They do not appear to have distribution, but they have an easy-to-navigate site. You can get a better feel for it here.

They publish poetry, both chapbook-length and full manuscripts. Poetry collections must be between 30 and 150 pages in total length. Poets they particularly enjoy include Hanif Abdurraqib, Fatimah Asghar, Kendra DeColo, Ilya Kaminsky, and Danez Smith.

They also publish fiction, including full and chapbook-length collections of short stories, novels, novellas, and experimental works. Fiction manuscripts should be between 15,000 and 80,000 words in total length. In terms of fiction, the authors they particularly appreciate include Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, Carmen Maria Machado, Lydia Millet, and Jonathan Lethem.

Finally, just this year, they’ve started to publish nonfiction, although their requirements for that are very specific and are as follows: “Starting with our 2021 open submissions period, we will be considering nature field guides that cover specific regions within North America. We are particularly interested in work pertaining to foraging and herbalism, as well as guides to specific regional biomes and habitats (e.g. high desert, tall grass prairies, tidal pools), but we are open to any topics within the broader fields of zoology, botany, mycology, geology and other ecological categories. We are also interested in fictional works that use a similar field guide format (see above guidelines for fiction). Field guides intended to have illustrations or photography must have all images included in the submission, as we are not currently able to source the images ourselves.” Field guides must be over 30 pages in length, including images.

Do not submit to them unless your work seems like a good fit.

If they accept your work they pay between $200-500 advance depending on length, plus “a standard royalty” (although they do not go into details in terms of what that means).

To learn more or to submit, 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.

We are taking time off this week to visit our family, and to take a much needed break. It is our daughter June’s first Thanksgiving!

We are very thankful to have you as a reader. Authors Publish Magazine is almost three years old now. We’ve been impressed by the steady readership that we’ve gained, and the encouraging words of many of our subscribers.

Our mission is to make it easy for you to get published. We want to personally thank you for spending time with our articles. We know your time is valuable, and we strive to earn your time every single week.

This issue features all the articles that we have published in the last six months that have received a lot of attention. They are the articles that our readers have deemed most helpful and that are requested again and again.

If you do not see your favorite article here, be sure to email us at support@authorspublish.com so that we make sure to fit it into the next ‘Best Of” issue.

Happy Holidays,

Jacob & Caitlin Jans

Peachtree Publishers is a well respected publisher with good distribution. They are based out of Atlanta Georgia and they specialize in publishing children’s books, young adult books, self help titles for parents and educators and guides to the American south. They also  publish books on gardening and cookbooks, but usually only with a southern focus.

They were just purchased by Trustbridge Global Media. They will be known as Peachtree Publishing Company Inc. going forward. This might create changes in what they are seeking moving forward, although they say that as of now they are not looking to broaden their list. Their distribution will remain the same. You can learn more about the sale here.

They are a general trade publisher which means that they publish books that are sold in book stores and found in libraries and schools. They do not publish professional or scholarly books or textbooks, even though their books are used in classroom settings. It is good to review their catalog to get a better idea about what they have previously published.

They accept unsolicited submissions and have clear submission guidelines, but do be warned that it takes up to a year for them to respond to most submissions.

They are currently accepting submissions in the following two categories.

• Children’s fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, middle readers, young adult books

• Education, parenting, self-help, and health books of interest to the general trade

Peachtree only reads query letters if there is a manuscript or sample chapters attached. You must submit a full manuscript for a picture book. For all other books you can send a full manuscript or the table of contents plus three sample chapters.

All submissions must be made through the mail.

To learn more you can visit their website here.

My first mistake: impatience.

I had the glorious dream that my book, my quartet in fact, was ready for the ultimate in traditional publishing – the BIG 6: Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Random House, Macmillan, The Penguin Group, and Hachette.

So I started looking for a literary agent…

I did not look hard enough: I, of course, read everything I could afford on how to find the right literary agent (and I couldn’t afford much). I scoured query letters of all quality, size and design online. I looked at well-read blogs (that didn’t require a paid membership) on the best practices and picked out what I felt ultimately represented my style and genre.

I wrote and re-wrote my one page synopsis over a dozen times and got feedback on my efforts at least half that time. Then, I dove into those troublesome choppy waters without a life jacket, trusting I could swim with the best of them… I didn’t use an industry resource like the Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents – A book that I now cling to like it’s my first born.

The research I thought I was doing by scouring the internet with my limited abilities felt far more substantial that it actually was. I really only found a few dozen decent agents that matched my ideal before sending out queries three at a time. I thought I had this figured out. I was determined to do this myself without asking for help or spending money I didn’t have. However, when it’s your future writing career, you should give yourself a decent budget and a lot of time to research your resources – it’ll save you undue grief and pressure.

I did not look long enough: I gave up on my dream after 28 rejection letters (a pittance to the minimum of 50 suggested by most agents and industry professionals). I didn’t know what I was doing wrong, why I wasn’t even getting the “we won’t take you because…” responses. I was just getting the “I don’t have time to deal with you” rejections that give no hint or clue.

So I started looking elsewhere at smaller publishers. And I didn’t look very far, very hard, or very long. I tried a few of the medium-sized publishers but got the same response as the agents. Just as I started looking seriously at self-publishing and all its wonders, on a whim I sent a colleague my manuscript. We’d met via a LinkedIn group. I knew her small publishing house had been looking for new manuscripts and even though they were only just starting to branch out into other genres, I asked her if she’d be interested. I mean, I’d built up a rapport with this woman working on an article and getting to know her in the forum; I liked her. What could go wrong? This was what I wanted right? It was traditional publishing after all.

My colleague offered me a contract on behalf of her publishing house that I accepted on a whole lot of faith. Unfortunately, that contract ultimately fell through.

I did not listen to the advice of other writers! Look carefully and know what you want. Don’t sign if you can’t negotiate. Don’t rush.

Had I invested in my reference book from the beginning, and spent a little money to have a professional review both my query letter and my synopsis, I would have felt more confident in the product I submitted. I would have known more about the agents and agencies I reached out to.

Overall, my list of would-a, could-a, should-a’s spiraled back to a lack of patience.

Now, here I am with a dissolved contract having to start all over again (with a new novel!) and not make the same mistakes. I am self-publishing the quartet but my goal hasn’t changed. I want to land a literary agent and earn a contract with one of the BIG 6. I can make this happen. it has been done before. I just need to listen to the advice of those who came before me and have a little more patience in myself and the process.

Take my advice and learn what not to do when it comes to making your dream a reality.

*          *          *

M.J. Moores began her career as a high school English teacher with a passion for creative writing. She left the teaching profession to work as a freelance writer and editor but was unimpressed with the lack of straightforward, simple (and free) resources available to new and emerging writers; so she started her own writers’ blog (Infinite Pathways) to help her fellow compatriots. M.J. is the author of Publicizing Yourself: A Beginner’s Guide to Author Marketing and two writers guides through Authors Publish. Her debut SSF novel The Chronicles of Xannia: Time’s Tempest edition 2, with Infinite Pathways Press, is now available in print and ebook. http://mjmoores.com

Crimson Romance is a former imprint of Adams Media, that was bought by Simon & Schuster, this year. They remain open to unsolicited submissions.

Crimson Romance is a digital-first romance line that is open to submissions in five popular subgenres: romantic suspense, contemporary, paranormal, historical, and spicy romance. They recently started accepting LGBTQIA+ adult romances that feature a strong emotional/romantic journey between two partners. Romances where both partners are male are particularly encouraged.

They are looking for previously unpublished full-length novels (between 55,000 – 90,000 words) as well as novellas (between 20,000 – 50,000 words). All authors are encouraged to to submit any works that have not been previously published in whole or in part in any media, that includes self publishing.

Crimson Romances primarily focus on the hero and heroine’s emotional journey together towards love. They only accept works that end happily ever after or happy for now. They are not interested in any other genre of books. However, they do claim to want romances that are a little offbeat, and that twist established themes.

Make it clear in your query letter what makes your romance different. They are looking for authors that have a strong online presence and are willing to promote their work online.

All submissions must be made online through email. If you have a completed novel make sure to submit the manuscript along with a query letter and a detailed (3-5 page) synopsis. Your query letter should include the goals, motivations, and conflict for your characters.

For specific submission calls, to learn more, or to submit, please visit their page here

My response? Bull crap.

As an ancient and wise author once wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Seriously, after thousands of years on planet Earth and gazillions of words written, is it truly possible to say anything that hasn’t been said by someone else?

Of course, if these “experts” mean don’t just regurgitate something old, I agree. If they mean you should work at presenting a different angle or perspective on a story or experience, absolutely. And if they’re encouraging a creative explosion of thoughts through words that are uniquely you, go for it.

My concern, however, is that too many of us too often find ourselves sitting in front of a blank screen striving to be original, and nothing’s happening. We can’t get past the little voice in our head telling us we’re boring and our words worn out. We spend (waste) a lot of time worrying about saying something no one has ever said before. How silly.

Unless you’re waiting for God to hand you words on tablets of stone, just write (you ain’t Moses).

I attempt to write every day. It’s a discipline that forces me to think and to create. If writing is a skill, and it is, then I need lots of practice to develop my craft. When inspired, I might write for hours; other times it might be for fifteen minutes and less than five hundred words. But writing regularly helps me develop as a writer.

Frankly, sometimes what I write is pathetic, and it will never see the light of day. I don’t even show it to my wife, and she likes me! When it’s not a pile of worthless junk, it’s still an accumulation of rough thoughts that will need editing . . . and then more editing. And occasionally, something wonderful happens in the process, and I feel like an artist who is overwhelmed by the beauty of something I created.

That being said, here’s my point: If I think that everything I write must end up as a one-of-a-kind-never-written-before masterpiece, then I’m in trouble. I’m dead before I start, and there will be no joy in the journey. Yes, writing is work, hard work, but creating should be fun too.

So here are my suggestions:

1. Whether you feel like it or not—write. Every day. When you feel stuck—write. When you feel uninspired—write. When you feel old, worn out and boring—write. Giving birth can be painful (ask any mom). Don’t wait for it to be easy. Don’t wait to be inspired to write; write to be inspired.

2. Stop worrying about being unique or original. What will make your words uniquely you are not brand-new-never-written-before thoughts, but old thoughts written with your particular paradigm and insight. I love this quote by W. H. Auden, “Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.”

3. Without apologies, take a great idea (already said or written by someone else) and add your story and your experience. Change the words. Turn the phrase. Make it you. But simply add your story to what’s certainly been said by others. By the way, that’s not plagiarism, that’s the path to creative greatness.

We writers are a strange breed. Something in us wants to be the next C.S. Lewis, Hemingway or Stephen King. Frankly, that quest can be debilitating. Without question, dream big and write bold, but don’t be stunted by a false belief that unless you come up with something new it’s worthless.

Just write on and let the readers determine your fate. You never know what might happen when you stay true to your calling. Remember, writers write.

(In Stupid Things Authors Believe, Part 2 we’ll take a look at the tendency to treat all of our words as sacred in the editorial process.)

Bio:

Kurt W. Bubna published his first book, Epic Grace: Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot, with Tyndale in 2013. He has also published Mr. & Mrs.: How to Thrive in Perfectly Imperfect Marriage, The Rookie’s Guide to Getting Published and a devotional. Bubna is an active blogger, itinerate speaker, regular radio and television personality, and the Sr. Pastor of Eastpoint Church, a large non-denominational congregation in Spokane Valley, Washington. He and his wife, Laura, have been married for nearly forty years and have four grown children and seven grandchildren.

There are so many false assumptions, Clichés, and myths out there surrounding writers. Some of these myths contain some level of truth, others are nothing but rumors and a singular memorable example.

Here are 14 myths surrounding writers. Don’t let them scare you. They’re not real. They won’t bite. I promise.

1. The Muse
Artists of all kinds like to talk about the muse, but that does not mean that they agree the muse exists. Even if there really is such a thing as a “muse” the general agreement among serious authors is that the muse is insufficient. Serious, regular writing is what makes an author successful. As Pablo Picasso puts it “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

2. Poets Kill Themselves
Writers in general and poets in particular have a reputation for committing suicide. There have been some historically memorable suicides by poets and writers. I knew how Sylvia Plath died before I read anything she wrote. Ultimately the percentage of poets who have committed suicide is relatively low. Particularly in contemporary circles.

3. The Day Job Is The Enemy
Writers hate their day job! Or even if they don’t hate that day job, it prevents them from being a real writer. That is the myth anyway. The reality is much more complicated.

Wallace Stevens won the Pulitzer prize for poetry and turned down a faculty position at Harvard in order to keep his job as the vice-president of an insurance agency. William Carlos Williams was a doctor and a poet. The list could go on and on. Of course this is not true of all authors. Many writers happily quit their jobs once their writing career takes off.However even some authors, like Michael Chrichton and John Grisham, who quit their day jobs once they became successful, give a lot of credit to those jobs for their success as a writer.

4. All Writers are Alcoholics
There have certainly been and currently are a lot of writers that are alcoholics. However, there are alcoholics in all walks of life. Are a disproportionate number of writers alcoholics? Maybe. I know a few, but I also know a lot of writers who drink responsibly, or don’t drink at all. There are no hard statistics on this, but it is pretty easy to declare that not all writers are alcoholics.

5. Writers Are Eccentric
Writers are not supposed to be normal. They can say strange things and get away with it. They have weird habits and obsessions. In fact when I rented a room in a house during grad school, the landlords were reluctant to have a writer as a tenant initially, because they thought a writer would be less reliable than students in other graduate programs. I quickly convinced them otherwise and that is when they told me of their initial concern.

My mother loves the writer Anne Lamott. We went to a reading where she was all over the map and did a number of strange things. My mother justified Anne Lamott’s behavior by saying “she is a writer.”

I pointed out that so was I, and so were a number of other people we knew, and that we had been to many other author readings that were much less strange. My mother then declared that was because “Anne was a real writer”. Now I respect Lamott’s work, but in my experience eccentricity is rare and eccentricity levels rarely correlate with ones ability to craft a good work of art.

6. Real Writers Are Independently Wealthy
If writing doesn’t make you wealthy (and largely it doesn’t, Nicholas Sparks aside), how can one afford to be a writer? How can one afford to have all that time to write a book? The natural conclusion some people jump to is that your money is coming from elsewhere. Where that elsewhere is, a spouse with a full time job, an inheritance, a mysterious sponsor, etc. . . is a source of curiosity but it is often left unexplored. This myth interacts a lot with the myth that the day job is the enemy.

While writers that are independently wealthy may be envied, they are also largely assumed to have enough time to be “writing properly”. Of course some writers are independently wealthy and historically this was more commonly the case, but that is rarely true now. Most writer’s make their living with a day job of some sorts, be that a teaching position at a prestigious university or a job in a completely unrelated field, such as investment banking.

7. The Writer As Hermit
I blame J.D. Salinger for the prevalence of this myth, although Emily Dickinson is also a serious contributor to its longevity. A lot of people believe that writers live isolated lives without friends or much company, because of J.D. Salinger. This is not true of course. The vast majority of authors live very social normal lives. Writers are often friends with each other, many have families, and are actively involved in larger communities.

8. The Daily Habit
Writers are expected to write every day and some do. Stephen King claims to write every day in his book On Writing. Other authors take time off. Some write in spurts and writing every day does not benefit them. Ultimately it depends on the writer. What works for some does not work for others.

However there is some truth to this myth. In order to be a successful author who regularly produces new work, one has to write most days, but that schedule is flexible like most jobs and takes into account weekends and vacation time.

9. The Grammar Nazi
A lot of individuals seem to believe that unless your grammar is perfect you can’t be a real writer. A professional rarely makes mistakes. Some people assume that good writers are grammar Nazis. They conflate the two.

I have never known a writer that did not make mistakes, even if they were an excellent editor. Mistakes happen. The occasional error is inevitable, to pretend otherwise, or to judge writers when they make occasional mistakes, ignores the reality of the situation. Some really great writers have learning disabilities or struggle with spelling. That does not effect their ability to construct a sentence, a plot, or a wonderful book.

10. It Is Only A Hobby
Most people assume that writing is a hobby. Something people do to relax. Not that different from knitting. All serious writers know that this is not true. Writing is something that takes time, commitment, effort, and can even be unpleasant.

11. Writers Think They are Good
Non-writers tend to assume that most writers thing they are good at what they do, but even professional writers have a lot of doubt. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt,” Sylvia Plath once said that and with good reason.

Doubt is a natural part of most people’s writing process. Often as a writer I will love a piece when I first write it, then I will later grow weary of it, unsure if it is any good or not. Sometimes long after it has been published, I will re-read the piece and wonder why I even wrote it in the first place.

12. Anyone Can Be a Writer
Everyone has a story in them, they just have to get it out. That is one of the most prevalent myths.  Anyone could be a writer if they had the time. This is not true. It is one of the most enduring myths and yet it is not based on reality. Writing is not just about telling a story, but telling it well. It takes time to learn how to write. Many writers start seriously writing as children. It takes effort and sacrifice to be a writer. However many non-writers, people who have composed the occasional poem or short story, or not even that, don’t understand the effort that it requires to go from someone who is able to write to someone who is a writer.

13. You Don’t Have to Write To Be A Writer
“Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have “essential” and “long overdue” meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance.” – J.K. Rowling

If an author as established and respected as J.K. Rowling finds it hard to defend her writing time imagine what it must be like for most authors, with other jobs and significant responsibilities. However, non-writers don’t understand this. When I was in university it was hard to convince my friends that I needed to stay home that night and write, instead of going out. Why couldn’t I just write another time? It is not like writing has to be scheduled out like a doctors appointment. If one always caves to social pressure there is no time.

The other side of this myth is that I have met a lot of people who consider themselves writers, who have never written anything more than a short story or a book outline, but they consider themselves to be writers because they have a novel idea or outline. However, they have never really spent time writing, and their novel in progress has been at the same early stage for decades.

14. Writers Are Permanently Depressed
Writers can’t be happy. When you see them depicted in TV shows or movies, they do not live happy fulfilled lives. They seem to all be plagued by depression. If you read a lot of author’s biographies you will know that is true of some authors, Frank O’Hara and John Cheever, for example. However, it is not true of all authors. Many authors such as Ann Patchett and J.K. Rowling seem to live happy and fulfilled lives.

Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser. You can follow her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/emilyharstone/