Betty is an imprint of the award-winning WTAW Press dedicated to publishing books by women for everyone. Our innovative publishing model creates a partnership between authors and the publisher.
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Betty authors enjoy all of the benefits of WTAW’s traditional publishing program, wherein WTAW bears all the costs, including editing, design, marketing, distribution, and payment of author royalties. Betty authors profit from all of the hallmarks that have made WTAW a successful and respected publisher: the high quality of editorial care, attention to book design, dedicated marketing and publicity efforts. Authors benefit from the reputation WTAW has earned as an award-winning press dedicated to publishing and championing books of urgency, emotional resonance, and enduring significance.
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Authors form a partnership with Betty to contribute their time, talent, and skills in the publication of their books and the books of their fellow authors. This collaborative effort among authors resembles the operations of a publishing collective.
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Unlike publishing collectives, however, Betty first and foremost engages authors with a traditional publishing contract that pays royalties. Betty embraces the editorial process, bears all publishing expenses, and takes responsibility for book production and distribution, promotion and marketing.
Betty’s innovative publishing program takes the key advantages of a collective—the shared workload and support system among authors—and unites it with the key advantages of a traditional independent press. It allows authors more control over their publishing journey while benefiting from the collective wisdom and resources of the group.
The best of both worlds? We like to think so.
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Submission guidelines for Betty
At Betty, our mission is to publish books of prose by women for everyone. We aim to showcase the diversity of women’s voices. With an innovative publishing program, Betty seeks manuscripts from authors who are willing and able to commit to a three-year term of doing the shared work of running a small press under the guidance of our founding director.
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Betty strives to be a supportive and inclusive editorial community. We value excellent writing and seek collaborators with a diverse range of backgrounds and lived experiences. By submitting a manuscript, an author is expressing their interest in serving a three-year term participating directly in the development, publication, and promotion of books.
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Betty considers full-length prose manuscripts for publication during our open reading period, December 1— December 31. Entries are accepted only via Submittable. Our goal is to publish 2–3 books a year.
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Manuscripts should be full-length books of prose (novels, memoirs, narrative nonfiction, collections of stories or essays, hybrid prose) in English.
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Identifying information for the author must not be included anywhere on the manuscript, including on the name of the file or on the title field in the submission manager. Manuscripts containing identifying information in any way will be automatically disqualified and the entry fee forfeited.
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Please be sure manuscript pages are numbered.
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Please include a title page with a total word count.
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Please include a table of contents.
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Please use a standard, easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman in twelve-point size. Manuscripts must be double-spaced with at least 1 inch margins.
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All material must be the author’s own, original composition and free from copyright restrictions. We do not accept submissions generated by AI tools or language models.
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A manuscript in its entirety must be previously unpublished. It may contain some previously published portions, but it should contain a majority of new work.
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Any previous published material contained in the manuscript must be credited in the cover letter (see more about the letter below).
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Acknowledgements of any previously published material may not be included in the manuscript file. Manuscripts containing acknowledgments will be automatically disqualified.
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Authors may submit more than one manuscript as long as no material is duplicated between submissions. Each submission requires a separate entry fee.
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Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but the writer must agree to notify WTAW immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere for publication and to withdraw it from our submission manager.
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Submissions cannot be edited once they are submitted. Manuscripts selected for publication will go through an editing process with the editors.
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Cover letters must be entered into the appropriate field on the submission manager. They may not be included in the submission file itself. Submission files that contain a cover letter will be automatically disqualified.
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​Cover letters must include the following information:
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Author contact information (address, phone, email)
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The work’s title, genre, and word count
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List of credits for any previously published portions
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A brief synopsis of the work (short paragraph)
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A brief author biography with publishing history, if applicable, and that includes an author website address and social media handles
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Indication if the manuscript is submitted simultaneously and pledge to withdraw it if accepted elsewhere
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Where you heard about the open call for Betty submissions
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Any submission that doesn’t follow the guidelines will be disqualified and the submission fee forfeited.
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Submissions are accepted only via Submittable during the submission period. The submission fee is $28.
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Selection process
In the interest of transparency, we’d like to share our selection process. Our criteria in reviewing manuscripts is the quality of the work. In the first round, all manuscripts will be evaluated anonymously by at least two readers. If a reader recognizes the anonymous manuscript, that reader will recuse themselves from the review of that manuscript in the first round. Each reader will choose two manuscripts to advance to the second round. All readers will then read the manuscripts that have advanced to the second round, and each will choose their top two selections. Identities of the finalists are revealed to the readers at that point. From that group of finalists, we will make our selections.
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If we are interested in publishing your manuscript, we will invite you to a meeting to talk about how the group works and to answer your questions. The meeting is a chance for both you and the press to decide if our collaborative approach is right for you at this point in your writing life.
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Betty will respond to every submission it receives through the submission manager at the email address furnished with the submission. We will announce our decisions as soon as possible.
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