Interested in publishing with Honey Locust Press?

August 3, 2009: At this time, Honey Locust Press is closed to submissions until January 2010. Any submissions received between August 1, 2009 and January 1, 2010 will be discarded if submitted electronically, returned if an appropriate SASE is included with hardcopy submission, or discarded if submitted in hardcopy without appropriate SASE.

Check back in January if you are still interested!

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As you probably read, Honey Locust Press is looking for books that are family-friendly. What does that mean? It doesn't mean spineless, wishy-washy or baby-food books. But it does mean books that are done in good taste and in accordance with what most Americans would consider to be socially acceptable. But that's hard to pin down, isn't it?

Here are a few things we DON'T want to see in books submitted to us:

Blatant sex. We all know "sex happens" but it doesn't have to happen on-screen.
Gratuitous bloodshed, violence, torture, cruelty, etc. If a violent scene is required to move the story forward, we understand. But violence or bloodshed placed in the story primarily to evoke a feeling of shock or revulsion is not acceptable.
Use of objectionable language. This is a tough call. If you're writing a story about criminals talking to criminals, it's difficult to believe they say "Golly gee whillikers" and "Shucks!" when things go wrong. But there are some terms and words that are unacceptably offensive to many people. Think of it this way: is this language you'd use when speaking to your mother, or language you'd want your kids to use when speaking to you? If you have trouble thinking of ways to show that the character is angry other than his choice of words, then maybe you need to work on your vocabulary or your skills at character development.
Heinous acts. If you want to dismember a pet, torture an animal, batter a helpless handicapped person, molest a child or murder a child in your book, you'll probably need to find another publisher. IF and ONLY IF such things happen offscreen (i.e. are referred to but not shown or graphically described) will such a book be considered, and even then it had better be done sensitively.

Obviously there are a lot of publishers who will be happy to publish your book if you insist on having the above in your writing, so I advise you to seek out one of them.

But if you think Honey Locust Press may be a good choice for you, tell us that, and why.

To query regarding publication:

Send a query letter that contains information regarding yourself, your publishing credits, and the book you are thinking of for publication with us
In the letter give me a 50-to-75 word professional bio
Give me a 75-to-100 word summary of your book, but don't give away the ending
Tell me what you see as the market for your book
List no more than your last ten publishing credits, but at least three relevant to the area of your book
Tell me five things you are willing to do to market your book
Finally, attach an RTF or Word document of the first two chapters of your book. (And be sure to tell me if it is finished yet or not!)

Send this entire email package to me here.

Or, if you prefer, send it via postal mail to:

Honey Locust Press
238 Park Drive NE
Ranger, GA 30734

Click HERE to read the comments of other authors who have worked with Wolfmont Press and Honey Locust Press.

PLEASE NOTE! We do NOT accept submissions of entire manuscripts in hardcopy format. If you cannot send the manuscript as an appropriate RTF or MS Word document when we ask for it, we must regretfully say that we will not be able to publish your work.

ALSO NOTE: If you submit via postal mail, be sure to send the manuscript in a large enough envelope so it does not need to be folded. Include a #10 SASE for a general reply, and/or an appropriately-sized, postage-applied, self-addressed manila envelope for return of the manuscript. Submissions without such an appropriate return envelope will be recycled after we are through with them.