do make it very clear they are not interested in seeing full manuscripts at this stage.

If you have not heard from them in eight weeks, assume rejection. They do not respond to submissions they are not interested in.

To learn more about their submission guidelines go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.

She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.

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