We are OPEN to submissions of new novels and poetry collections. We are also accepting pieces for the Antifa Lit Journal, Volume 3 HERE.  

Submission Guidelines

 

Not a Pipe Publishing is currently accepting submissions.

We accept submissions via email only. So that we can properly track your submission, please don’t query by snail mail, phone, in person, or through social media.

What we’re looking for: 

  • We are an activist press. Right now we’re particularly interested in stories or poetry focusing on resisting authoritarianism and injustice, or depicting under-represented characters from marginalized communities, or in promoting the work of writers from communities threatened by authoritarian regimes. Because of that, we’re broadening the genres we normally focus on to include any other book that fits our anti-fascist focus. 

In the past, we’ve focused on:

  • Young Adult and Mass Market Genre Fiction (especially if there's a fantasy or sci-fi twist)

  • Fantasy (Got faeries? Witches? Vampires? Elves? We dig it!)

  • Science Fiction/Speculative (Got cli-fi? Solarpunk? Political dystopia? Aliens? Space exploration? We love it!)

  • Paranormal (Creepy is cool, but if your horror verges on torture-porn, that's not our thing.)

  • Humor (if there's a fantasy or sci-fi twist)

  • Romance (if there's a fantasy or sci-fi twist)

  • Poetry (collections of 100ish pages. We love chapbooks, but we can only successfully market larger collections.)

Now we’re also willing to consider:

  • Horror

  • Romance (even without a sci-fi or supernatural element)

  • Thriller/Suspense/Military/Spy (even without a sci-fi or supernatural element)

  • Historical (even without a sci-fi or supernatural element)

  • Action/Adventure (even without a sci-fi or supernatural element)

  • Mystery/Crime/Detective

  • Erotica (anti-fascist erotica? Go for it!)

  • Children’s/Middle Grade (Saving the future from fascists depends on teaching children empathy now)

What we’re not looking for:

  • Anything that promotes racism, religious bigotry, misogyny, or homophobia. (You have the right to your opinions. We have the right to tell you to f--- right off.)

  • Religion (unless it's fiction about mythological characters)

  • Memoir/autobiography (If you're a big enough deal that people are clamoring for your story, you're too big a deal for us. Also, we don't have the fact-checkers or a big enough liability insurance policy.)

  • Biographies (We don't have the fact-checkers or a big enough liability insurance policy.)

How to submit your email query:

  • We will probably only be open for submissions for a couple weeks, so please send yours in soon and check our social media for some warning posts before we close.

  • Follow these directions carefully or we'll be irritated before we even get to your writing, and neither of us want that.

  • Make sure we publish the kind of project you’ve written or that your manuscript fits with our values and mission. (And we do mean written, past tense. We don't option incomplete manuscripts.) 

  • Send an email to notapipepublishing@gmail.com

  • In the subject line, write QUERY and the title of your novel. This is important. If you forget this, yours may get lost.

  • Address the query letter to our publisher, Benjamin Gorman.  

  • In the body of the email, include your one-page query letter and the first ten pages of your manuscript. We love debut authors, so don't let a short publishing resume slow you down, but do let us know if you have anything published already.

  • We do not expect you to have a massive following on a social media platform. We do like to see that you have a presence online (social media accounts in your pen name, not necessarily a website) that we can refer to when promoting your work, so let us know your social media handles.

  • Letting us know how your novel compares to other books in the Not a Pipe Publishing library shows us you took the time to get to know a bit about us (and, ideally, you've even read some of our books). It's not required to mention our other authors' books in your query letter, but we won't lie: It helps.

  • Please do not add any attachments, including images. Because of virus concerns, any email with an attachment will NOT be opened.

  • We DO accept simultaneous submissions. Because we are a small press, we are not yet able to pay advances, so if you can sign with a larger company who can offer you an advance on your work, go with our blessing and no hard feelings. If you decide to allow us to publish your novel, we will offer assistance with cover, layout, printing, distribution, press, marketing … everything we can to make you successful (all at zero cost to you), and then we pay higher-than-average royalties. We want to earn your business with our hard work and make you glad to be part of the Not a Pipe Publishing community!

  • And please, by all means, touch base with our authors to see what they think of Not a Pipe Publishing. We feel the author’s experience is the best measure of the publishing company’s success. While you’re at it, read their books; they’re really great!