Tuesday 21 August 2007

UK Publishing House guidelines




These are the UK Publishing Houses submission Guidelines that I could find online. Check the Artists and Writers Yearbook for more comprehensive and up to date information. If I'm missing any obvious ones, let me know.

There are probably about 40 imprints, give or take, that carry enough prestige to get books into bookshops. Each imprint has a number of editors, but it is unlikely that any imprint will allow publication of a book without the say-so of the senior editor. This means that in the UK, book publishing is controlled by about forty people. Maybe fewer as companies merge.

Avalon Books publish 60 books a year. Secular romances, mysteries, and westerns for the library market. Query letter, synopsis and first 3 chapters.

Bloomsbury have a great writers' place. Adults only, not childrens. Synopsis and two sample chapters.

Canongate books a small independent is no longer accepting unsolicited manuscripts.

Faber & Faber are no longer accepting unsolicited manuscripts except for poetry.

HarperCollins does not accept unsolicited submissions except for Avon Romance. Query by email first. Brief no more than two pages and no attachments.

Hodder Headline UK are. See their guidlines. Short synopsis and first 100 pages

Hodder & Stoughton no longer accept non-agented submissions.

Harlequin Mills & Boon can be worthwhile if you write what it takes. They publish something like 50 books a month but get 6,000 submissions and take on only 10-12 authors a year. 3 chapters and a synopsis.

Pan MacMillan (also Picador) do not accept unagented manuscripts except for MacMillan New Writing. I have my doubts about the advisability of using this service. It's so close to self publishing and the marketing and editing put in by the company seem to be minimal. They get 100 submissions a week and aim to publish one or two a month.

Penguin UK don't accept unagented manuscripts.

Piatkus Press a UK independent accepts unsolicited manuscripts. 3 chapters and a synopsis.

Random House UK accept unsolicited manuscripts by imprint so do your research. Also own Transworld. Synopsis and sample chapter.

Serpent's Tail are an independent publisher dedicated to publishing away from the mainstream. They publish my sister so they're OK in my book. They only accept submissions from agents now.

Tindal Street Press are a West Midlands publisher. They publish 6 adult fiction titles a year. 3 chapters and a synopsis.

3 comments:

laura_86 said...

At the risk of sounding incredibly thick, what do you mean by an imprint?

Emerging Writer said...

Hi Laura

It's just a bucket. A publisher, e.g. Edward Ltd, will, for example, publish all serious literary stuff under one imprint called Edwin Press, another for frothy girly books Edwina Press, hard hitting on-fiction Edvard Press and kids book Teddy Press but they're all untimately Edward Ltd.

Unknown said...

hi, l am from abroad, trying to find some good publishing houses for serious cooperation. l used to illustrate magazines and newspapers. are there any companies which could give me an opportunity? there's no information in internet.