We are currently CLOSED to submissions of new novels and poetry collections, but remain OPEN for short fiction (more on that below the normal submission gudelines).
(To keep track of when we’re open for submissions, follow us on social media to stay up-to-date regarding our availability. And we highly encourage you to check out the books by our current authors and explain how your novels fits into the Not a Pipe family of books in your query letter.)
Submission Guidelines
Not a Pipe Publishing is not accepting submissions right now.
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:
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.)
We're particularly interested in under-represented characters and writers from marginalized communities
Short stories (see below for details about submitting those.)
We generally focus on novels or full-length poetry collections, but we’re willing to consider novellas and book-length short story collections.
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.)
Military or spy thrillers (unless there's a fantasy or sci-fi twist)
Crime novels or detective stories (unless there's a fantasy or sci-fi twist. We have made one exception to this rule because of the book’s strong social justice theme, so if the thriller is about something bigger, we will consider it.)
Religion (unless it's fiction about mythological characters)
Excessive violence (okay, we’ve bent on this a little. If the story is good enough, we can handle some blood spatter. Just make sure the gore serves the story and isn’t the point of the story.)
Erotica (We don't yuck on your yum. Just not our thing.)
Memoir/autobiography (If you're a big enough deal that people are clamoring for your story, you're too big a deal for us. If you aren't, reflect on that before sending anyone your memoir or autobiography.)
Biographies
Non-Fiction (We don't have the fact-checkers or a big enough liability insurance policy.)
Children's Picture Books (Love 'em. Can't afford to print them.)
Middle-grade (Love ‘em. Don’t have the right connections to market them.)
How to submit your email query:
We will probably only be open for submissions for a month, maybe even less, 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. (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 co-publishers, Viveca Shearin and 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.
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 family!
We’re interested in short fiction, also!
What We’re Looking For
Word count: between 3,000 and 10,000 words
Age range: YA, NA, or Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural, Horror (except body, non-supernatural, or splatterpunk). We accept cross-genre as long as one of the genres is listed above. We will not accept anything that promotes racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, religious bigotry or transphobia.
Submission Dates
Submissions are now OPEN and will remain open until further notice.
How it Works
Not a Pipe will be creating a subscription-based newsletter containing short stories each month.
How to Submit
Send an email with the subject line QUICK READS to notapipepublishing@gmail.com
Put the following into the body of the email (do not send attachments):
Name and Pronouns
Pen Name, if any
Story Title
Word Count
Your Story
You will hear back from us 4-6 weeks after submission, and yes, we’ll reach out even if we’re rejecting your story.