One More Chapter, HarperCollins UK’s award-winning digital-first publisher, is currently open to submissions. They focus on publishing commercial fiction. Because they are a digital-first publisher, even though they are based in the UK, their eBooks and audiobooks are accessible globally. They don’t have any mentioned geographic limitations in terms of submitting authors either, which is why we are reviewing them.

They are currently open to the following genres:

• Crime & Thriller
• Historical
• Romance (spicy, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, erotica)
• Contemporary
• YA/Crossover/Adult Fantasy
• Romantasy
• Horror

You can get a feel for what they’ve published in the past by going to their main page here. You can learn more about their editors here.

The one section of their website that I found lacking was the fact that they never fully explain what they mean by digital-first, because the term has been used by publishers and imprints over the years to mean many things. Sometimes it would mean that the book would only be available in print format later on if a certain number of copies were sold, other times print publication were guaranteed  but print on demand only.

Please keep this in mind if you only want to work with a publisher that will print your book, although as an eBook publisher, it’s clear they do a good job in terms of marketing and sales.

To read their full submission guidelines, please visit their submittable page here.

In March of 2024 they reached their submission cap by the 15th, which limits the amount of submissions they can receive per month.  Usually when a submission cap is reached the page switches over and it is clear they are not open to submissions. This did not happen and there was no way to tell that they were closed to submissions without filling out and attempting to submit the form.

This is unusual and hopefully won’t happen again. At the time of this update they were open to submissions but had yet to update the year of the call.

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 Antihumanist
This magazine publishes anti-human work. “We want fiction that challenges human centred narratives, that forces us to confront our place in the universe, that makes us question: Who are we? Why are we here? Is there a purpose? Historically, weird fiction has best captured this goal. However, we are willing to accept submissions from speculative, horror, and literary writers that meet the above criteria.” They also publish translations, nonfiction, letters, and art on the anti-human theme.
Deadline: 1 March 2022
Length: Up to 1,000 words for fiction, 750-1,500 words for essays, up to 350 words for letters
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.

Upstreet
They want fiction and creative nonfiction. They aren’t looking for unsolicited poetry, but do accept queries for these.
Deadline: 1 March 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $50-250
Details here.

en bloc
They publish fiction, poetry, art, and photography. Submissions are ongoing; for issue 4, the deadline is 1 March 2022 (see ‘Is there a deadline?’ in FAQ).
Deadline: 1 March 2022 for Issue 4
Length: Unspecified
Pay: £35 per side as they appear in the magazine
Details here.

West Branch
This respected literary magazine publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translations. It is published from Bucknell University.
Deadline: 1 April 2022
Length: Up to 30 pages of prose; up to six poems
Pay: $0.05/word for prose up to $100; $50 for poetry
Details here.
(Salamander, associated with Suffolk University in Boston, is open for fiction, as well as memoir and poetry. Pay is unspecified and the deadline is 1 April 2022.)

Infinite Worlds (and Infinite Horror)
Infinite Worlds publishes science fiction, as well as artwork and comics. They’re also accepting submissions for Infinite Horror, a new, upcoming horror fiction magazine which is a spinoff of Infinite Worlds.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 1,500-5,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction
Details here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

They also like writing that explores esoteric philosophies and ritual practices. And they love translations, especially when the writing is translated into English for the first time.

The best way to get a sense of what Reliquiae publishes is by reading the journal. Although the entire print journal isn’t available for free, you can read excerpts from the most recent volume here.

Since 2019, Reliquiae has been published twice a year in print, in May and November. Each thoughtfully designed softbound volume features around forty literary works from both contemporary and canonical authors.

Reliquiae is holding two open submission periods this year: from January 1 through February 28 for their May edition, and from June 1 through July 31 for their November issue. Submitting authors can expect a response within one month after the end of the submission period. Reliquiae does not accept simultaneous submissions.

Poets may submit up to six poems totaling ten pages or fewer. Authors of fiction and creative nonfiction may submit up to 3,000 words. Translations should include both the English and the original text.

Authors published in Reliquiae receive a copy of the print journal as well as a small payment.

Reliquiae accepts submissions via email, not using an online submissions manager or by post. They do not accept previously published work.

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

If you’d like to learn more or submit to Reliquiae, 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.

Self-published authors often struggle to find a readership. And it’s not uncommon to see them drop out of the industry after they find few readers willing to take a chance on their work. Therefore, they must use strategies to build their audience months, if not a year, before they publish their first book.

There are many must-haves for self-published authors that their traditionally published counterparts have access to, such as professional editors, book cover designers, and formatters. But it doesn’t matter how professional-looking a book is or how much it stands out on online retailers if these authors lack strong readerships. The sooner self-published authors build their audience, the greater their chances are of succeeding in their endeavors. Below are three must-haves for every self-published author.  Even if you don’t plan on self-publishing, all of these can greatly enhance the chances of your books reaching a wide audience.

1) Self-Published Authors Must Write the Reader Magnet

Reader magnets are items meant to draw readers toward an author’s brand. The author writes a novel, novella, short story, or even a behind-the-scenes look of their book or book series, and sets the item for free that readers can download in exchange for an email address.

When readers wish to gain access to a reader magnet, they subscribe to the author’s mailing list. This must-have gives self-published authors a chance to familiarize readers with their work, genre, and themes.

Reader magnets gain even more importance when an author has a small selection of books for sale. And while it’s always fun to see sales dashboards light up, what will happen next after readers finish the author’s minute number of titles if there is no way for them to remain in contact with their readers?

If the author self-publishes one or two titles per year, odds grow that readers will forget about their work and follow other authors utilizing the reader magnet concept.

2) Regular Email Marketing

With reader magnets, the author captures readers’ mailing addresses, and it allows them to sell not just a new title with each launch or even a backlist full of books; they can correspond regularly with their readers.

But, just because a self-published author captured a reader’s email address with the magnet; they must also concentrate on retaining their growing list of subscribers. Therefore, it’s wise to engage in regular email marketing at least twice a month, if not more frequently.

Self-published authors can hold their new subscribers’ attention with an automated welcome sequence. The sequence can further introduce a new subscriber into the author’s brand, upsell the reader to a paid novel in the same series as the reader magnet, or even offer a second magnet as a thank you.

Regular email marketing, however, doesn’t always mean self-published authors need to say, “here’s my latest book, go buy it,” to their readers. Instead, they can tell stories about why they write in a specific genre, why they insert specific themes, or even what inspired them to write their latest title.

eMailing campaigns should entertain readers; not bore them with sales pitches for a previously released or an upcoming title. They need to let readers in on the book’s background. What inspired the main character, the setting, and the plot? What are popular comp titles to their books?

Imagine if an author emailed their subscribers in January informing them about a new title and those subscribers didn’t hear from them again until April with another new release. It’s hard to get readers to buy when they haven’t heard from an author in months.

3) Author Networking

Self-published authors need to know how to grow their audience, and it’s easier to grow a fan base when they network with other authors. And since most authors are readers who read books similar to theirs, odds are they already have a few names they can reach out to.

Even if they read books from well-established authors, they can always scour related products displayed at or around their favorite author’s online sales pages and find books by others whose readership is similar in size to theirs (the number of reviews often helps determine an author’s overall readership).

It’s often intimidating to reach out to other self-published authors for networking; but those who agree to join forces may see outstanding results. If seven authors get together for a joint reader magnet promotion and they each have a modest 1,500 readers on their mailing list, they’re extending their reach to roughly another 9,000 readers.

What if those same seven self-published authors took part in joint promotions over the course of 12 months, but with other authors with an identical mailing list? No guarantees, but that’s a lot of potential subscribers for each month’s worth of joint promotions.

These authors can even team up for joint giveaways, cross-promotions, and even newsletter features to further increase their exposure. The result? Larger audiences.

Bio: TC Marti is an author, book reviewer, and freelance writer. When not writing, you can find him in a gym lifting weights, or running miles on a trail. He is a huge fan of Arizona sports and the K-pop band Blackpink. You can visit his website here.