Welcome!
This is the information side of our website. The format is meant to mirror the design of the MSR Online Bookstore.
Above you will find headers for the different categories. Some have drop downs that link to specific information about that subject.
For those looking for submission guidelines, everything we publish now has a separate page of streamlined guidelines. If an item is not listed on Submittable, that means we are currently not reading for it. When we get large backlogs, we shut down submissions to catch up so that authors don’t have to wait an unreasonable amount of time to reach print.
There is also a link to The MSR Online Bookstore where all Main Street Rag, Mint Hill Books, and Pure Heart Press titles are available.
Operational Status Report (updated November 17, 2025)
Submissions:
Current needs are in the magazine submission area, poetry, prose, and images. Our backlog is currently minimal and, in most cases, accepted pieces will be published within 3 issues (9 months) of when they were accepted, but that shifts with every issue we publish. Our journal is published four times a year. There is a nominal reading fee unless the author is an active subscriber to the journal, in which case, submission is free.
Book manuscript submissions changed midway through 2024 to take a breath from giving Submittable so much of our (your) cash and to increase our subscription numbers. Having accomplished the latter, we have now reverted to doing book submissions through Submittable and will include a reading fee.
Starting in 2026, we will offer two annual anthologies. Each will be run as a contest. Submissions for these will be by email only instead of through Submittable. Details can be found on the Anthology Page.
Contract Changes:
Print runs have become an issue in recent years. The truth is, printing a book just to give an author a publication credit is not fiscally justifiable. We’ve tried different methods to enhance our advance sales because these sales pay for a large chunk of production costs.
To that end, we’ve made some changes to our contract. One is to set a MINIMUM print run of 220 copies for all Main Street Rag publications. Main Street Rag is responsible for roughly 50 copies, but the author is responsible for the remaining 170, assuming we are printing a minimum run.
Does this mean the author must BUY 170 copies? Maybe. It depends on how many Advance Discount copies they sell. This policy was enacted to ensure that the people we choose to publish will be active participants in marketing. Every sale they generate through Advance Sales is deducted from their total AND every 50 copies they sell increases the discount on the copies they order for themselves. So, there is a benefit for both the author and Main Street Rag.
We’ve heard concern from some authors who felt this qualifies as self-publishing. Our position is that the existence of Advance Sales is what validates a title as not self-published.
That said, if authors sell 100 in advance, then the contract only requires they buy 70 copies which we believe is below the minimum any active author should want of their own book. It’s a red flag when an author doesn’t want copies and an indication that the title, regardless of how well-written it is, will not get the author support that is necessary for it to be successful.
In the past, we may not learn how helpful an author would be until the title is being prepared for press. As a buffer to ensure we’ll at least cover the cost of production, what was once an optional program (Advance Sale Program), is now a policy written into our contract. If this policy would be a burden to you as an author, then we may not be the best press for you. Consider this before submitting a manuscript for publication consideration.
Relocation Update:
In January 2025, Main Street Rag relocated to Edinboro, Pennsylvania. We needed to shut down our North Carolina business at that time and start anew here. That came with complications and growing pains. We had to change the parent company name and register it in a new state, set up new bank accounts, and a new accounting system.
We appreciate the patience of our authors and others during this period. One of the benefits of a change of name was that we are now receiving fewer claims of “fraud” that happened most often when people would see our corporate name on their credit card and not recognize it.
Main Street Rag has been a DBA since we reorganized in 2010 under the official name Douglass-Rausch Enterprises, LLC. Unfortunately, this name caused problems for some buyers. When they didn’t recognize it on their credit card statements, some filed fraud claims. That happened several times a month and we’d not only lose a sale but sometimes get hit with a service charge.
To help avoid this scenario, our new moniker in Pennsylvania is Main Street Rag Enterprises, LLC. Now the corporate name and name we have always operated under are aligned. Fewer issues. Our new mailing address is now 12180 Skyview Drive, Edinboro, PA 16412. Our phone number remains the same–though we almost never answer the phone, which you don’t find the number listed on our website. We do not do business over the phone because there is no paper trail. If a conversation is needed, the best thing to do is email us with your phone number and we will call you back. Email: EditorMSR@outlook.com
Sales on the Main Street Rag Online Bookstore are no longer processed by PayPal. We had issues with them on several occasions and their response was never quick or adequate. Online sales transactions are now handled by STRIPE. We also ditched QuickBooks for invoicing. They priced themselves out of the job. All billing is now handled by WAVE. If you are a businessperson, we highly recommend both of these companies.
Most books will continue to ship from North Carolina, since that is where our production house is.
Book Orders:
BOOKSTORE ORDERS: We do not take phone orders. All orders must be made in writing and email is the most efficient way. We offer three different levels of discount for resale vendors: single-copy order (25%), returnable (40%–minimum 3 copies), and NON-returnable (50%–minimum 10 copies). Store buyers should identify which terms they wish to use upon placing an order. If they have not ordered from us before, we may ask for a PDF of their Certificate of Resale. All orders and queries go through editormsr@outlook.com
ADVANCE SALE ORDERS: These orders earn a discount; however, they do not ship until after the author has received his/her copies. Advance Sales all ship at the same time, but they may not arrive at the same time since the US Postal Service sets its own priorities over which we have no control. We do our best to get these to their destination as efficiently and economically as possible.
If a buyer placed an Advance Discount Order and did not receive it (while others have), be smart: DON’T contact the author. The author is not responsible for shipping your order and is unable to do anything other than pass your complaint on to MSR at which time the author will be informed that MSR–just like Amazon–doesn’t respond to third party claims. Claims and queries must come from the buyer to Main Street Rag directly by email to editormsr@outlook.com. All claims must be made in writing (email). We do not handle them over the phone.
DAILY ORDERS: As for DAILY online orders, they generally ship the next business day, but there are always exceptions due to extenuating circumstances. Buyers of books already in print will receive an email notification when a shipping label for the order has been made. This does not mean the book has already been shipped, just that the packaging process has begun. The notification will include a tracking number which buyers can click on to follow the progress. We don’t usually make labels more than 3 days prior to shipping, but the world does have weekends and we sometimes work them.
Main Street Rag Publishing Company is an American independent press that values and respects individuals’ rights in regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion, and/or immigration status and while we believe in everyone’s First Amendment Right to freedom of speech, we also believe that we have the right to screen our site and our publications of language and material that doesn’t agree with our core values. Specifically, we disavow racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, classism, ableism, and hate speech or actions that attempt to silence, threaten, and/or degrade others.