We accept submissions each year during the months of April and November only. However, you may make general inquiries or check on the status of a submission as needed.

We will consider:

Fiction, Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction

We are seeking highest quality literary work—novels, short story collections, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction as memoir or essay collections. Rarely do we consider genre fiction.

Poetry

We pay attention to craft, polish, sound, poetic devices, and use of imagery. While we will consider both traditional and free verse, we are not interested in seeing mere prose broken into lines. If you have written a collection of prose poems, please do not submit it to us.

Drama

Submit only literary stage plays. At this time, we are not considering screenplays.

To accept a book for publication, we must be convinced that:

1. The manuscript is complete and revised appropriately, and a clean, carefully proofread manuscript is on hand.
2. The work has not been previously self-published or published on the Internet. We will, however, consider books containing chapters (or poems) that have been published in journals and anthologies.
3. The writer will be active in promoting the book. We need to know the specifics of the author’s promotional activities, for we want the book to sell enough copies to:
   
   • pay for publication costs
   • profit the press (some, at least)
   • earn royalties for the writer

Writers must therefore write an accurate synopsis of their work and a compelling hook (except books of poetry) when submitting.

Writers whose main purpose in writing is to make money should most likely not submit to Lamar University Literary Press.

We accept electronic submissions only. We rarely publish books less than 90 pages long.

Please note that we do take time to carefully consider each manuscript we receive, usually six months or more. Do not query until this time has passed. 

Before submitting, please review our catalog to get a feel for the kinds of books we publish. 

Query/Submit