CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Schaffner Press, Inc. was founded in 2001, and is independently owned and managed by former literary agent (Schaffner Agency) Timothy Schaffner. Over the past twenty-five years, the press has published over 80 titles of literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry that deal with themes of universal social concern and social change, such as health, the environment, issues of race, war, and other humanitarian issues.  In recent years, Schaffner Press has expanded its scope to include books in translation from the French and Spanish languages, and hopes to include voices from other parts of the world as well in the near future.

We publish between 6-8 books a year, and maintain a strong backlist of over 80 titles in print. We usually require 12-18 months lead time in which to publish an original title, so time-sensitive books, such as tie-ins to a movie release, historical event or anniversary, should be submitted well ahead of time.

Schaffner Press is distributed by Independent Publishers Group (IPG), who have been in business since 1971.

For submissions of works of fiction and non-fiction, please send a query to either Tim Schaffner (tim@schaffnerpress.com) or Sean Murphy (sean@schaffnerpress.com). While we both share similar interests, please do not query us simultaneously. Query Tim for non-fiction, journalistic, social activism, environmental, health/mental health, biography, history, current events, and personal memoir. And query Sean for mystery, humor, literary and short fiction, first fiction, and pop culture. Both Tim and Sean are looking for titles that will expound upon our original mission statement to publish “books of social relevance and universal concern.”

We are not taking submissions in children’s or YA categories, self-help, fitness, craft and diy how-to titles, political or religious screeds, erotica, and science fiction/fantasy.

Please note that due to high volume and the increasing number of AI generated queries, we are no longer able to respond to every submission.

A Word about Artificial Intelligence:

At Schaffner Press we celebrate the spirit of human connectiveness and creativity, in all its imperfect glory. As such, we are not interested in considering queries or publishing works that have been co-written, edited, translated, designed or otherwise assisted by the use of artificial intelligence. We are a traditional publisher committed to the words of humans and human intelligence in this rapidly changing technological landscape.