You can get a good feel for what they publish just by browsing their landing page. It’s clear, well organized, and up to date. If you are serious about submitting, I really encourage you to spend time in their books section, reviewing the categories that are most relevant to your work.

With nonfiction it’s easier to get a feel for what a company publishes without having to read work that they’ve published in the past, but it’s just as important to understand what niche that publisher is focused on in the marketplace. That’s why spending time on the company’s website is so important.

They do not publish fiction of any kind. This is what they ask that your proposal includes:

• A synopsis (no more than 2 pages)
• A complete table of contents
• At least two, preferably three sample chapters
• A list of additional materials will be included in the book: Charts, photographs, illustrations, case studies, etc.
• If you’re sending a cookbook proposal, please note total number of recipes and if you’ll be providing photographs.
• Author bio information. Why are you qualified to write this book? What other books have you written? What are your promotional skills? (public speaking, television or radio appearances or seminars you have conducted on the subject.) What is your social media presence?
• A run-down of the book’s market potential: Who might read this book? Is it a broad audience, (all men over age 30) or a niche audience (stamp collectors between the ages of 30 and 32)?
• Analysis of the competition: What other books exist on the same subject? How is yours different, the similar, better?

They do stress that they still accept proposals that do not have the previously mentioned components. They do expect the proposal to seem professional and well organized.

To learn more about what they require in terms of a proposal please visit this page. Please do not submit unless you feel like your work is a good fit for them. They accept proposals via post and email.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 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.

It’s really easy to get a feel for what they are and aren’t interested because they list many of their favourite writers, including Maggie Nelson and Zadie Smith here. You can also access past issues for free here. Only submit if you feel like your work is a good fit.

All of what they publish is influenced by punk — this includes poetry, prose, features, art, and music.  They are one of the rare journals that prefer that you submit just one poem, although they will accept up to four poems at once. In terms of fiction they only publish micro and flash work, and are not interested in genre writing.

They are open to reprints and simultaneous submissions but ask that you only submit to one category at a time, waiting for rejection in one category to submit to another. All submissions must be made via email. They make it clear that you should not submit “fancy shit, scatology, hate speech. <- Including misogyny; misandry is equally uncool”.

If you really connect to the work that they publish, they do offer editorial feedback for a price if you support them via Patreon but it is entirely optional.

Their submission guidelines are extremely detailed. Please follow them carefully.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 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.

The first time I noticed this was in 2020, when Hay House started placing ads on Facebook offering free weekend workshops for authors, these ads regularly appeared on my news feed. As much as I really like free things, it immediately set off alarm bells, because Hay House runs, in partnership with Author Solutions, one of the vanity presses with practices that, in my opinion, are predatory — Balboa Press. I’ve written more about them here. We regularly receive emails complaining about Balboa from authors who published with them. Writer Beware has a very thoughtful post on them here.

There was no mention of Balboa on the Hay House advertisement. At the time I didn’t think of taking a screenshot, but here’s one from 2022, as they are still actively showing up on my newsfeed, mostly during the winter:

Hay House is (or was) a respected traditional publisher, but I know based on feedback from several individuals who have taken one or more of these writing challenges or workshops that it re-directs to Balboa Press. This further blurs the lines I talk about in the Traditional Presses with Vanity Imprints article. As far as I can tell, none of the other companies that work with Author Solutions are as directly involved with promoting their brand linked to Author Solutions.

If you go to Hay House’s submission guidelines the press makes it seem like the Writer’s Workshop Meetings and the Community created are the only way non-agented authors can connect with Hay House. I included a screenshot from their website that I took on July 25th, 2023 that is included below.

Now, I’m not saying that it is not possible to go the route that they suggested and find a place for your manuscript with Hay House. There may well be outliers who have found success this way. But based on reader feedback this is very much the exception, and both the community and the weekends are set up to be a pipeline for Balboa.

Just to make it clear, Hay House is not alone in this. I’ve started to encounter some version of this at other presses; one of the examples is below.

In early May I encountered Exisle Publishing, and while their initial landing page seemed fine and then on their submission guidelines, they led by mentioning “Exisle Academy”. They also forced potential submitters to share their email address in order to see their submission guidelines. I gave my email address and I also received a follow up email encouraging me to learn more about Exisle Academy. I’ve received between 1-2 emails a month since then from them, encouraging me to learn more and become part of their community.

This is what the landing page of Exisle Acadey looked like at the time that I wrote this article, July 24th, 2023.

They claim to give “the only writing feedback you’ll ever need” and offer “quick feedback” and “a free pitching guide”. As someone who gives a lot of feedback on writing for a living, no company should ever claim to be the only writing feedback anyone will ever need. That’s not how publishing actually works.

Since this article was initially written, the landing page has changed slightly from above. Now on August 15th, 2023 it looks like this, although the rest of the page remains the same as far as I can tell.

They follow it up by saying, “Our Bestselling Books for Adults and Award-Winning Books for Children Last. They Are Read Time and Time Again, and Make a Difference to the Lives of Readers Around the World” — this implies that these books were published by their traditional imprint and that some of the books below were found through their academy program. Nothing is stated directly though, which is important.

Here is a screenshot of some of the books.

That picture of books overlaps almost completely with the books they chose to feature in the contract publishing section of their website, where they make it clear people have to pay to publish with them.

From my perspective it seems pretty clear, that they, like Hay House, are reeling authors in with the promise of free education and honest feedback and an insider’s perspective, and then are largely turning those authors over to a vanity imprint (even if they call it contract publishing, what it is at its core appears to be a vanity press). This isn’t to say all of their advice is bad or they haven’t ever found an author they ended up publishing traditionally this way, but for most authors it appears to be a bait and switch approach.

That said, there are also publishers that I really want to like, that offer really expensive courses that also imply publication with them is part of the end goal, and I don’t think that’s any better really. But that’s a whole different ball of wax.

For the purpose of this article, my point is please be wary of free courses attached to presses with any sort of vanity imprint. And if you encounter one, please send it my way. I’m always answering emails at support@authorspublish.com.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 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.

I was nearly finished with my first novel when I met up with an author acquaintance to ask for advice about getting a literary agent. It was a bitter New York winter night, and I felt icy and invigorated as I slid into the bar. Soon I would send out my manuscript and take another step on the path to becoming a published author. As we talked about writing, my acquaintance recounted the many years it took him to finish his first book.

At one point, he’d rewritten the entire novel from scratch. “I’d finally figured out the story,” he told me. “And all I had to do was sit and write it.”

I took a long sip of my drink and felt a frigid fear that matched the weather. “I couldn’t do that,” I replied, trying not to sound horrified.

Flash forwards a few months, and there I was sitting at my desk in front of a blank Word document. A beta reader had helped me see the light of day, and I’d decided that my 64,000-word manuscript didn’t need to be that long, or in the third person. Now that I knew the story, I could write it in a new way. After months of diligent work, what I ended up with was a 40,000-word novella in the second person. Titled Purple Gold, I didn’t know that what I’d written was essentially unsellable.

My manuscript’s inherent un-marketability became evident as soon as I started querying: form rejections, dismissals of my chosen POV, not a single mention of novellas on agents’ wish lists. Not to mention, the disheartening void of unanswered emails. But this version of my book was its truest form. I couldn’t imagine doubling its length to bring it up to an industry standard length. And I loved effect of the second person — it gave the narrator a dreamy disconnect which mirrored her stoner persona.

As every author does, I kept trying. I found novella contests and submitted directly to independent presses. I emailed everyone I had ever met in the industry and asked for advice. Eventually, the founder and editor of the small press, ANTIBOOKCLUB, agreed to read the entire manuscript.

His email response with detailed notes was the most thoughtful one I’d received. In my bleak months of querying, he was the first person to understand my work. He had read my manuscript and taken the time to think about making it better. Not drastically different, but an improved version of what it was. This was the most validated I’d ever felt about my project, and I dove into his notes.

After getting through his edits, my project was much stronger. It was also still…a novella in the second person. Even the editor at ANTIBOOKCLUB didn’t give me a green light, so eventually, I stopped querying altogether. As much as I wanted my novella to be published, I had to work on something else. Without intending to start another novel, I was struck with an idea and started writing to get its words down on the page.

Back when I was getting my literature degree at Pomona College, I’d studied fiction with the writer Jonathan Lethem. He warned us that our first novel risked becoming our second or our third. That while it was important to see ways to rewrite it, we also needed to know when to stop. As I worked on my second book, I knew I had to keep its momentum instead of being stymied on a project I’d started five years ago. Maybe I would turn the novella into an audio book. Maybe I would release it to friends and family. Maybe the manuscript on my computer would be its finished form.

In March 2020, almost a year after I’d stopped querying, I was living in Paris when life froze with the pandemic. Overnight, I lost my copy-writing job and faced a strict police-enforced lockdown. As the world contracted around me, I received a miraculous email. The editor from ANTIBOOKS was organizing an e-book release. With the pandemic in full swing, he wanted to give readers the gift of literature. How would I feel about having a digital version of Purple Gold published?

My project would be finished. My book would be edited and in readable form. By that point, those were my only two goals. Yes, I was disappointed I wouldn’t get to hold a book in my hands, but friends and family across the globe would have instant access. And most of all, my book would be finished.

I haven’t re-read my debut since I skimmed the final proofs. It’s a time capsule of that era in my writing, like looking at a snapshot of me back in college, dressed in tie-dye under the LA sunshine. But I’m proud of the years I devoted to Purple Gold — it’s the book I needed to write so I could move on to my next ones.

Bio: Grace Bialecki is a writer, editor, and book coach who teaches for The Bridge and Hugo House. Her work has appeared in various publications including Catapult, Barrelhouse and Epiphany Magazine where she was a monthly columnist. Bialecki is the co-founder of the storytelling series Thirst, and the author of the novel Purple Gold (ANTIBOOKCLUB). When she’s working with clients, Bialecki emphasizes finding clarity and authentic voice, alongside techniques to be present while writing.