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Submission Guidelines

Please Note

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on our workflow and the overwhelming number of submissions we’ve received recently, we are expecting prolonged review periods. While we normally hope to review submissions within a month of receiving them, we are presently experiencing three month delays. Please be patient with our acquisitions team. We endeavor to respond to every submission we receive.

The City of Light has six unique, vibrant neighborhoods. Learn more about each one below.

Should you choose to submit a manuscript for consideration,
please comply with the following formatting requests to ensure our editors can easily review your work:

Please use a standard, 12 pt. (Times New Roman is fine; no need to be fancy!). Please also double space your manuscript, include paragraph indents and omit any “double spaces.” (It was a common practice to include two spaces after every period in the past. That is no longer the case, and should we choose to move forward with your manuscript, we would ask you to comply with this formatting anyhow.)

Thank you for making it easy for us to consider your wonderful work!

CrissCross AppleSauce
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

CrissCross AppleSauce

CrissCross AppleSauce publishes picture books that inspire and educate children of all ages. Gather ‘round, sit criss-cross applesauce, and read stories.

The Chickadees and the Moon Above

$14.95

Mother Chickadee loves her chicks very much. She knows that they will grow up and one day leave the nest. Her heart’s desire is that they become the best chickadees that they can be and find their place in the world. She tells them that no matter where they go, Chickadee Tree will always also be home. Wherever they roam, when they look up at the moon and think of her, she assures them that she’ll be looking at the same moon and thinking of them, too.

 

A beautifully illustrated and endearing tale that will capture the hearts of mothers and children of all ages. In addition to delighting young children, The Chickadees and the Moon Above is also perfect for new mothers, empty nesters, and little birdies who are leaving the nest. It promises to become the go-to Mother’s Day and graduation gift, as well a lovely baby shower present and an Easter basket treat.

CrissCross AppleSauce

40 pages
6.5 x 6.5″
Hardcover Only
ISBN: 978-1-952536-03-8

 

Hello! A Welcoming Story

$14.95$19.95

Meet Habiba, Aleksander, Malee, Elisa, and Dinesh. They have left everything they have ever known and arrived in a classroom in a new country. Meet Grace, Jaylyn, Cameron, Miguel, and Yu. They have never lived anywhere else. Hello! is the journey through the challenges that young refugees must navigate to find a sense of belonging in a new place. Flip it over and this two-books-in one also tells this story through the eyes of the students who receive them in the classroom. In this Welcoming Story, all discover the power of embracing differences. Young refugees have traversed the world, escaped violence, and yet still struggle with the sense of identity forged in the way they dress and the foods they eat. The youngsters in this book encourage each other to be their unique and authentic selves. It is powerful for children to imagine themselves on both sides of this shared experience. It will elicit complex and important conversations with students of any age. Share this diverse book with your children and grandchildren, with your students and their teachers, and with your new neighbors. Experience the joy of feeling accepted and remember the power of Hello!

 

Click here to download Educator Guides and Activity Kits!

 

Check out the Hello! A Welcoming Story book trailer!

Try flipping the pages…

The Cayuga Island Kids Series

$35.00$50.00

The Cayuga Island Kids series features a diverse group of big-hearted friends who work together to solve mysteries, have adventures, and organize community projects. They are fact detectives who think, brainstorm, research, and collaborate to uncover answers and puzzle out solutions. Above all, they are kind, helpful, smart, and resourceful kids who have lots of fun together.

 

These chapter books are perfect for 7- to 10-year-olds in 1st through 4th grade.

 

“Any book that begins with a map of an island is my kind of story. Enliven that setting with a diverse group of characters who are consistently kind—and bursting with curiosity—and you’ve got all the elements of a series that is alive with adventure, friendship, and mystery.”
~ James Preller, author of the Jigsaw Jones mystery series

 

Book 1: The Mystery of the Barking Branches and the Sunken Ship

This entertaining mystery-history adventure is based on real events surrounding one of the biggest puzzles of the Great Lakes! The Cayuga Island Kids set off on a hunt for a certain kind of tree and instead unearth a cannonball thought to be from a treasure ship built right on their island that sank in 1679 and was never recovered. As they hunt for clues and follow leads, they discover that the island they live on is home to a whole lot of history. And, it turns out, a whole lot of mystery, too. We all have history in our own backyards, just waiting to be discovered by inquisitive, adventurous, and fun-loving fact detectives!

 

Book 2: The Adventure of the Big Fish By the Small Creek     

Moving from knowing something has to be done to getting it done takes determination, teamwork, and sometimes, looking in a new direction. In this award-winning second book in the series, the Cayuga Island Kids rescue a mallard caught in the plastic rings from six-pack of cans. Moments later, a girl on a bike carelessly tosses a plastic bottle in the creek. That’s when they decide it’s time for action. How the Cayuga Island Kids go from fishing a plastic bottle out of the creek to bringing the community together to build a recycling bin big enough to hold plenty of plastic makes for a lively adventure. Young readers will be entertained as they come to realize the importance of brainstorming ideas, teamwork, the value of community effort, recycling, and the promise of new friendships. Best of all, readers will cheer on the Cayuga Island Kids as they come to realize that, although we are each just one person, together we can make a BIG difference.

 

Book 3: The Case of the Messy Message and the Missing Facts

It’s fall as Book 3 of the Cayuga Island Kids chapter book series opens. Julian explores food science as he experiments with recipes for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Being a cookie sampler takes Mac’s mind off his troubles with fractions. Yoko practices for the school play tryouts, and Maya helps Ms. Choi with the Make-and-Take-Club. Lacey, of course, is searching for the next mystery to solve. And then two of Ms. Choi’s glitter pens go missing. The clues and evidence point to a suspect, but are the Cayuga Island Kids jumping to conclusions? When a classmate jumps to conclusions and shares false information about Julian’s cookies, the kids join forces to set the facts straight. And while researching explorers for a school project, the kids uncover misinformation that blurs the truth, and makes the reasons for being a fact detective crystal clear. Sorting through clues and evidence—just like research—means making sure you have all the facts, and not just a fraction of the truth. Young readers will cheer for the Cayuga Island Kids as they embark on this adventure involving misinformation, faulty assumptions, flour bugs, glitter pens, and chocolate chip cookies.

 

Click here to download Educator Guides and Activity Kits!

Cross Your Fingers
EARLY READER AND MIDDLE GRADE

Cross Your Fingers

Cross Your Fingers is our middle grade and early reader imprint. Cross Your Fingers books are chapter books for young readers with engaging and educational stories that will keep them hooked on reading as a lifelong passion.

Cross Your Heart
YOUNG ADULT

Cross Your Heart

Cross Your Heart publishes young adult books that explore the joys and perils that every young adult can relate to as they navigate their own coming-of-age story.

New Idea Press
NONFICTION

New Idea Press

New Idea Press publishes innovative non-fiction books. We call these “Books that make the lightbulb go on.”

Shakespeare’s Goddess: The Divine Feminine on the English Stage

$19.95

Today, Shakespeare’s works are classics and his characters have achieved mythical status. But what did William Shakespeare consider great myths and classics? And who were the empowering role models for his bold and unforgettable heroines?

 

In plays and poems throughout his prolific career, Shakespeare explored many facets of the divine feminine including both Greek and Roman goddesses—he nearly deified Queen Elizabeth. His characters frequently refer to classical goddesses, some plays actually feature appearances of goddesses onstage, and the goddess of love starred in his epic poem Venus and Adonis.

 

Shakespeare’s Goddess explores the poet’s many representations of the divine feminine, as a pantheon of individual deities and also as diverse manifestations of a single, multifaceted goddess.

 

This sequel to Supernatural Shakespeare delves deep into Shakespeare’s use of Greek and Roman myths to explore the surprisingly wide variety of goddesses that populate his plays and poems in his lifelong quest for the divine feminine. Sufficiently researched and documented to be useful to scholars, but with an engaging and humorous tone that makes it fun and accessible for anyone who appreciates Shakespeare.

 

The sequel to Supernatural Shakespeare: Magic and Ritual in Merry Old England (Paperback: 978-1-942483-92-2 | ebook: 978-1-942483-93-9)

 

City of My Heart

$19.95

For more than 50 years Mark Goldman’s life has been intertwined with the life of the city of Buffalo. His work as an historian, as a teacher, as the creator of the Calumet Arts Café and the Allen Street Hardware Café, in addition to his extensive engagement in some of the most important public policy debates of our times, has provided him with unique insights into the recent history of our city. In addition to detailed accounts of Black Rock, the Italian West Side, South and North Buffalo and Central Park, the book also discusses the origins of the preservation movement, the Buffalo school desegregation case, the story of Chippewa Street and the Calumet Arts Café, the Bass Pro Controversy, and so much more. City of My Heart is romantic and infused with hope, an effort to extract from the often painful pages of our history aspects of our past that will inspire faith in ourselves and our community. “I want this book to water the wholesome,” Mark says, “to help us hold on to hope and the promise of tomorrow.” Written passionately in the first person, City of My Heart is a Valentine to Buffalo that reveals as much about the author as it does about this, the city of his heart.

Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities

$39.95$49.95

The fascinating story of the historic Elmwood District is told for the first time, from the arrival on the Niagara Frontier of Joseph Ellicott, through the role played by Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks and parkways, and into the decline and renewal during the modern era. This lushly illustrated book educates and enlightens, telling the stories of the people who gave Elmwood its enduring character, transforming it from dense forest into one of America’s top ten neighborhoods.

Blacklight Press
FICTION

Blacklight Press

Blacklight Press publishes innovative fiction books. This imprint is filled with stories that, like a blacklight, reveal to us things that we may not have seen before.

Kite to Freedom

$12.95$16.95

The Story of a Kite-Flying Contest, the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, and the Underground Railroad

 

Can a kite change history? Katie and Homan’s did.

 

When engineers were faced with the challenge of bridging the vast Niagara Gorge, the solution was a kite-flying contest. After Katie and Homan’s kite crosses the gorge and wins the contest, construction begins on the first suspension bridge to connect the United States and Canada. The two friends are there as it becomes an important link on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom.

 

Even as her parents try to shield her from the ugly existence of slavery and the dangers of the Underground Railroad, Katie discovers that the scary truth is closer to home than she could have imagined.

 

Kite to Freedom is an action-packed, fictionalized account of actual events that occurred during the construction of the Niagara Falls International Suspension Bridge, which still connects the United States and Canada at Niagara Falls.

 

Cross Your Fingers

102 pages 

Suitable for readers between 8 and 12 years old 

The F Words

$15.95

Sophomore Cole Renner knows teamwork inside and out from running cross-country at his multi-ethnic Chicago public school. He knows about
braving the elements and not getting passed in the chute. What Cole doesn’t know is how much he’ll need all of his mental and physical skills when the heavy doors of Cook County Jail slam shut on his father, a community activist; when his English teacher catches Cole tagging the school with the F word and sentences him to write two poems a week, each on a word that starts with F; when his best friend Felipe Ramirez runs for class president against the girl who dumped him; and when the school bully prowls the halls looking for Cole and the principal seems more interested in punishing Cole than the bully. As much as Cole wants to win meets, what he wants even more is justice—for his father, for himself, for Felipe, and for his fellow students. Cole learns that actions matter, but so do words. He takes his write words (in both Spanish and English) and turns them into the right words to fight for justice.

Check out The F Words book trailer!

 

Click here to download Educator Guides and Activity Kits!

Those Fantastic Lives

$16.95

In Sides’ tender, brilliantly-imagined collection, a young boy dreams of being a psychic like his grandmother, a desperate man turns to paper for a
miracle, a swarm of fireflies attempts the impossible, scarecrows and ghosts collide, a mother and child navigate a forest plagued by light-craving monsters, a boy’s talking dolls aid him in conquering a burning world, and a father and mother deal with the sudden emergence of wings on their son’s back. Bradley Sides is an exciting new voice in fiction. Brimming with our deepest fears and desires, his haunting debut collection of short stories examines the complexities of masculinity, home, transformation, and loss. Tenderness is illuminated by magic realism, providing rays of hope in the darkness and igniting imaginations.

Softcover

ISBN: 978-1-952536-20-5

buffalo heritage press logo
BUFFALO BOOKS

Buffalo Heritage Press

Buffalo Heritage Press is committed to telling the stories of Buffalo, New York, one beautiful book at a time.

City of My Heart

$19.95

For more than 50 years Mark Goldman’s life has been intertwined with the life of the city of Buffalo. His work as an historian, as a teacher, as the creator of the Calumet Arts Café and the Allen Street Hardware Café, in addition to his extensive engagement in some of the most important public policy debates of our times, has provided him with unique insights into the recent history of our city. In addition to detailed accounts of Black Rock, the Italian West Side, South and North Buffalo and Central Park, the book also discusses the origins of the preservation movement, the Buffalo school desegregation case, the story of Chippewa Street and the Calumet Arts Café, the Bass Pro Controversy, and so much more. City of My Heart is romantic and infused with hope, an effort to extract from the often painful pages of our history aspects of our past that will inspire faith in ourselves and our community. “I want this book to water the wholesome,” Mark says, “to help us hold on to hope and the promise of tomorrow.” Written passionately in the first person, City of My Heart is a Valentine to Buffalo that reveals as much about the author as it does about this, the city of his heart.

Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities

$39.95$49.95

The fascinating story of the historic Elmwood District is told for the first time, from the arrival on the Niagara Frontier of Joseph Ellicott, through the role played by Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks and parkways, and into the decline and renewal during the modern era. This lushly illustrated book educates and enlightens, telling the stories of the people who gave Elmwood its enduring character, transforming it from dense forest into one of America’s top ten neighborhoods.

B is For Buffalo: An Aerial Alphabet

$19.95$29.95

Buffalo, New York is known for its remarkable architecture. Masterpieces by world-renowned architects dot the city. From the ground, these structures are impressive. From the sky, they are breathtaking. Soar high over the Queen City via beautiful drone photography and see the city like you’ve never seen it before. From the sweeping grandeur of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the immense scalloped walls of Temple Beth Zion, discover Buffalo from A to Z.

Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award, Silver in the Gift Book Category