For years I’ve watched my wife invest in her passion - writing. She wrote as a young girl. She wrote in high school. She majored in creative writing in college. Every day that I have known her (many, many years at this point), she has written. It’s what she was made to do.

But that’s where the warm and fuzzy side of writing stops. The publishing industry is brutal. I watched my wife (an artist - not a salesperson or marketer) diligently research publishers that could be a fit for her work. Nearly all of those thoughtful submissions were never even acknowledged. Those that did acknowledge simply gave templated responses. Since many publishers required an author to have an agent, she pursued that route. She poured over countless literary agent profiles - adjusting and re-adjusting her queries to fit the personal preferences of each agent. Again, nearly all were ignored entirely with only a few sending anything resembling a personal review of her work.  

As time progressed, the values of the publishers and agencies were less and less aligned with my wife’s goal: to write wholesome and humorous stories for teens. It seemed that before she could even submit, she was ruled out on the basis of her topic (not trendy or cutting edge) or demographics out of her control. 

At some point it hit us: “We can’t be the only ones that feel this way.” Like so many other arenas of modern culture, the relative few are controlling what the masses get to consume. If you are a teen looking for a fun book to lose yourself in, without agenda or cultural indoctrination, your choices are very limited. We started New Hill Press to play a small role in addressing that gap. It is our dream that authors will be able to find their audience without having to bow to the publishing industry’s gatekeepers.