Nazca Press 2025-2026 Submission Guidelines

The Nazca Lines of southern Peru are a true wonder…and a true mystery. There are over 700 glyphs featuring a number of animals and birds including a hummingbird, a monkey, a parrot and more. There’s even a strange, alien-like creature known as “The Astronaut.” The ability to create such designs in the sand seems to go far beyond what was possible at the time. Nobody knows the real purpose of these creations, and some speculate they aren’t even of terrestrial origin but rather made by visitors to our planet from beyond the stars.

Nazca Press endeavors to capture that same feeling of the unexplored, the unusual, the prophetic and future-forward thinking  through publication of titles in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

We are not interested in publishing lots and lots of material. We’re interested in publishing the right material. Stuff that really moves us, makes us think and approaches the genres in new and interesting ways. The surest way to have your manuscript turned down is to tell us “if you like XYZ book or ABC author then you’re going to like this.” If we liked ABC author so much we’d go after them. Be original, be yourself, show us something we haven’t seen before. Think outside the box. If any other publisher told you they just didn’t see how it would fit, you’re likely perfect for us. Weirdness wins.

Submissions are currently open for our 2026 and 2027 publishing calendars.

• Submissions in the following categories should be submitted directly to Jay Hartman at jhartman@mistimedia.com:
  • Submissions by authors who have worked with Jay in the past
  • Any authors represented by an agent.
  • Submissions by authors from established publishing houses that have closed and rights have reverted
• All other submissions should be sent to the attention of Walt Boyes at wboyes@mistimedia.com. Please be sure to include NAZCA SUBMISSION in your subject line.
• Debut authors (NOT self-published authors) and those who have never had a major book release from any other publisher (again, NOT self-published authors) should submit to Sandra Murphy at smurphy@mistimedia.com

Here’s what we’re looking for:

Cross-genre stories (i.e.: scifi/mystery, horror/scifi) where both genres are well-represented
Stories with a “twist” or an “edge” that hasn’t been explored before
Time Travel
World-building on a scale that can lead to series work and potentially spin-off series
Role playing guides, handbooks, materials, etc.
Splatterpunk, Dark Horror, Dark Fantasy, etc. Make us want to sh*t our pants!
International stories those that take place somewhere other than the US and preferably outside of England. Africa or South America is a plus.

We are particularly interested in novellas and series. At this time we are not considering short story collections unless it contains multiple award-winning stories that have not been available for many years. Anthologies will be considered provided that our contract will be with the editor of the anthology and not individual contracts with each contributor.

We are actively seeking materials featuring and/or written by marginalized and underrepresented voices. Nazca Press takes diversity, equity and inclusion very seriously and has this as a core tenet of our publishing house. This includes the communities of (but not limited to): indigenous nations, African-American/Black, Latino/a, LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse and accessibility. Nazca Press and its parent company Misti Media are owned and operated by Jay Hartman, a gay and neurodiverse individual. Therefore, finding these voices is extremely important to him and his vision of publishing.

Submissions should include a short description, the manuscript in its entirety (Word format), and a marketing plan to give us a better idea of your social media presence and following. If you need help, we recommend you visit https://booklaunch.com/book-marketing-checklist/ as a starting point.

All manuscripts must be submitted in Shunn Manuscript Format, either Classic or Modern. Acceptable file formats include DOC, DOCX or ODT. Failure to follow these instructions will result in the automatic deletion of your submission and we will NOT follow up with you to let you know of the issue.

Here’s what we’re NOT looking for:

• Tired tropes (i.e.: vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. unless extremely new twists have been put on these )
• Women needing to be rescued by a man
• Romantic scifi/fantasy where there’s more romance and/or sex than scifi or fantasy (please save those for our Miraflores Nights imprint)
• Rape, incest, killing animals needlessly, excessive use of curse words, misogyny
• Rehashes of NYT bestselling books. No, we really don’t need another Lord of the Rings. Honest.
• Rehashes of classic characters. No, we really don’t need another Predator or Alien ripoff. Honest.

We typically do not accept previously self-published works unless the author has a significant backlist and following.

We typically read submissions during four specific times: March, June, September and December unless otherwise indicated.

Please Note: Submissions that are received that do not follow the above instructions, are for material we don’t publish or are sent to the wrong email address will be automatically deleted and the person submitting will NOT be notified.

For questions regarding submissions, please email Walt Boyes at wboyes@mistimedia.com.