A tiny indie press is responsible for one of the titles longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. Small presses have produced Pulitzer Prize winners and International Booker Prize finalists, in spite of sometimes limited budgets or distribution. Many small presses invite unsolicited manuscripts during specified reading periods or year-round, offering writers the ability to bypass securing representation before being published. And for those who prioritize being traditionally published but aren’t concerned with the size of their advance, it can be a win-win situation. Today’s guest post is a Q&A by Sangeeta Mehta ( a former acquiring editor of children’s books at Little, Brown and Simon & Schuster, who runs her own editorial services company.Īs Big Five publishers merge and the competition to land a book deal becomes increasingly fierce, small press publishing can seem like an ideal option for some writers.