Every Press Turns Away Books It Wishes It Could Keep

A novel comes in that reads beautifully and fits nowhere on the list.

No Lane, No Checklist

Our mainline wants human monsters.
Honeythief wants the strange made real.
Sweetrot wants love that lasts.
Some books want none of that and are still too good to lose.

One Shots is where we publish them. There is no lane here and no checklist. We are asking one question: is this book good enough that the category stops mattering? If a manuscript makes us stop caring what shelf it goes on, it belongs.

Send us the novel you could not place anywhere else. Horror adjacent, genre-bent, hard to describe at parties. What we care about is the writing.

What We Don't Want

If another Edge & Busby imprint already declined your manuscript, One Shots is not the second door. This call is for books that were never aiming at our lanes, not a court of appeals for the ones that missed.

Open to anything does not mean finished by nobody. We expect the same polish here that every imprint on this site expects: a complete, revised, proofread manuscript in standard format. “No rules” describes the genre, not the craft.

Guidelines

Novels and novellas20,000 to 120,000 words

Story collections45,000 to 90,000 words total

What to sendThe complete manuscript

Submission feeFree

Simultaneous submissionsYes. If your manuscript is accepted elsewhere, withdraw it through Subfolio.

Multiple submissionsOne manuscript at a time. If we pass, you're welcome to send something else.

Previously published workOriginal, unpublished manuscripts only. Stories in a collection that first appeared in journals are fine. Note them in your cover letter.

Response timePlease allow 3–4 months. We respond to every submission.

Formatting

12pt Times New Roman
Double-spaced throughout
First line of each paragraph indented
Story title and page number in the top-right header of every page
Submitted as a .docx file
A brief cover letter in the form field that introduces you and your book

If your manuscript includes sexual assault you must include it in the content warning or it will be automatically rejected. Your manuscript is not judged on this, but we have readers that read work with SA and readers that don't. Thank you for your considerate warnings.

How to Submit

Submissions are handled through Subfolio. Subfolio offers an optional tip at checkout if you'd like to support the press. Tips are not considered in editorial decisions.

We pay advances and royalties on every book we acquire.

Questions about your submission can go to [email protected].

If you email a submission it will not be read.

Submit your manuscript