PURPOSE of this Page

As a small press, we cannot publish everything we are offered. No publisher can. The purpose of this page is to explain to potential suitors what we do and how we do it so no one’s time gets wasted. We have several labels and several ways we do business.

We specialize in perfect bound books also known as trade paperback, paperback or even soft cover.  We don’t do coil, or saddle-stitch binding and, as a result, are not well suited for children’s books or cookbooks, so we don’t do those.

We can do books with internal color, but it’s rare and that makes travel books or photo albums less of an option for us.

Aside from that, and with the exception of pornography, we do just about anything that can be printed and bound in 12pt card stock.

PRIMARY IMPRINTS

Main Street Rag

Strictly for poetry. On average we publish between 40 and 50 poetry collections every year. It is the genre for which we are best known.

Mint Hill Books

Anthologies, creative nonfiction, memoirs, novellas, novels, short fiction collections. Our yearly target is 2-4 anthologies and as many as a dozen works of prose that fall into one of the other categories of prose.

SELF-PUBLISHING

PURE HEART PRESS is our self-publishing imprint.

We will publish nearly anything the author or editor is willing to pay for. The difference between Pure Heart Press and our primary imprints is that the author is responsible for the content, the cost of production and all the marketing (although we can offer marketing assistance for an additional fee).

We do not do as many self-published projects as we once did, but there is no time limitation as to when we will or will not consider and/or produce a self-published book. It has more to do with the author’s schedule and that of Main Street Rag projects already in progress.

Please note: For the Pure Heart Press label, we do not issue ISBNs for print runs of under 150 copies and are not interested in projects where the author wants less than 50 copies.

BOOK Submission Guidelines

General Submission Guidelines

• ALL book submissions must be made through Submittable
• WORD or RTF format–NO PDFs for book submissions.
• Word or page count is specific to genre.
• Reading periods vary by genre and are subject to closing unannounced if we meet our quota for a specific genre. As a general rule, poetry manuscripts are read year round, fiction, creative nonfiction, memoirs, short story collections, etc. (prose) is limited to May 1 through June 15.  If you click on the button below, it will take you to Submittable where only the options we are reading for will be listed as available.
• We’re sorry, but we are not able to consider manuscripts written by overseas authors (those who live outside the US).
• We will sometimes offer feedback, but authors should not expect it.

What we will consider:

• Chapbooks & Poetry Books:  28-40 pages (chapbook/$12 reading fee), 50-100 pages (full length/$18 reading fee)
• Essay/Creative Non-fiction: We do not do many non-fiction books and prefer to have a prior relationship with an author before considering one. Those who have been published in either our magazine or one of our anthologies would qualify as having a prior relationship. Length: 70-100K words. Send first three chapters, but no more than 20K words. If we want to see more, we’ll ask for it. Reading fee: $20
• Novellas: We define a Novella as a work of fiction between 25-50K words. Not interested in anything shorter than 25K words for book publication. Reading fee: $20 This would include short story collections in the same length range.
• Novels: We do not publish many novels and prefer to have a prior relationship with an author before considering a novel. Those who have been published in either our magazine or one of our anthologies would qualify as having a prior relationship. Length: 70-120K words (preferred). Send first three chapters, but no more than 20K words. If we want to see more, we’ll ask for it. Reading fee: $20 This would include short story collections in the same length range.