Can anyone recommend some good small presses or publishers that accept unsolicited submissions?

Is there a reason you are ruling out writing a submission letter and having your manuscript solicited. Because more, and arguably better, publishers work that way.

I don't understand what in the world you're trying to do. You've got some presses AND agents, but you keep just digging deeper holes for yourself refusing to decide on anything.

It might help to specify what particular type of genre fiction you're interested in; a lot of the smaller publishers specialize in romance or mystery or SF/fantasy, rather than just "genre fiction".

I mean, I know a lot of publishers and could direct you to lists on line but they are all a little more specific, and most operate in the standard manner where you query first and then send the full manuscript when solicited. So I remain a little unclear on what you are after. There is no exhaustive list of all publishers that don't require query letter, but if there was it would be a long one including many publishers I would not touch with a bargepole.

There is a reason why we are trying to get your particular goal, because that would be a much easier question to answer. For a random example, if someone asked me to name a few legit small presses to submit an m/f erotic story with spanking, or a furry space opera adventure I could do that easy. But all or them for everything is a lot

There are reputable publishers that accept unagented submissions (Tor and Baen Books come to mind), but be aware that their turnaround time for a response is often many months, or even over a year.

Not trying to be flip but have you Googled? That's always a good place to start. It's a bit much to expect us to name publishers for you when you can search online for yourself. It would be different if you named a press and asked our opinions about it but to ask us to do the grunt work for you...nah. LOL! Google is your friend. If you type this same question for this thread into Google you will get results within seconds. As I keep saying, research is the name of the game.

If you are on Facebook you can do a search and find publishers and then research. Also, check the Bewares and Backgrounds section right here on AW. That will at least share who is reputable, etc.

Many, many small presses have closed so the options are not nearly as good as they once were. You also gotta do the best research you can so you don't end up with an author mill or some useless publisher that won't do anything for you.

It's not something that happens all the time, but I believe Angry Robot, a British SFF publisher opens their doors to unsolicited submissions at certain periods. They just opened the gates towards the end of last year, and as far as I know, a few AWers have made the final cut, and are awaiting word on whether they'll be accepted or not. I think a similar British, mid-list publisher of SFF, Rebellion Publishing, also opens the doors from time to time.

Which genre(s) do you write? Most imprints specialize in a particular genre, such as romance, SF/fantasy, mysteries etc. I can think of places to find information about SF and F publishers, because those are the genres that most interest me as a reader and writer. There are a number of small imprints in SF and F that take unsolicited manuscripts. Some of the larger ones take unsolicited novel manuscripts too (I think Tor, Daw, Baen did last time I checked). Some publishers also have occasional open submission periods.

The SFWA has a list of approved markets for SF and F, including some small presses for novels. Another place to look would be querytracker. In addition to a list of agents (I'd recommend trying to get an agent), they have a list of publishers one can sub to in different genres.

Hi writera!

I agree with the above posters that it depends on genre. For YA, there are excellent small and mid-sized publishers that accept unsolicited subs (Charlesbridge, Tanglewood, Holiday House, Flux, Hot Key) but a fair number are non-responders if they're not interested. You might want to check Querytracker--while their pub list is not exhaustive, there's a good listing of pubs that take non-solicited subs in different genres. Good luck!!!

writera said:

Can anyone recommend some good small presses or publishers that accept unagented submissions?

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Almost any university press.

Jeff

mrsmig said:

YA has just as many genres as regular fiction; e.g. romance, SF, fantasy, paranormal, thrillers, mystery, etc.

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YA erotica...?

Jeff