Candlemark & Gleam is a publisher of speculative fiction novellas, novelettes, and novels as well as linked short story collections. They are open to publishing “Cross-genre/interstitial and SF/F hybrid works” but have a preference for “ones with mythic/historical echoes”. They are only interested in publishing work aimed at adults and are not a good fit for traditional horror, unmodified steampunk or anything with a lot of explicit erotica. They link to this anthology as a good way to get a feel for what they are most interested in publishing. They only publish a few books a year, so please spend some time with their catalogue to determine if they are a good fit, before submitting.

They are distributed by Ingram, which is not ideal. Their covers are generally excellent, and some of their books have received a lot of attention, which is good for a small press.

There is one issue in their past of note, which is that in 2014-2015, they apparently ceased communication with an author who had signed a contract with them, and whose book was at the last stages of production, you can read the details of this here, if you scroll down to the post by Gayleen Froese.  The editor at the time of the incident,  Kate Sullivan, the founding editor of the press, stepped down shortly after, but she is still the lead designer, and listed on the website as such. Athena Andread is is the current editor, and you can learn about her, and the rest of their staff here.  Obviously a long time has passed since 2015, and there have been no reports of this nature since then, that I know of, but I think it’s very important to approach a publisher knowing as much as possible.

Other authors have published more than one book with them, which is generally a good sign.

You can learn more about their submission guidelines here. Please follow them carefully before submitting. All submissions must be made electronically.

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.

So far, The Renaissance Review has published two issues, themed “Revival” and “Rebirth.” Each issue features writing from around 10 to 15 contributors. The Renaissance review aims to publish a diverse range of voices, both emerging and established.

Now through March 31, The Renaissance Review is seeking submissions for their third issue, themed “Reincarnation.” Submissions do not have to respond to this theme. Poets may submit up to five poems, 80 lines or fewer each. Authors of fiction, nonfiction, and experimental writing may submit up to two pieces, 5,000 words or fewer each.

The Renaissance Review asks that authors include content warnings when necessary. There are minors on the editorial team, so no explicit content is allowed. The Renaissance Review reads submissions blind, so submitting authors should take care to remove any identifying information from the writing.

The Renaissance Review accepts submissions online, not via email or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere. Though they prefer unpublished writing, they do accept previously published work.

The Renaissance Review only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Renaissance Review, please visit their website here.

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Sometimes this is the result of not reading the submission guidelines and sometimes it is a result of deciding not to follow them. Often I receive submissions of fiction with a note somewhere along the lines of “I know you don’t accept fiction, but my work is exceptional” attached.

There is a reason guidelines exist.

Mass submitting is not the same as submitting simultaneously, which is submitting to more than one journal at a time. I encourage simultaneous submissions, as do most journals. With turnaround times so slow, it is often the best route forward. I have different work out to 40 journals at a time, but I am very careful to follow their guidelines and make sure my work fits their needs before submitting.

Sometimes these authors are not submitting to a huge number of publishers or literary journals at once, but they still aren’t reading and following the guidelines the journal lays out and they are submitting work that in no way matches the publisher. This is just as inappropriate as general mass submitting.

The work submitted in this way is not going to be published because it does not in any way match the publisher’s needs. Even the most amazing work will not be considered, because the publisher has no platform to promote it and it does not work within the framework of their business.

At Authors Publish we receive daily submissions of poetry, full length manuscripts, and other work, which we do not publish or even consider. In the almost eight years we’ve been operating, this has always been the case, but during recent times there has been a notable uptick.

During the last three years, submissions across the board — manuscript publishers and literary journals — have received an increase of submissions. This is both, of appropriate material — material that actually matches their submission guidelines and the range of work they published, as well as an increase in inappropriate material — work that in no way matches their needs or guidelines, and which they have even less time to deal with because of their increased level of submissions.

I am writing this article partially because in recent times a number of literary journals and manuscript publishers have closed to submissions right after we published a review on them. This has led to reader complaints.

Across the board, these publishers and literary journals have closed to submissions because of a massive influx of inappropriate submissions — where they are dealing with material that does not match their guidelines. This is in spite of us being increasingly more direct about what publishers will and will not accept in reviews, and discouraging inappropriate submissions within the reviews themselves.

Now I know for the vast majority of our readers this is not an issue, but I feel like it needed to be directly addressed, to prevent these submission closures from happening at the rate they currently are.

Before you submit to any of the journals and publishers we review, please read our review carefully, double check their submission guidelines, and get a feel for what they previously published by reading past issues/sample work, and/or browsing their catalogue.

Thank you for reading this, and please if you want to send me an email to discuss this further, feel free to do so at support@authorspublish.com. I take reader feedback seriously.

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.