Shambhala Publications was founded in 1969 and “is dedicated to creating books, audio, and immersive courses aimed at improving lives—in ways big and small—in the hope of contributing to the development of a thoughtful, kindhearted, and contemplative society”.

Bala Kids is dedicated to encouraging the values of wisdom and compassion for children with books on Buddhism, meditation, yoga, mindfulness, and more.

Their books are focused on connecting with kids ages 0-8. You can get a good feel for what they focus on publishing by visiting the main page of their imprint here.

All manuscripts, along with any accompanying illustrations, must be submitted with a cover letter. The cover letter should include a short author biography, and a book summary. The email must contain the words “Bala Kids Submission” in the subject line.

Illustrators that are interested in working with them should submit samples, along with a brief biography and contact information.

To learn more, including the appropriate email address to submit to, go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 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.

They publish poetry, prose, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, and artwork. I’ve never seen prose and fiction separated into categories like this, and they never clarify the difference between the two. Because they have yet to publish a first issue, there are no examples online.

As a side note, they are also currently seeking a Poetry Editor, a Prose Editor, a Fiction Editor, and a Social Media Specialist.  You can learn more about these positions here.

In order to submit you need to be over 18, but that is the only requirement. Submissions must be made via email. They try to respond to all submissions within a month.

To learn more, visit their website here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

When poet Robert Frost wrote about two roads diverging in a yellow wood, I doubt he had in mind all the writers striving to get happily (and traditionally) published. But my own publishing journey thus far suggests that there are indeed divergent roads a writer can take to reach the same destination.

At the outset of the Covid pandemic, I was gripped by the idea of writing a novel exploring some of the impacts a devastating pandemic (worse than our real one) might have on American society and culture after the crisis has receded. I can’t honestly recall exactly how and when the arc of the story took shape in my mind, but my files indicate I began researching and writing in March 2020—even though we had barely begun to process our collective new reality. (I must have been crazy, but that didn’t occur to me at the time.)

By setting the novel a few years into the future, around 2030, I was able to psychologically leapfrog past current events and begin imagining an aftermath. In my conception, it isn’t pretty. Fascism rears its ugly head to fill a terrified population’s overweening need to feel safe, social norms that had broken down have not been restored, and acute labor shortages give rise to enslaved labor.

Those ideas coalesced into The Potrero Complex, a dystopian mystery-thriller set largely in a fictional small town in Maryland where civilization is coming apart at the seams.

I worked furiously and completed the novel in a couple of months. I did not seek out beta readers or a professional editor. You can fault me for that—and you’re probably right. I don’t recommend the approach. But the book felt “done” to me (and no, authors are not always the best judge of this!), and I decided to bring it to the marketplace as an unagented author.

It had not occurred to me some agents—okay, many agents—did not want any material addressing a pandemic. Here I thought I was being relevant and topical, but I received a clear message that nobody wanted to read such dire stuff. Several agents specifically said they wanted uplifting books. So I failed that test.

I queried agents and publishers with open-manuscript submission policies for a couple of months. I was on the verge of taking a break from fruitless querying, when I decided to submit the manuscript to the Petrichor Prize for unpublished books that is sponsored annually by Regal House Publishing. I distinctly remember feeling deeply discouraged at that point, and I nearly did not submit because I was certain I wouldn’t even make a short list.

Then that moment arrived that every author hopes for, but which rarely occurs. I received the email from Regal House telling me I was a finalist for the prize. Great news. I could live on that for months. Then a second email arrived from the publisher within a few days, offering me a contract.

This entire experience—from beginning to write to signing a contract with Regal House—took six months. That’s an astonishingly short time. I didn’t set out to rush the process; it just happened. And for this particular book, the journey was just right. The book will be published in August 2022 and advanced reviews are encouraging.

All of which leads me to a couple of conclusions about this difficult business of getting published.

1. Take an all-of-the-above strategy as you seek traditional publishing. That means cultivating a list of likely agents, of course, but also reputable publishers accepting unagented manuscripts. And don’t overlook time-limited opportunities, such as contests for first chapters and/or whole manuscripts. Authors Publish is a great source for these, along with Submittable’s ‘discovery’ feature, New Pages, and other outlets.
2. Write from a place of passion, not market calculation. Had I known that pandemic fiction would be a nonstarter for many in the industry, would I have written the story? I shudder to think about it.
3. Believe in your work and do not give up. You never know when a string of rejections will yield to acceptance. The past is not necessarily a predictor of the future. For interim validation, submit your manuscript to a professional developmental editor who will give you an honest and impartial assessment of the work’s strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t do that this time, but it’s a sound practice.

Getting published is usually a long, slow, emotionally taxing journey. You may improve your odds by exploring different avenues and byways of the trade. After all, any road may lead to success; you just have to start down the path.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series about how authors published their debut books. You can read the first here. If you want to participate, please send us an email with a pitch to submissions@authorspublish.com.

Bio: Amy L. Bernstein writes for the page, the stage, and forms in between. Her literary preoccupations include rooting for the underdog and putting ordinary people in difficult situations to see how they wriggle out. Her novels include The Potrero Complex (Regal House Publishing, Aug. 2022), The Nighthawkers (The Wild Rose Press, forthcoming), and Fran, The Second Time Around (Amazon, Audible, iTunes). Amy is an award-winning journalist and speechwriter as well as a playwright. https://linktr.ee/amylbernstein

JD Robb, Richard Bachman, Robert Galbraith, Mark Twain. You’ve heard of them; they are renowned names in the literary world – pen names of famous authors. But what causes an author to not want to use his or her real given legal name when writing?

Authors have many reasons why they do it. Many female authors, knowing the sexist nature of the industry back then, started out using an abbreviated name where the reader (or publisher, or agent) would never know the author was female. Other authors, because of the nature of their day jobs, didn’t want people close to them to know they were writing. Example, a CEO of a major corporation who just happened to love penning Harlequin romance just didn’t fit his ego – at least that’s what he assumed. Although now it is always very important to disclose ones legal name to a publisher, even if you are planning on publishing it under a pseudonym.

How about sharing a name with someone already known? Suppose you had the fortunate incident of being named Stephen King, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin or James Patterson at birth. Do you really want to enter the writing world using your given name? Yes, you might get some quick sales, but then you’d probably get a lot of hate mail and worse – social disgrace online, and maybe even a letter from one of them or their estates.

I started using my pen name – Rod Martinez – in honor of my grandfather. His last name was Martinez. When I speak at schools, I like to tell the kids about inspiration right at the beginning of my speech. My grandfather told me at a very early age “Son, here in this country you could grow up to be anything you want; a ballet dancer, basketball player, astronaut – why you could even be president.” “I don’t want to be President.” I whined. “Well either way, you can choose to do anything, and whatever it is, I will support you.” Think about that, an eight-year-old being told by a grown up that he can grow up to be anything he wanted. Of course, at the time, I wanted to be Spiderman – but that is neither here nor there.

I will share my pseudonym horror story. I began my writing career in earnest in 2009 after the publication of my first book. Soon after, I was invited to speak at local schools and libraries. Then something scary happened. I was scheduled to do a school visit and the librarian pre-ordered several of my titles. I write middle grade and young adult… but I also had two adult titles out there. She didn’t know this – and she ordered both of them. Talk about panic. The good news was that she had held on to them and asked me to autograph them before adding both to the collection. When I realized the mistake, the first thing I did (after confiscating both titles) was to start a rebranding of a new pseudo – just for adult titles.

This is probably not a tried and true method for most authors, but I didn’t want to chance a child picking up an adult title by Rod Martinez. Can you imagine picking up a copy of “Maria Does Miami” by any well known children’s author for your kid to read?

So, you might want to add a “save your neck” tick to the list of why to use a pseudonym. In the end you are creating a brand with your name and your titles. And that brand will follow you around your career.

Why choose a pseudo? Maybe your name isn’t something you feel would fit the genre. Maybe you write spy novels and want a cool name like – well – think of something. A great example is western adventure novelist Zane Grey. His real first name was Pearl. There are no bad horrible sides to using a penname except that you might want your publisher to know – so the royalty checks go to your legal name – unless your bank is ok with split personality customers. But as with anything else in life – there are always two stories. For example, many publishers and agents working with first-time authors stress the importance of brand and it seems some of them like working better with a true name. I have not run into this problem, but it is out there. But I can tell you of another issue I faced recently. As recipient of a creative grant a few years ago, the Grant Coordinator had issue with who she was speaking to whenever I called her. Because I submitted everything under my pseudo, but every time we spoke on the phone I used my real name – I really had her going for a while until we met in person. She was not a happy camper. 

How do you come up with a pseudo? According to Stephen King legend, a Bachman-Turner Overdrive song was playing (he listens to rock while writing) and a Richard Stark novel was close by. Why he chose Richard Bachman instead of Stark Turner is unknown. Same with Nora Roberts/JD Robb – the initials “J. D.” came from her sons, Jason and Dan. “Robb” was a sliced version of her last name.

The choice of whether to pseudo or not, of course, is a personal one. But don’t give up the idea if you truly feel against using your birth name. So, get creative, come up with a name – and write on.