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, including poetry anthologies. 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

This label is for prose including mixed genre anthologies, creative nonfiction, memoirs, novellas, novels, and short fiction collections. Our yearly target is 5-10 titles that fall into one of the above 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 (NEW RULES… effective December 1, 2024)

General Submission Guidelines

• Book submissions for all labels except the Pure Heart Press label (self-publishing) need to come through Submittable. Pure Heart Press should query to: editormsr@outlook.com
• We don’t do book queries for our main labels and aren’t interested in the promo material some folks include to get their book published. The work must speak for itself. If authors want to suggest what genre the manuscript might best fit, include it in the cover letter. 
• WORD or RTF format–NO PDFs for book submissions.
• Word or page count is specific to genre (see below).
• Reading periods vary by genre and are subject to closing unannounced if we meet our goal for a specific genre for the year. As a general rule, poetry manuscripts are read year-round. Prose manuscripts are sometimes limited to May 15 through July 1. Rule of thumb: if it doesn’t show up in the list on Submittable, then we are full for the year.
• We’re sorry, but we are not able to consider manuscripts written by authors who live outside the US.
• We will sometimes offer feedback, but authors should not expect it.
• Submittable charges a reading fee to consider book manuscripts. However, we do allow free submission of one manuscript per year for subscribers to our literary journal, The Main Street Rag, as long as their subscription is active.

What we will consider:

• Chapbooks & Poetry Books:  28-40 pages and 50-84 pages, respectively.
• Essay/Creative Non-fiction/Memoirs: Length: 70-100K words. A query is appropriate on this genre since we don’t publish many of them. Tell us what the story you want to tell is and why you are qualified to tell it. Query to: editorMSR@outlook.com
• Short Story Collections: Length: 50-100K words.
• Novellas: Length: 25-50K words. Not interested in anything shorter than 25K words for book publication.
• Novels: Length: 70-120K words (preferred).