Tiny Ghost Press is a small press that focuses on publishing YA fiction that centers LGBTQIA+ characters. This means that in their own words, they want “YOUNG ADULT novels, written from a QUEER perspective, That is stories featuring a queer protagonist or from a queer author. We’re interested in everything from contemporary romance, to dystopian adventures, and if your story dabbles in the spooky, the supernatural, or the paranormal, or has a speculative element even better!”
They go on to say “We’re especially looking for stories featuring trans, BIPOC, and neurodivergent characters in lead roles written by authors from these communities.” They also state “#OWNVOICES preferred.” Which is to say that they prefer to work with authors whose identity and experience matches that of the POV character. It is not a requirement, at this point, but if you are submitting to them and it is an #OWNVOICES manuscript, you should make that clear in the query letter.
At the time of this initial review, they’ve published five books, with two more forthcoming. Most of the books have good covers that feel genre appropriate (and perhaps fanfiction influenced?).
They are very active on social media and for a small press they get a lot of engagement. If you go their About page you can scan down to access all their socials. Their About page unfortunately doesn’t disclose many specifics about the company, including the identity/experience of the editors. I also was unable to discover if they had traditional distribution.
Some of their books, such as The Alpha’s Son by Penny Jessup, have a lot of engagement on Goodreads, even if not all the feedback is good (including specific critique of the editing). Part of this is clearly that they give out a lot of ARC’s (advanced reader copies). The book they most recently released, Against the Stars, has a lot of engagement for a small press book, and no critiques against the editing that I saw.
If you are submitting to them, please only submit via email and include the following:
– A brief QUERY LETTER with a little bit of information about you and your story.
– A SUMMARY of your novel (including the ending), no longer than one page.
– The first THREE CHAPTERS or 10,000 words of your novel, whichever comes first.In the subject line please write: SUBMISSION – STORY NAME
To learn more, please visit their submission guidelines here. As always only submit if you think they are a good fit for your work. Please do spam this publisher if you are not a good fit.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 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.
