Manuscript call

We are currently looking for previously unpublished essay collections, memoirs, and nonfiction/hybrid full-length book manuscripts. Individually published pieces within the manuscript are absolutely fine (and expected!) but the book should not have been published as a book before. We won't define "full-length" (our only hard limit is the lower end: minimum of 125pg), but 150-250 pages tends to be the sweet spot.

We love manuscripts that question boundaries (physical, emotional, metaphysical, meta-emotional—you get the gist). Dazzle us with your version(s) of truth! When it comes to genre-based boundary bending for this reading call, we'd love to see imaginative essays, lyric essaying, formal and layout-based experimentation, etc. Please note, however, that this reading team is looking for nonfiction (and mostly-nonfiction) manuscripts. If your project is more genre-inclusive in its hybridity, it may not be the best fit for this submission call and may be a better fit for our Multigenre + Open Prose Chapbook reading period (April to June), which is also where we'd direct any nonfiction book manuscripts under 125pg.

Historically under-represented perspectives are WELCOME and ENCOURAGED and HIGHLY SOUGHT—we want to help bring your voice to the world!

To get an idea of what we love, please check out our current full-length nonfiction books. We'd love it if you'd add a copy of any (/all) of our books to your submission, and we'll happily throw in free shipping as a thanks (US only, apologies to our international community)! 

• Aubrey Hirsch's graphic collection Graphic Rage
• jade vine's essay collection Hold Me
• Sean Enfield's essay collection Holy American Burnout!
• Sarah Fawn Montgomery's essay collection Halfway from Home
• Esteban Rodriguez's essay collection Before the Earth Devours Us
• Jeannine Ouellette's memoir-in-essays The Part That Burns
• Athena Dixon's essay collection The Incredible Shrinking Woman
• Melissa Matthewson's memoir-in-essays Tracing the Desire Line
• Melissa Wiley's essay collection Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena. 

Our press mission

We publish boundary-breaking fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid books, lifting the transition boards that prevent fluidity and smashing those we cannot pry up. We love work that questions the concept of truth, and work that reinterprets what we think we know. We prize experimentation (physical, emotional, metaphysical, meta-emotional); we welcome the unanswerable. We want to see the dark and the light side of the moon—or we want to see it obliterated. If your book is a wedge in a crack, Split/Lip Press is the hammer helping you split the wall apart.

However, Split/Lip Press does not tolerate manuscripts celebrating racist, homophobic, or misogynistic perspectives, and we will discard such manuscripts unread. We believe in breaking boundaries at Split/Lip, but we will not assist agendas of hate.

Submissions reading fee info

The submission reading fee helps cover our costs as a press, and our nonfiction reading team will be splitting 25% of the submission fees collected during this reading period as compensation for their hard work. But we don't want a fee to keep us from finding the best work out there. If you can't afford the reading fee, please send an email to splitlipthepress@gmail.com before submitting to receive a manuscript fee waiver, no questions asked.

We hope to find the next nonfiction addition to our press catalog during this reading period! That said, our press mission is paramount, and if we are unable to acquire a book from this period that fits, the remainder of the proceeds from this period's reading fees (after paying the readers) will be applied toward submission fee waivers for the next nonfiction reading period.  

Basic formatting details

Times New Roman 12 (or similar), double-spaced (unless you are specifically using special formatting—which we'd love to see), and PLEASE remove your name from the manuscript and file name—our readers want to review your manuscripts without names attached. There is a box on the submission form where, if you choose, you may indicate any information about positionality which may be helpful for the readers to know.

Please note that while we love and welcome work which includes images/diagrams/etc, all images may need to appear in black-and-white within a 6" x 9" printed book, so please keep that in mind when submitting.

Hugs + thanks

We work closely with our authors on all elements of their book, from design to promotion. We are engaged in the literary community, and as writers ourselves, we know how important it is to have a book that you love that is supported by a press that loves you. We'd love for you to be part of the Split/Lip Press family.

Simultaneous submissions are obviously welcome. Our reading process is a process and we move quickly and efficiently, but we also don't interrupt it prematurely. So if another publisher snags you first, we just ask that you withdraw your submission (and congrats to you!).

We intend to reply to all submissions by March 15, 2026, so please do not query about the status of your manuscript before that date. If you haven't seen anything from us by 3/15/26, check your status in Submittable and double-check your email spam filter because Submittable's messages sometimes get stuck there—we will definitely respond!

Thank you for considering Split/Lip Press as the home for your book!