Submissions

Our reading period for Mid/South Sonnets is now over. We will respond to all submissions by early-mid April.

General Manuscript Submissions

We are currently open to full-length manuscripts for our 2025 catalog in the following categories:

  • Prose collections (including essays, short stories, flash)

  • Novels and novellas

  • Memoirs

  • General nonfiction

  • Hybrid collections

  • Poetry collections

Prose manuscripts can generally be of any length. For poetry, we would prefer collections with at least fifty pages but are willing to consider shorter manuscripts.

We are also open for chapbooks (prose and poetry) and will publish these individually alongside our full-length titles.

Note: If you do not have a completed manuscript (but have made substantial progress), please send a sample and overview of the project along with a projected date of completion. If you have any questions, let us know. All queries should go to submissions@bellepointpress.com.

 

For all manuscript submissions:

  • Include your name and contact information on the title page.

  • Excerpts/pieces may have been published individually, but never as a collection; this includes self-published work. Please include any acknowledgments of previous publications as needed.

  • Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but let us know immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

  • Please submit your manuscript in a .doc/.docx format.

  • Submissions are always free.

  • Instead of a formal cover letter, simply tell us (in the email text) about your connection to our mission in the body of your email. Please also include a short author bio (up to 75 words) and a basic overview of the work.

  • We do our best to work through submissions promptly, but please allow two months for a response.

  • We are currently focused on US-based writers.

Send all submissions to Casie Dodd at submissions@bellepointpress.com.

Terms of Publication:

  • Authors will be offered a standard royalty contract that includes a small cash advance and author copies.

  • We use a combination of traditional printing services and print-on-demand resources (currently IngramSpark).

  • As a new, community-oriented press, distribution is currently focused on direct online sales, in-person events, and our regional bookstore networks. Our full-length books are available through most of the major retail platforms, including Bookshop.org, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. We are actively working to expand our distribution in sustainable ways.

  • We will also develop a personalized marketing plan with each author to promote their work, including social media, interview/review outlets, and author events.

  • Design/cover art costs will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

What we’re looking for:

  • As a Mid-Southern regional press, we are primarily interested in seeing work from writers tied to Arkansas and the surrounding area, including Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, etc. as well as other Southern states (This connection doesn’t necessarily have to be explicit in the work itself.). Show us what it means to be from around here.

  • Writing with a clear sense of place (whether still rooted here or hovering around its margins)

  • Slices of experience tethered to the particular but rooted in the universal

  • We love to read writers interested in exploring beneath the surface of things, writers who make us think and feel more deeply. Really, we read just about anything but tend to prefer writing that speaks to art and craft. Surprise us.

  • Want to know more? Read these tips from our Founder/Publisher.

We look forward to reading your work!