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37 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2026

37 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2026

▾ Filter listings Fiction Poetry Contest Essay ✕ Showing all These are calls and contests for themed submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some call themes are: prepare to advance; out of office; Halloween special; aliens; aftermath; ghost stories; exquisite engines (steampunk); terminally online; Solarpunk; cozy fantasy; invitation; and beyond the memoirs of Sherlock Holmes…

Ten Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in July 2026

Ten Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in July 2026

Established publishers and small presses seeking manuscripts. No agent required.

Gnome & Bone Magazine: Seeking Submissions

Gnome & Bone Magazine: Seeking Submissions

Seeking fiction, poetry, art and nonfiction (from both new and established writers).

The Draft Before the Draft

The Draft Before the Draft

Outsiders call this "procrastination". Writers call this "process".

Finding Writing Communities That Support Black Authors

Finding Writing Communities That Support Black Authors

A good writing community will support you through rejection, bad drafts, and the long lonely hours.

50 Romance Publishers Seeking Submissions

50 Romance Publishers Seeking Submissions

For the first few years of Authors Publish, even though I only reviewed romance publishers that were over a year old, I had no lack of options in terms of romance publishers to review. They were the easiest genre to find publishers open to direct submissions, other than those focused on non-fiction. Particularly in 2016…

 

Only Legitimate Publishers

We research and verify all of the publishers we list. We only list traditional publishers.

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Writers should be supported –– not charged money for the chance to get published.

Open to Everyone

We only review publishers that are open to writers from around the world.

 
 

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Ella Peary is a masterful instructor. I learned so much about the genre of flash fiction from her and find it one of the best avenues now for my fiction writing. Ella's course is clear, concise and provides many options and prompts to try your hand at writing short, powerful pieces. This course has also helped my fiction writing overall, be it short story or poetry. Her "office hours" are also helpful, with live question and answer periods and reviews of stories. I highly recommend this workshop.

June Rogers

Emily Colin's Plot to Publication was a wealth of information on how to build and strengthen a YA novel and how to get it out into the world. Emily has a clear and welcoming instructional style, and she provides extremely detailed and helpful feedback on assignments. This is truly one of the best writing classes I've taken, and I highly recommend it to writers of all levels.

Dianne Beck

This course helped to demystify the landscape of literary journals and submission process. The instructor's feedback was immensely helpful; I feel much more confident submitting my work. The online forum is learner-centered, interactive, clear, and useful. There are opportunities to connect with others online; I've made a partnership with another writer in the course to exchange reading and feedback on an ongoing basis with one other. Thank you for this wonderful and pragmatic course!

Rachel Prizant Kotok

Manuscript Publishing for Novelists provided an excellent overview of what is involved in this process. The organization of the course followed each step of the process from proper formatting of the manuscript, to preparing a query letter, to vetting a publisher and agent, and to reviewing a checklist before submitting the manuscript. Along the way, during each segment of the course, there were helpful recommendations of what to do and not to do. Emily is not only an expert in this field, but also a genuine person. Every aspect of the course was conducted in a professional manner, and I would recommend Manuscript Publishing for Novelists to anyone interested in publishing their first novel.

Michael Hood

I am so thankful that I was able to take part in the Novel Writing Workshop with Emily Harstone. Emily was incredibly supportive and affirming of my efforts in writing. Prior to the start of the course I just had a few disjointed ideas, but her thoughtful assignments pushed me to think them through and turn them into the first chapter of my novel, and her detailed and thorough feedback gave me the direction and encouragement I needed to continue writing. I'm now 12000 words into my first novel and still going strong, all thanks to Emily. She is wonderful. Thank you so much!

Jane Lo

Emily Colin is a hard-working instructor. Instead of skimming through my work, she would dissect it bit by bit and ask me questions that I haven't been asked before. It helped me to look at my story from a different perspective. Since she concentrated on this being a YA story instead of a romance, she gave me feedback to make my story work for the YA market. I am really glad I took this course.

Anuradha Dev