A little over a year ago, we launched our Lost/Found, our new imprint dedicated to republishing beloved books from small presses that have ceased production. We were unbelievably fortunate to publish Brooke Shaffner's Country of Under as our first-ever L/F title!
Now, we are BACK with our first open call for additions to the Lost/Found catalog! That's right! Do you have a previously published prose book in need of a new home? Does your book dismantle boundaries and force us to reconsider what we think we know? Does your book push the limits of experimentation and dive into the unknown?
If so, we'd love to consider your book for republication under our Lost/Found imprint! We want to see the dark and the light side of the moon—or we want to see it obliterated. Since 2014, SLP has been honored to publish innovative and culturally relevant books. And with the recent addition of our Lost/Found imprint, we would be honored to give your book a new home and thrilled to welcome you into the SLP family.
We don't just want to republish your book -- we want to reintroduce it to the world, with a twist! A hallmark of the Lost/Found imprint is our out-of-the-box foreword pairings. Whether it's your sixth-grade English teacher, the barista who made your latte every Saturday during the months you spent writing, or your relative who bought 30 copies and gave them out as holiday gifts (we love supportive friends/family!), we'll be working with you to find someone who'll write an introduction to celebrate the republication of your book.
On to the nitty-gritty!
- For our Lost/Found imprint, we are looking for previously published fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid books that fit our mission and are currently out of print. If you're looking for a home for a new or unpublished manuscript, please submit during the appropriate reading period. (View our annual schedule here.)
- While we welcome experimentation in every sense of the word, we do not consider poetry; we are a prose-only press. Additionally, we are not able to consider self-published books.
- Potential authors must hold all rights to their manuscript and must have formally terminated the contract with their original publisher to be considered.
- This open call will remain open until we reach our submission cap or until we've taken on as many titles as we can sustainably republish.
- We want to take our time reviewing your books with the attention and care they deserve, so no need to query about the status of your submission. We'll be certain to inform you when we've made our decision. In the meantime, feel free to submit your book elsewhere for republication and let us know if it's found a home with another press.
To be considered for the Lost/Found imprint, please include the following in your submission:
1. the files for your published book (.doc or .docx preferred, but a .pdf is fine as well)
2. proof of your contract termination/confirmation that you hold all rights to your book
3. any relevant information about the press where your work was originally published
Please understand that we need this information up-front in order to sustainably run the imprint and avoid potential miscommunication down the road.
Because we're committed to compensating readers and editors for their work, we're charging a small submission fee for this open call, immediately redeemable toward free shipping on any SLP book. If our reading fee is prohibitive, please email splitlipthepress@gmail.com to receive a manuscript fee waiver, no questions asked.
At Split/Lip, we know firsthand how much labor and love goes into the process of writing and publishing books. The Lost/Found imprint is Split/Lip's small way of giving beloved books a second life and celebrating the legacy of the press who first published them, while offering new generations of readers the chance to discover (and rediscover) old stories. The Split/Lip team sincerely appreciates the resilience of every author who's committed to sharing their stories with the world, and we can't wait to read your work!
Join the Split/Lip Press Nonfiction/Hybrid Reading Team!
We're open for a couple of additional readers for the 25NF/H reading season (October-December 2025).
The 2025 Nonfiction/Hybrid full-length manuscript reading period will run from 10/1/2025 through 12/1/2025. By submitting your reader application, you are confirming that you are available to read and comment on book manuscripts during the aforementioned time frame (specific dates and details will be sent upon acceptance).
A note to remind you this is a BOOK MANUSCRIPT reading team for Split/Lip Press, not Split Lip Magazine. If you're interested in reading single short pieces, we're not the place (that'd be Split Lip Magazine). Split Lip Magazine is a cousin to us, but we have been separate and distinct operations since 2017.
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We are pleased to share that 25% of the proceeds from each reading period's submission fees will be divided among the reading team, so while we can't guarantee exactly what your compensation will be right now, we do promise that all readers will also receive a free preorder of the book selected from their reading period.