in Publishing
Why we don't take unsolicited submissions yet
A closed list is a promise about capacity, not a judgement about anybody's book.
We are not open to unsolicited manuscripts. It is worth saying plainly why, because a closed door with no explanation reads as a judgement about the writing arriving at it, and it isn't one.
What publishing a book actually commits
Taking a book onto a list is not an act of approval. It is a commitment of months: structural editing, line editing, proofreading, design, typesetting, production, metadata, and then the long unglamorous business of keeping the book alive after publication. A press that accepts more books than it can carry through all of that is not being generous to its authors.
What we do instead
We take on other people's books as work: design, editing, and help getting a finished manuscript into the world. That work is paid, scoped in writing, and carries no implication about our list. Paying us for an edit does not put a book on it, and we will never suggest otherwise.
When it changes
When we can open submissions and read them properly, we will announce it in the news and tell the mailing list first. Until then, the honest answer is that we would rather say no clearly than leave a form open that nobody has time to read.