The door is not locked.
It is simply unmarked.

The press takes most of its books by referral — from authors it has published, from booksellers, from readers whose judgment it has learned to trust. This is not a closed shop. It is a small one, and it reads everything that arrives properly addressed.

If you were not referred, you may still knock. Queries may be sent to queries@bestkeptpress.com. A query is a short letter and the first chapter. That is all. The press replies to every serious query, usually within six weeks, and does not send form letters unless the letter itself has earned one.

What the press is looking for cannot be listed. It knows it when it reads it, and it has been wrong often enough to stay humble about the knowing.