Small Presses

Hi popmuze,

AgentQuery has a nice list: http://www.agentquery.com Link is at the top of the screen. Might still check with P&E, though.

Hope this helps.

Sharon
http://www.saaustin.net

I wrote to Robert Morgan, a favorite author of mine, and he suggested small press as an alternative to the larger publishing houses. His books were by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, he has become quite famous and they had to issue out a reprint of his novel "Gap Creek" when Oprah made it big news on her book club! Algonquin was small and sent it out to their publishing house (not sure where) for them to make a larger number of copies to supply the "demand" of his work. I'm guessing they would be a good start, check out their website for submissions on what they accept. http://www.algonquin.com/

Buy a copy of Writer's Market.

Or go by a local bookstore/college store and see the names of book publishers they have there...my college had many from small presses as well as large.

Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants is an Algonquin published book. Small press, but the book is now in its 6th printing.

There's a huge difference between Coffee House Press (very very small) and MacAdam/Cage (which has had a couple of bestsellers).

I've heard that Akashic has a terrible contract.

- Victoria

Send an SASE for guidelines.

popmuze said:

Thanks to all. From the Agent Query list I was able to cull ten places that seemed to accept the kind of fiction I'm writing:
Akashic Books
Algonquin Press
Arcade Publishing
Coffee House Press
Graywolf Press
MacAdam Cage Publishing
Mid-List Press
Soho Press
Soft Skull Press
Unbridled Books

Akashic stated on their web site they weren't looking at new submissions right now. And Unbridle's web site didn't seem to have any links to submission guidelines.
Anyone out there with information on some of these presses? For instance, do any of them pay advances?

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MacAdam Cage
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17689

For the rest, please start individual threads by publisher name.

popmuze said:

Not sure I understand how to do this.

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I think what Uncle Jim is saying is just start a new thread for those small presses you're interested in (since you listed a whole bunch of 'em).

Let's say it's Graywolf Press - that would be the name of the thread. I'd include the website url and whatever questions you have, so people know what you're looking for.

But before doing that, you also should check the Index and do a search of the entire Watercooler, just so nothing's repeated.

I hope that makes sense. Good luck!

~Nancy

Jo Scott said:

I wrote to Robert Morgan, a favorite author of mine, and he suggested small press as an alternative to the larger publishing houses. His books were by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, he has become quite famous and they had to issue out a reprint of his novel "Gap Creek" when Oprah made it big news on her book club! Algonquin was small and sent it out to their publishing house (not sure where) for them to make a larger number of copies to supply the "demand" of his work. I'm guessing they would be a good start, check out their website for submissions on what they accept. http://www.algonquin.com/

Click to expand...

Algonquin was bought by the conglomerate Bertlesman a while back. It really isn't an actual "small" press anymore. (I got a rejection from them ten years ago.) I think they now require submissions to be agented, but I could be wrong.

Hey, popmuze--I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to market--non-genre, non-mainstream, sort of quirky, semi-literary? Sheesh!--but I do know something about some of these presses, so here's a few pointers:

Graywolf: ultra-literary and very selective. Not many titles per year. Great rep, but generally not what you'd call 'quirky.' Don't need an agent, but a pile of publications in literary mags would help. Semi-literary probably won't fly.

Soft Skull: really edgy. Small. Weird and cool. Don't need agent.

Akashic: edgy, plus mystery. Some folks love them, some don't care for them, but in any case they have been closed to subs for quite a while, agent or no.

MacAdam/Cage: A really big small press with great distribution and massive support of their backlist. Literary, but including quirky, offbeat, and mystery. Check out "Time Traveller's Wife" or "The Rabbit Factory." These guys are gradually turning into an alternative to the 212 area-code conglomerates, and may save thereby Western Civilization. Don't have to have an agent but it sure helps--they have interns read their slush piles, and some of said interns are idiots. (Including the infamous Logan Rapp.)

Soho: Great small press. Literary and mysteries (though they claim their mysteries are all literary. Uh-huh.) Don't need an agent.

Mid-list: hard to get published there unless you've already been published elsewhere.

As far as I know these folks all pay advances, but I've never seen their contracts. Most small presses pay advances, but they are often nominal.

Good luck--and I look forward to reading your book just to find out what non-genre non-mainstream is!