Winding Road Stories (WRDS) is a small press that publishes fiction, thriller, horror, nonfiction, mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy, all aimed at adults, as well as young adult fiction. They also have a section of their bookshop titled historical fiction, with the image being a coming soon sign. Their covers range from decent to good, and you can get a feel for what they have previously published here. I will say that while none of their books appear to have sold very well based on Goodreads and Amazon data, a lot of them have between 15-30 ratings and/or reviews, which is better than some small publishers.
WRDS was founded by Michael Dolan in 2021. You can learn more about their story and their founder here. I will say that some of the information on the page is presented in a way I find frustrating. For example, they say they are a “publishing company created by authors for authors” which is a little confusing as most traditional presses are focused on readers rather than authors. This sentiment is also echoed on their main page, which states “Writing and editing your manuscript, finding a publisher and making it a reality may feel like a winding road that never ends. Welcome to your destination.” The clear focus of this statement is also on authors, where it should be on readers, but the rest of the page is focused on readers, at least. It’s pretty clear from this thread at the WaterCooler that initially the emphasis was even less on selling books, but that does seem to have shifted somewhat.
The really hopeful aspect of their main page is that they have a whole section dedicated to news that is focused on promoting their authors and their books and includes some events that do seem meaningful, like the presses participation in the Brooklyn Book Festival.
They have published a lot of books across that wide range of genres in a pretty compressed amount of time, and I’m not sure how much effort was put into editing but I didn’t notice any major errors on the site. There are always concerns when a press has published a wide range of work at this volume during a limited period of time, that they are just going to become a publishing mill.
Most of what they publish is full-length books between 55,000-95,000 words although they are also open to novellas and short story collections in horror, mystery/thriller, science fiction and literary fiction.
The subgenres of fiction they are currently open to are mystery/thriller, horror, literary fiction, science fiction, romance and young adult. The subgenres of nonfiction they are currently open to are expert service, health and wellness, sports, business, memoir, and true crime.
They are not interested in previously published work or rough drafts. They have a basic form for submissions. They ask that if you have not heard from them in 12 weeks, to reach out or to resubmit.
To learn more, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 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.
