OK, we didn’t want to call it the slush pile up front, but this is the slush pile. And we love our slush pile! Many fantastic books started out this way, as Word documents sent through the ether by former strangers who were fantastic authors, and are now close friends and trusted associates.

But here’s the thing about the slush pile. Jerry’s realized over the years that, when it comes to reading, his eyes are bigger than his mouth. Sometimes he goes to a bookstore, buys something, and reads it that weekend; sometimes it gathers dust on his shelf for years. So, too, with submissions. When he asks for the manuscript, he always says he’ll try to get back to you within six to eight weeks. He always means it. And sometimes he does read the book right away! But sometimes it languishes for a bit. And sometimes he does get back within the timeframe, or farm it out to an editor to see if it’s worthy. And sometimes the author pings him with a friendly reminder: Hey, have you made a decision yet? And sometimes he does finally make a decision! But sometimes it just sits there on his hard drive for six months or so, until finally he deletes it out of shame. (A dirty little secret about publishing: while authors often interpret silence as arrogant aloofness, sometimes it’s just shame!)

ANYWAY, if you’re OK with that process, please click Submit a Query below! You’ll get a pop-up window where you can paste your query; you’ll then have to click on the shopping cart icon and submit your email address and physical address to complete the process.

Please consider buying a book as well! We want to keep the submissions process free, but it does really help everyone if you’re willing to get acquainted with us while we’re getting acquainted with you. We’ll probably ask for your manuscript, unless it sounds really godawful and/or not in line with what we’re publishing. And after that…

(We are currently scheduling books for Spring 2027. If your book is great, it will deserve that long of a lead before launch. Trust us.)

Are you tired of querying into the void? Annoyed by the delays in placing your work? Or just eager for detailed and constructive face-to-face feedback from an actual publisher? We’re offering a luxury submission and critique process—a chance to avoid the void. (And possibly place your work.)

If you submit via this process, we will not only make a decision on your work within four weeks—we’ll also schedule a half-hour Zoom feedback session to discuss it in detail. If the work is not to our liking, we’ll let you know why it wasn’t a good fit, where we stopped reading, what we liked about your writing, and what you may want to do to improve it. If it is a good fit, we’ll determine what work needs to be done to sign a publication agreement—and once that’s in place and the book is on our release calendar, we’ll refund the submission fee.

Interested? Let’s GO!

"I had been sending out queries for my novel with no luck. I was not sure if I had a product, and I was not sure if I was selling it well, but I didn't know how to get those answers. When I saw Tortoise Books offered a submission critique service, I was happy to pay for that insight and feedback. What I did not expect was an offer to publish my book!" — Bristol Vaudrin, author of Afterward, launched in November of 2024