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Blue Forge Press

Submission Guidelines

 

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Before you scroll down to our specific submission guidelines, please ask yourself: Is Blue Forge Press for me? We aren't a commercial publishing house driven by profit; we're a mission-oriented publishing house. As a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1989, we're exclusively dedicated to working with authors who have been marginalized and shut out of the publishing industry. We work with authors to create beautiful, meaningful books that we keep in print indefinitely worldwide. If you are a self-publisher just looking to increase your sales, we aren't the right publisher for you.

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Blue Forge Press has an open submissions policy. We will read and review manuscripts for novels (50,000-words or longer) in all genres as well as poetry collections (a hundred poem minimum), children's books (already illustrated), nonfiction titles and memoirs (30,000-words or longer). We receive, on average, a hundred submissions each month and publish twenty new titles each year. Please read the following instructions carefully as we cannot review submissions that don't follow these guidelines. 

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1. Please note we are not a vanity press; our authors do not pay to be published. We are also not a self-publishing print service; we do not publish every manuscript we receive. Art is subjective and we only accept books that match our mission statement. For more than thirty years, we have empowered and supported authors marginalized and silenced due to their age, disability, religion, gender, race, sexuality, or economics.

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2. In your initial email, please answer these questions:

  • Have you been marginalized or silenced as an author or a person?

  • Does your book shed light on misconceptions or break harmful stereotypes?

  • Does your book strive to bring diverse people together

  • How did you hear about Blue Forge Press?

  • Why do you feel that your manuscript is the right fit for us?

  • Know your genre. What published novels or authors would you compare your work to?

  • Does your manuscript include murder, sexual violence, self-harm, rape, suicide, violence against children, homophobia, racism, sexism, or other issues that may be difficult for readers? If so, are these elements essential to your book? Why and how?

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If you answered "no" to the first three questions, Blue Forge Press is not the right publisher for you. Please look elsewhere. We suggest resources like Writer's Market which can be found at any public library.

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3. We accept submissions through email. Please do not send hardcopy submissions through the post. Save a tree and submit digitally. Email your manuscript as an attached document to blueforgepress@gmail.com in any of these formats: .doc, .docx, .odf, or .pdf. Answer the questions above in the body of the email. If you do not have access to email or are unable to submit digitally, reach out to us for help.

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Your submissions will be confirmed within two work days. Submissions are reviewed within sixty days of receipt. If you have not received a confirmation or review response, please email us. Due to the volume of submissions we receive and because we are not a critique service, we do not provide editorial feedback but you will hear back from us no matter what our decision.

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We look forward to reading your submission and hope to be welcoming you to the Blue Forge Press family.

Blue Legacy

Port Orchard, Washington

EIN 83-4307421

Updated February 8, 2025

© 2025

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