If a journal 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 title, and carefully consider fit before submitting work.

Please note that if you are Canadian, Anansi Press is open for submissions from August 1st through the 31st.

Storm Publishing
Storm Publishing was founded in 2022 by Oliver Rhodes, the founder of Bookouture. They published their first book in the spring of 2023 and Rhodes brought a number of Bookouture staff members over to Storm with him. Storm Publishing focuses on publishing adult fiction including thrillers and crime fiction, historical fiction, romance, women’s fiction and science fiction and fantasy.

Acre Books
Acre Books is an imprint of The Cincinnati Review. They focus on publishing fiction, nonfiction, hybrid forms and poetry. They are particularly interested in working with debut writers. Their current reading period opened August 1st and will close on August 30th. They are not accepting poetry manuscripts during this reading period, but are open to fiction and nonfiction manuscripts.

Library Tales Publishing
Library Tales Publishing was founded in 2011 and recently partnered with the more established Ulysses Press. They are currently accepting self help books, memoirs, general nonfiction and drawing books, as well as fiction.

Unnamed Press
Unnamed Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in Los Angeles and founded in 2014. They have excellent distribution, their books have been reviewed in most major publications, and they know how to promote the books they publish.

August House
August House was established in 1978, originally it focused on publishing poetry but in the 80’s their focus switched to folklore and after that to storytelling. They no longer publish poetry, instead they focus on publishing children’s books, although many of these are influenced by folklore. They currently publish children’s folktales, picture books, early-grade chapter books, and storytelling resource materials. They are open to submissions year round.

Tiny Tree Books
Tiny Tree Books is an imprint of Andrews UK Limited. They focus on publishing books for children. Most of what they publish is picture books but they are also interested in upper middle grade fiction and YA novels. They are open to a wide variety of genres within these categories.

SourceBooks Horror
We’ve reviewed Sourcebooks before here, and their Romance imprint here. Their Horror imprint is now a few years old and they have published a lot of books under that imprint now, although it’s hard to know exactly how many because they still do not have a formal Horror section on the site. Their book covers for this imprint are really well done. They have published many of Darcy Coates books, and they all appear to have sold well. The search function has been improved and searching the site for horror, can now bring up a lot of options that are actually in that genre.

Pitch Publishing
Pitch Publishing is a UK-based publisher of nonfiction books about sports. They have a large catalog that covers football, cricket, rugby, boxing, golf, athletics and other sports. Many of the books they’ve published have won or been longlisted for awards. They have excellent distribution in the UK through MacMillan.

Between the Lines Press
This small Canadian press’s motto is “Books without bosses since 1977”. Please do not confuse them with Between the Lines Publishing, which is fiction-focused and which we have not reviewed. They only publish nonfiction books in these subject areas: “politics and public policy, social issues, activism and social movements, development studies, critical race studies, Indigenous issues, history, sociology, popular education, the environment, gender and sexuality, social work, labour, globalization, criminology, technology, media, and culture”. You can learn more about their history as a press here.

Dragonblade
This digital-first publishing house only publishes works of historical fiction with a clear focus on romance. Within the historical romance genre they are open to most subgenres including: Viking, Regency, Georgian, Tudor, Highlander, Medieval, Victorian, Roman, Civil War, Restoration, Edwardian, etc. They are interested in anything pre-20th century except Westerns and Amish. They are also open to time travel,  historical fiction, historical fantasies, and historical mysteries as long as there is a romance component that ends happily ever after. They are open to M/M, F/F, M/F, LGBTQIA pairings.

They accept and publish submissions written in Dutch and English. They pair all pieces with black and white photographs. All submissions must be made via email.

They ask that all submitted work, be grammatically correct and between 500 and 5000 words long but they are also open to discussing that. In fact they encourage potential contributors to reach out about other matters also, including helping authors find potential collaborators. Throughout the website they emphasize the importance of community.

To learn more visit their contributors page here.

Writing and Completing the Book!

I began writing my debut fiction in April 2020. The idea had been rattling around in my brain for several years so the timing was perfect to begin to create the supportive world, characters, and plot. By the end of 2020, I had a first draft and sent it to my developmental editor. By early 2021, I farmed it out to several beta readers. I used all this feedback to take a huge swing at a first revision during spring 2021.

It sounds like I did everything right except…

I was so excited to have completed a novel that I chose to ignore a nagging feeling that the book was lacking something.

The “Learning the Industry” Process

Next, I joined the Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) and dove into learning everything I could about the industry. Querying. Pitching. Agents. Traditional publishing versus self-publishing. Royalties. ISBN. Copyright. I needed to get educated…FAST. Webinars. Online articles. Subscriptions to writers’ blogs. Jane Friedman’s books. You name it. Finally, I felt armed and ready to get That Summer She Found Her Voice published.

The Querying and Pitching Process

I began by researching agents who aligned with my genre and starting the querying process. I was super organized, choosing to use an excel sheet to keep track of each agent/agency/response. After ten or so rejects or no responses, I’d tweak my query letter (just like all the experts advise) and repeat the process.

In October of 2021, I attended the MWA Conference and signed up to meet three agents in person, where I had ten minutes to pitch my book. Each agent asked for pages for additional review. I was on cloud nine. None of those requests led to anything. I was on cloud zero.

The Reflection Process

By the following spring, I began to self-reflect: What is this nagging feeling that I keep ignoring about the book? And what exactly is my goal for the book? Are there other paths for publication? Would indie or small press be better for a  Retro themed book like mine?

Getting Back on Track

In dealing with the nagging feeling, I went back to the drawing board and took another huge revision swing. I strengthened the protagonist’s arc, added suspense in several areas, and edited it for sensory details (something I always need to work on). Then, I asked two new beta readers to review it (writers I’d met through the MWA). Their feedback was fabulous, leading to more editing.

Another result of my self-reflection was that I realigned with my writer’s purpose. I’m a believer that every writer needs a strong writer’s purpose to guide their writing. Reflecting on questions like “What motivates me to write?” and “What are my goals when I write?” have helped me find that compass. I want my writing to help others and to start conversations. Looking back, getting an agent/big publisher (which would have been nice) wasn’t the only way to align with my purpose.

The Small Press Pivot

Here’s what happened when I pivoted on pursuing a small press publisher.

First, in the summer of 2022 I wrote directly to a small press publisher in my region. The nice thing about small or indie press publishers is that you don’t need an agent to query them in most cases. The publisher of Secant Publishing emailed me a truly kind rejection but that wasn’t all. He wrote two pages of feedback as well as information about the publishing industry. How generous. We continue to bump into each other at conferences.

Next, I attended the fall 2022 MWA conference but only registered to pitch to two small press representatives. The reps for Apprentice House Press loved the idea of my book and encouraged me to submit the entire manuscript. The book was accepted in December 2022; a contract was completed at the end of January 2023; and the book was published in April 2024.

Conclusion

I could not be happier with the result of my publishing journey for That Summer She Found Her Voice: A Retro Novel, despite its many twists and turns. I learned that I was too eager when I began the pitching process, that I needed to listen to that nagging feeling telling me that the book was not ready, and that being in alignment with my writer’s purpose will always serve me best. Whether you decide to query agents, self-publish, or pursue a small or indie press, I hope my experience has been helpful.

Bio: Jean Burgess is a writer, editor, and playwright with a background in theatre and education. Her debut novel, That Summer She Found Her Voice: A Retro Novel, is available at Bookshop.org and other online retailers. Follow her publishing journey by signing up for her monthly newsletter at http://www.jeanburgessauthor.com.

Bam, beep, buzzzz, clickety click and the sounds erupt from the pages of a story.

Children’s books use a lot of sound words: echoism, or more elaborately identified as onomatopoeia. They can be used in any story, for any age group. In fact, some stories demand the use of sound words. Battle scenes would be difficult to write without using onomatopoeia like blast, bang, scream. The trick is to use these words effectively without overusing them. When editing young people’s stories, one is overwhelmed by their use of sound words. Young readers enjoy the benefits of sound in their stories, but they can over-indulge the reader.

So, how can a writer use these sound words effectively? Here are a few tips.

First of all, choose your sound words wisely. Make them flow in the sentence. Remember onomatopoeia can be used in place of verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It’s an effective tool to make your story come alive. Using a sound word is much better than describing the sound. “Meep, meep, meep,” is the sound your alarm makes in the morning. Rather than a simple explanation that “the alarm woke me up,” make the annoyingly repetitive sound of the alarm vibrate off the page.

Here’s another example of effective use of sound words:

“We sat by the crackling fire while the storm outside raged its fury, splattering rain on the roof while thunder rumbled above.”

Much better than:

“We sat by the fire while it rained heavily outside with lots of thunder.”

The first example brings the storm to life, while the second one merely describes it.

It’s important to choose words that imitate the sounds they’re meant to describe. Buzz is a good choice for the sound of a bee, while sizzle works well to describe bacon cooking on an open fire.

Another useful tool to enhance sound writing is punctuation. Don’t just use a comma or a period when an exclamation mark (don’t overdo this either as one is quite sufficient and much more effective than a steady stream of exclamation marks) can effectively convey sounds. An exclamation mark, dash or ellipses can emphasize the abruptness or the suddenness of the sound and leave the reader breathless for more detail. Also, stand alone sound words are usually formatted using italics (not necessary when the sound word is used as a noun, verb or adjective in a sentence). This visual impact makes the sound word stand out. But, like anything else, be consistent. Don’t use italics on one sound word and then leave the other sound words in the story in regular font.

Now, about overuse. Too often writers, especially young writers, get carried away with sound words, either using the same sound word repeatedly, or using multiple different sound words to give the obvious audio effect. Too many sound words can turn off the reader who wants to get on with the story and not dwell on the various sound effects. It’s important to keep in mind that there are five senses to involve the reader, sound being only one of those senses. That being said, multiple sound words can be effective in a children’s picture book story where young readers love to read sound words and learn the sounds around them.

Also, keep in mind the genre and time period of your story as some sound words that are effective in contemporary scenes may not work so well in a medieval setting. And fantasy stories provide a whole new venue for creatively chosen sound words.

In all of your writing, remember that the senses play an important role in the descriptive narrative of your story. Describing the smell of a cake baking in the oven or the sight of a blue bird at the feeder are all part of our sensory perceptions. So, too, are the sounds we hear. The senses bring the reader into the story and make them feel like they are a part of the action. Among other things, sound words, used with care, can add action and vitality to any story.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford is a country writer, living just outside the tiny community of North Gower, Ontario, near the nation’s capital. With degrees in art history, music and Canadian studies, the retired music teacher enjoys the quiet nature of her country home and the inspiration of working at her antique Jane Austen-style spinet desk, feeling quite complete as she writes and stares out the large picture window at the birds and the forest. She writes in several genres, including creative nonfiction, memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction. http://emilyjanebooks.ca