Due to the severe decline in book sales and financial losses in 2020 and 2021 (Covid!), Hard Ball Press will be closed to new submissions in 2022 and '23. Please check back to this page in 2024 to see if we are accepting new titles. Thank you for your understanding.
Publishing With Hard Ball & Little Heroes Press
If you submit your manuscript for publication at Hard Ball Press, there are no fees associated with MS submission. If we accept your work for publication, you will be offered a contract that specifies what licensing rights you are granting to Hard Ball Press and what rights you retain. Once the book is released, you will receive royalties for book sales on a quarterly basis, whenever your sales exceed 20 copies. Published authors pay no fees to Hard Ball Press for publication.
If you decide to self-publish your book, we recommend that you join the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. The Union has veteran authors who can advise you and help you avoid the many scams that are offered on the internet forself-pubb'ed authors.
We are happy to recommend you to reliable, affordable editors,graphic artists and book designers as well. They are all union members and freelance editors who charge reasonable fees.
Above all, we are activists promoting worker-writers so that we can counter the rabid, anti-working class narratives produced by the One Percenters with our own honest stories about work, family, community and social justice.
If you submit your manuscript for publication at Hard Ball Press, there are no fees associated with MS submission. If we accept your work for publication, you will be offered a contract that specifies what licensing rights you are granting to Hard Ball Press and what rights you retain. Once the book is released, you will receive royalties for book sales on a quarterly basis, whenever your sales exceed 20 copies. Published authors pay no fees to Hard Ball Press for publication.
If you decide to self-publish your book, we recommend that you join the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. The Union has veteran authors who can advise you and help you avoid the many scams that are offered on the internet forself-pubb'ed authors.
We are happy to recommend you to reliable, affordable editors,graphic artists and book designers as well. They are all union members and freelance editors who charge reasonable fees.
Above all, we are activists promoting worker-writers so that we can counter the rabid, anti-working class narratives produced by the One Percenters with our own honest stories about work, family, community and social justice.
“Thanks to] Timothy Sheard of Hardball Press for giving me the opportunity to publish this novel and for helping me every step of the way.”
Paul Felton, MURDER OF A POST OFFICE MANAGER
SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO HBP FOR PUBLISHING
Hard Ball & Little Heroes Press publishes fiction, nonfiction, memoir, biography and historical narratives from a working class perspective. We offer Power Tools for Union Building and for advancing Social Justice. If you have a manuscript to submit, send a short query letter to: info@hardballpress.com. In the subject line write “Manuscript Submission.”
In the body of the letter write a short summary of the work, along with your work experience and any previous publishing credits. If you have no prior publishing credits, we will be just as happy to consider your work.
Send the first 20 pages of the work as an attached Word document. Give us 2-3 weeks to review the work. We will send you our evaluation of the work and will let you know if we wish to read the entire manuscript.
If we offer you a book contract, you will find that we work very hard at promoting your work. We will send out review copies to editors and trade union activists; we will request reading and speaking opportunities for you; we will request radio interviews for you; and we will arrange a virtual book launch via video conferencing that can accommodate up to 1,000 simultaneous participants.
HBP authors receive a royalty based on 1/3 of the publisher's compensation (profit). The compensation varies among the various supply chains. A book sold at full price from our web site garners the highest profit, while a book that the wholesaler-printer (Ingram Spark) sells to a bookstore brings the lowest. Amazon sales fall in between wholesale and web sale profit margins. The author will also receive a 50% royalty on all E-book compensation. The author will be able to purchase copies of the book at a 40% discount off the list price, plus shipping & handling.
Hard Ball & Little Heroes Press publishes fiction, nonfiction, memoir, biography and historical narratives from a working class perspective. We offer Power Tools for Union Building and for advancing Social Justice. If you have a manuscript to submit, send a short query letter to: info@hardballpress.com. In the subject line write “Manuscript Submission.”
In the body of the letter write a short summary of the work, along with your work experience and any previous publishing credits. If you have no prior publishing credits, we will be just as happy to consider your work.
Send the first 20 pages of the work as an attached Word document. Give us 2-3 weeks to review the work. We will send you our evaluation of the work and will let you know if we wish to read the entire manuscript.
If we offer you a book contract, you will find that we work very hard at promoting your work. We will send out review copies to editors and trade union activists; we will request reading and speaking opportunities for you; we will request radio interviews for you; and we will arrange a virtual book launch via video conferencing that can accommodate up to 1,000 simultaneous participants.
HBP authors receive a royalty based on 1/3 of the publisher's compensation (profit). The compensation varies among the various supply chains. A book sold at full price from our web site garners the highest profit, while a book that the wholesaler-printer (Ingram Spark) sells to a bookstore brings the lowest. Amazon sales fall in between wholesale and web sale profit margins. The author will also receive a 50% royalty on all E-book compensation. The author will be able to purchase copies of the book at a 40% discount off the list price, plus shipping & handling.