Author & Translator Submissions

STOP ON UNAGENTED SUBMISSIONS EXCEPT FROM TRANSLATORS

Due to being understaffed in a challenging climate for literary fiction publishing, we’re sorry that we cannot for the foreseeable return to accepting unsolicited manuscripts direct from authors. Agented submissions can be sent to our editors as per usual. We are sorry to say it, but recommend you don’t wait for us to re-open. Whenever we re-open, we will update this page and the following guidelines will apply to unsolicited submissions. In the meantime, they apply to translators who wish to send unsolicited submissions of other authors’ work:

About submissions

We welcome unsolicited submissions from authors and translators.

Writers who write in English: you can be previously published or not. Writers in other languages: please approach us if you are published and have achieved recognition in your own language. Translators: we generally only consider books for which we could acquire world rights; the above guidelines for writers in other languages also apply.

For a statement of our book selection criteria, read our ‘11 Commandments’. Before submitting, we ask you to please familiarise yourself with the books we publish. Do sign up to our newsletter – and why not subscribe too? You’ll get first edition copies early, be thanked by name in the books, and can take part in our publishing choices in many ways.

Reading submissions is a weekend task for us. The week is taken up producing books and promoting them. To show your interest in and knowledge of our work, we would kindly ask that if you send an unsolicited submission, you include a receipt to prove the purchase of one of our books or let us know you’re a subscriber. (We’d particularly love it if you buy from one of the independent bookshops who support us so passionately too. Even if you don’t live near one, many have online shops.) If you have borrowed our books from your local library and read them that way, that’s fine too – please let us know by enclosing a photo or screenshot of your library record.

How to submit

We accept paper submissions only and answer most by letter. Please send submissions to: