Submissions
Have a book you think we’d like? Send us your manuscript!
Before you submit, please make sure your project meets these requirements:
✅ Your manuscript has been fully line-edited by a professional editor.
✅ You have a cumulative following of at least 1,000 across social media platforms and your newsletter. (For example: 500 TikTok, 250 newsletter subscribers, 250 Bluesky).
✅ You identify as part of a marginalized community: Neurodivergent, Disabled, BIPOC, or LGBTQ+.
✅ You have not used any generative AI in the creation of your manuscript. This includes writing (“ChatGPT, write me a book about…) or editing (“ChatGPT, make this paragraph sound better” or “Can you edit this?”). Liminal House is a book for human-made books.
What We’re Looking For
Liminal House Press publishes speculative fiction in the format of novellas and full-length works up to 120,000 words.
Speculative fiction includes fantasy, horror, and science fiction of all kinds. We want stories that ask what if? Whether you’re conjuring haunted houses, otherworldly futures, or magic-twisted kingdoms, we’re looking for narratives that bend genres, break molds, and challenge the imagination.
Most importantly, we’re looking for plots that really make us think and have a deeper message beyond typical fiction.
We are looking for all age ranges, from Middle Grade to Adult.
We are not looking for romance, contemporary, historical fiction, mystery, crime, thrillers, suspense, or dramas (unless, of course, you have cross-genre elements).
We do not accept screenplays, poetry, or nonfiction.
How to Submit
Ready to send us your story? Please fill out the submission form on this page and include the requested materials. We’ll review your manuscript and get in touch if it’s a good fit for our list.
Have questions?
If you need help, check out our FAQ below or email us using the contact form. We’re glad to help!
FAQs
Does it cost money to
publish with Liminal House?
1
Nope! Unlike vanity presses or some hybrid publishers, we do not charge anything upfront. If you don’t make money, we don’t make money, which is why we select which books we publish each year. If you want additional services and would like to pay us, that’s completely up to you and your budget.
Do you use crowdfunding to
publish all of your books?
2
Yes! Our CEO, Tycho, has found that crowdfunding is the best way to help authors get their books into the market without breaking the bank. With several 120%+ funded projects, award-winning books, and connections to The Book Bazaar, a crowdfunding collab group on Backerkit, he has developed a formula to help authors fund their books with a low-stress, hands-off approach.
What happens if my crowdfunding
campaign is unsuccessful?
3
If, in the rare case that your crowdfunding campaign doesn’t succeed, Liminal House will be unable to publish your book. However, we are committed to our authors and will provide lifelong guidance, social media advice, and support in any way we can for free. We believe in you, and we believe in your book. We are also willing to try books again after revisions, follower growth, or with an author’s future books.
Why must my book be line edited by a
professional before submitting?
Don’t you do that?
4
As a hybrid press, our goal is to publish your work with professional-grade services without breaking your bank. We are a very small publisher and do not currently have a large budget. This means that you (the author) and we (the publisher) share responsibilities, including getting the book ready for publication. The more services that get piled onto the crowdfunding campaign, the more expensive it gets, and the less likely it is to get funded. By narrowing our scope to just a proofread, a basic cover, and basic marketing for the crowdfunding campaign, we can ensure that your book will succeed. If you believe your manuscript is up to line-edited quality, please still submit, and we’ll let you know!
Need a line editor? We offer many types of editing on our services page.
Do you pay advances?
5
What do you mean
by “speculative fiction?”
6
How fast can you
publish my book?
7
No. We’re a very small press, and cannot afford to pay our authors advances at this time. However, we do pay very high royalties at 40%+ to the author, depending on book sales.
Speculative Fiction is a broad category of any kind of fiction that asks the question "what if?" by featuring elements that do not exist in the real world, such as magic, futuristic technology, or alternate histories. This includes sci-fi, fantasy, punk (cyberpunk, solarpunk, biopunk, etc.), dystopian, alternate history, horror, paranormal, and magic realism.
Publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. We publish 2 - 3 books a year at the moment, and take around a year to set up publishing contracts. We will let you know which publishing season you’ll be a part of as we enter the contract stages.
What is the Liminal House
publishing model?
8
Do you make me purchase a
specific number of books
when publishing with Liminal House?
9
What does Liminal House’s
royalty split look like?
10
How long is a Liminal House
publishing contract?
11
What responsibilities do the
author and publisher share?
12
Our publishing style blends the best parts of traditional and self-publishing. Like a traditional press, Liminal House Press provides professional editing, design, marketing support, and distribution. Like self-publishing, you stay in control of your creative vision and share in the profits.
It’s a partnership, not a pay-to-print service and not a vanity press. We invest in you, and we build success together.
No. Unlike vanity presses, you are not required to purchase thousands of books to publish with us. The crowdfunding campaign will fund our initial stock of books that both you (the author) and me (the publisher) will work together to sell.
All authors start with the standard 60% (publisher)/40% (author) royalty split. After selling 150 copies of your book after the crowdfunding campaign, the royalties to the author increase to 60% (author)/40% (publisher).
All contracts are initially 3 years, with the option to extend the contract at any time.
We work together as a team. Together, we’ll split responsibilities between:
preparing your manuscript for publishing
marketing and promoting
book sales
Liminal House authors are expected to maintain regular contact with us through email.