Before submitting your book, please read our Mission Statement and FAQ so you can determine first if we as a publisher might be a compatible fit with you.
For those interested in submitting their novel or nonfiction work to Liberty Island for consideration, please contact us using the form here or at the bottom of this page to send a brief query describing your book.
If it sounds like a title we may be interested in considering, we will respond via email to request A) a full copy of your manuscript in PDF or Microsoft Word format, B) a detailed plot summary, and C) any additional relevant information such as an author bio, links to social media and websites, and/or outlines of further books in a series. We are not able to respond to all queries
Liberty Island is primarily interested in publishing Books in the follow genres, styles, and mediums:
Literary
War and Military
Historical
Tween and Young Adult
Thrillers, especially legal thrillers and espionage thrillers
Romance
Fantasy
Mystery
Detective
Crime
Science Fiction
Alternate History and Speculative
Western
Horror
Pulp Fiction
Action
Poetry
Faith-based fiction
Women’s Fiction
Experimental Literature
Humor and Satire
Short Story Collections
Faith-based memoir and non-fiction
Nonfiction: Cultural/Religious/Political Analysis and Polemical
Nonfiction: Media Studies, Film/TV/Music criticism
Nonfiction: Counterculture themes and arguments
Books which we are not currently considering: children’s picture books, erotica, hard science non-fiction, plays, screenplays, comics, graphic novels, coffee table and image-centric books.
Once we receive a manuscript for evaluation it will be considered by one or more of the following editors with the listed specialties and editorial interests. If you think one may be a good fit, you may request that editor to review your book:
Jay Merwin, Senior Editor, is a recovering lawyer and former newspaper reporter and copy editor now given over to editing and occasional ghostwriting. As such, he trains his gimlet eye mostly on novels and magazine articles. Originally from New England, he has lived in Baltimore for the past several years.
Having landed on Liberty Island in 2014, Jay pursues his editorial interests primarily in detective, thriller, mystery and literary novels. The reason behind the preferences, other than the subjectivity of personality, is that he finds in these genres the richest opportunities for plot and character design and development. He also considers Catholic-themed fiction.
Liberty Island titles which Jay edited include The Violet Crow: A Bruno-X Psychic Detective Mystery by Michael Sheldon, The Secret of Fatima: A Father Kevin Thrall Thriller by Peter J. Tanous, Tales from the Black Chamber: A Supernatural Thriller by Bill Walsh, Miranda’s War: A Novel of the Up-Zone by Howard Foster, Red Line Blues: The Passion of Owen Cassell, Closet Conservative by Scott Seward Smith, and The Undergraduate: A Novel by E. Scott Lloyd.
Associate Editor Oren Litwin dreams of using writing and the power of crowds to make the world a better place. Oren worked first in financial advising, and then earned his PhD from George Mason University and taught political science at the United States Naval Academy before doing research in the nonprofit world.
At Liberty Island, Oren handles war/military fiction across genres (historical, science-fiction, fantasy, coming-of-age, etc.), as well as post-apocalyptic fiction and more geeky work like Gearpunk and Gamer Lit. You can check out some of his preferences as an editor in this post. Oren is the editor of The Odds Are Against Us: An Anthology of Military Fiction.
Associate Editor Jamie Wilson has been a moving force in conservative fiction for nearly a decade. She first became involved with Liberty Island prior to its launch, sharing her large network of conservative writing contacts to help generate its first audience and pool of writers, and later contributed her editing skills to the first novel published by Liberty Island. She also contributed a number of short stories to the magazine, some of them quite memorable.
Jamie owns and operates Conservativefiction.com and was one of the founding members of the Conservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance, an organization that boasts a number of award-winning writers. She is particularly interested in helping writers with conservative political leanings build their skills into publishable quality.
At Liberty Island, Jamie will be editing primarily tweenage-and-up children’s literature. This critical segment of children’s literature has been all but ceded to the forces of progressivism, and she hopes to be able to bring the sensibilities of conservatism back to it, teaching classic lessons of civic responsibility, heroism and American values in the context of fresh, fun stories for young people. She is also interested in editing the adult genres of romance, fantasy in every permutation, and well-researched historical novels.
In her personal life, Jamie is a Navy wife and mother to five, including two tweenage daughters she is homeschooling. Her family currently lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where she is delighted to be able to dig her toes into the sand and just watch the tide roll in.
Associate Editor Susan L.M. Goldberg has an undergraduate degree in television and film production from Rowan University and a Master’s in Radio, Television, and Film with a specialization in critical/cultural studies from the University of North Texas.
Her professional experience includes stints in banking, small business management, and the antiquarian book trade. Her role as a co-director of a New Jersey-based Holocaust-genocide resource center for educators and students is a particular point of pride. Before setting her sights on the freelance writing world, she worked as a personnel specialist in public education.
Susan’s work has appeared at PJMedia, Kveller, Iron Ladies, Conservative Pathways, and the Times of Israel as well as in a number of print publications. Her thesis on interpretations of Jewishness in American sitcom television (a scintillating read about Grace Adler, Elaine Benes, and Fran Fine) is available here. Besides writing, she is excited to be acquiring and editing manuscripts for Liberty Island Books.
Associate Editor Robert Arrington is a lawyer and focuses on legal thrillers, historical novels, romance, fantasy, and science fiction.
Jon Bishop is Liberty Island’s Poetry Editor, in charge of both individual poems published in our online magazine and in poetry books. He also reviews Liberty Island’s most experimental and avant-garde novel submissions.
Associate Editor Tom Cosentino is the author of The Art of Looking for Trouble, Liberty Island’s new comedic literary novel. He reviews literary novel submissions. Tom is an avid reader with Richard Russo, George Saunders and Jeffery Lent among his favorites. He is looking for all forms of literary fiction novels that support Liberty Island’s mission statement, especially authors that would be passed over by traditional publishers because of their themes and principles.
Associate Editor Alec Ott is the author of the forthcoming Perdicion: The Other Blue Planet, first in a trilogy of space opera science fiction novels. He reviews science fiction submissions.
Associate Editor Audie Cockings is a happy wife and mom to four kiddos living on the Fresh Coast in Northern Michigan. When she’s not concocting fictitious narratives of strong but thoroughly flawed women for Liberty Island, she is slinging paint or crafting meals for six from local forest flora and fauna (read: chukar with morels). Audie works as an eldercare consultant by day and an associate editor for Liberty Island in the wee hours. She has been published in PJ Media, Liberty Island, and in two Midwest health care journals.
New to the editing staff at Liberty Island, Audie will be focused on developing authors and novels for readers with indoor plumbing. Period works (think 80’s and 90’s), dry humor, historical fiction, and stories of devout but dysfunctional families and friendships are welcome. Stories about positive outcomes and finding blessings in disasters are of particular interest, as are stories about women and the men who make them nuts. Audie plans to spend her retirement catching up on lost sleep.
Associate Editor Rhonda Robinson provides marketing consultation for Liberty Island and coaching for its authors as well as considering nonfiction submissions on faith, family, culture, and parenting. She also reviews religious memoirs.
Associate Editor Tom Weiss is Liberty Island’s editor of adventure, focusing on horror, action, thrillers, mystery, and military. Tom is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. His writing has appeared in professional military journals, PJ Media, and Liberty Island. He spends time in Western Wisconsin and Eastern Australia and is convinced the Minnesota Vikings will never win the Super Bowl.
Associate Editor Alex Himebaugh is Liberty Island’s Generation Z Editor, tasked with finding and developing her generation’s rising literary stars. In addition to growing a team of under-30 authors, she also reviews books by authors of all ages in such genres as realistic fiction, romance, science fiction, and young adult. Some of her favorite authors are Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Madeleine L’Engle, and Orson Scott Card.
Associate Editor Bill Walsh is the author of Tales from the Black Chamber (2016), one of Liberty Island’s first novels. Originally from Washington, Bill has a D.C. native’s instinctive aversion to the conflation of politics and virtue, especially in art. His bailiwick at Liberty Island is Crime and Pulp, looking for clever mysteries, antic capers, twisty ghost stories, depictions of the mean streets down which a man must go in your (or any other) town, smart supernatural tales, or whatever you’ve written well in that vein.
David M. Swindle, Editor-In-Chief, joined Liberty Island in May of 2015, initially as West Coast Editor. He previously worked as associate editor of PJ Media from 2011-2015 where he grew the PJ Lifestyle vertical, and associate editor of FrontPageMag from 2009-2011 where he developed the media criticism site NewsReal Blog as its managing editor. David double-majored in English (creative writing emphasis) and Political Science, graduating from Ball State University in 2006. After years of feeling torn between creative work and political activism, David now embraces the late Andrew Breitbart’s aphorism that “Politics is downstream from culture.” He also does research into online antisemitism and ideological extremism as Senior Research Fellow at The Israel Group and serves as Vice President of Development for the new Howard Bloom Institute.
As a novel editor David will consider books of just about any genre or type (he hands off romance, young adult, legal, and military titles to those better equipped on the team). His current areas of strongest interest include science fiction, fantasy, thriller/suspense, hard-boiled detective and crime, horror, westerns, historical, alternate history, speculative, cultural satire, literary, and religious fiction. He also reviews nonfiction submissions on politics, arts, media, faith, and counterculture.
Liberty Island titles which David edited include Justice, Inc by J.P. Medved, Mad Jones, Heretic: The Accidental Prophet, Book 1 by Quin Hillyer, Silver & Lead: A Novella of the West by David Churchill Barrow and MaryLu Barrow, Snowflake’s Chance: The 2016 Campaign Diary of Justin T. Fairchild, Social Justice Warrior by Curtis Edmonds, Mad Jones, Hero: The Accidental Prophet, Book 2 by Quin Hillyer, Mad Jones, Agonistes: The Accidental Prophet, Book 3 by Quin Hillyer, Pulse of the Goddess: The American Blackout, Book 1 by Fred Tribuzzo, Slaves Beneath the Stars: American Blackout, Book 2 by Fred Tribuzzo, Gangster Town: The American Blackout, Book 3 by Fred Tribuzzo, and First Shot: Jin & Tonick, Book 1 by Bokerah Brumley.
