Submissions Info

Dottir Press is, broadly speaking, a feminist press, seeking to promote stories that challenge white-supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative, and cisnormative ideals. As a writer, you needn’t identify as a woman to submit, but your work should intersect with feminism in some way. For instance, The Nightlife of Jacuzzi Gaskett, Brontez Purnell’s children’s book we published in 2019, depicts a common but rarely-represented family dynamic—a child who cares for a younger sibling while his mother is out.

We publish unconventional and often revolutionary literary fiction, upmarket/book club fiction, narrative nonfiction and essay collections, memoir, children’s picture books, middle-grade fiction, and works in translation. 

We do not publish books that are strictly romance (though books with a romantic element or subplot are fine), SFF/speculative, true crime, and business, and tend not to publish religious/inspirational, poetry, crafts/DIY, YA, or anthologies. We do not accept books that have been previously self-published. 

Our Open Submission Periods:

We are open to unagented submissions from August - September and February - March. Please do not submit to us outside of these months unless it is an agented submission, in which case agents can submit directly to Jennifer Baumgardner or Larissa Melo Pienkowski throughout the year.

Authors, please send us:

  • a brief query letter about your manuscript that includes the title, genre, word count, comp titles, your story’s hook and overall pitch, and author bio; and

  • your full manuscript in .doc or .docx format.  

  • For children’s books: Submit the work in its entirety, along with a marketing section (i.e. potential endorsers, events, and other promotional efforts, as well as a brief survey of comparable works with notes on how your book differs, a summary of your intended audience, and a sales history of any previous titles).

We understand that submitting your work is an act of tremendous vulnerability, and so we aim to respond to every query. If you have not heard back from us within six months of submission, please feel free to briefly check in on the status of your manuscript. Thanks!