From the 1st November until midnight 20th December, we’re open to submissions of novellas and collected short fiction. We’re seeking literary and weird speculative fiction from writers in the North of England. Find out more about what we like reading here.
We’ll be open as long as we need to build our list of 2026-27 titles, so be sure to submit early to avoid disappointment.
There’s no fee to submit or to get your work published, and we accept both unagented and agented writers. If you have an agent, please ask them to submit on your behalf.
Our offer
If your work is chosen, we’ll publish your book in print and digital format.
We’ll go through a careful editorial journey with you to ensure the book is the best it can be. We will then typeset, design and print your book to be a beautiful product, and will market your book to readers and booksellers.
We’ll also offer you 15% royalties on recommended retail price (RRP) for print books and 25% for digital, ten free copies of the book, and a 50% author discount on further copies.
As a new micropress, we can’t guarantee your book will feature on the shelves of Waterstones or hit the bestseller list, but we can guarantee that it will be published with care and with real enthusiasm for your work. Our editor Nathaniel has eight years’ experience in both independent and mainstream publishing. He’s committed to championing excellent writers, and working with them in a fair, transparent way.
Guidelines
- We accept collected short fiction or novellas in speculative genres, of 15,000 to 40,000 words.
- If you send us a short fiction collection, it should be themed. That means the stories have a connecting thread to them. The stronger the theme, the better.
- You must live in the North of England. This includes Cheshire, Cumbria, County Durham, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Yorkshire.
- The manuscript doesn’t need to be complete, but it should be as close to a finished draft as possible. We’ll agree a deadline for the final version as part of our publishing agreement.
- Novella submissions must be previously unpublished.
- Submissions of collected short fiction can include stories that have been previously published, provided you have non-exclusive rights with the original publisher. The manuscript should, however, include at least 50% unpublished stories.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please contact us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
- We don’t accept writing that’s been created with any assistance from Generative AI (e.g. Chat GPT).
How to submit
- Submit to the editor, Nathaniel, at carnyx.press@gmail.com with Publication Enquiry in the subject line.
- In your email, provide a cover letter of no more than 500 words. This should outline the genre, theme, and plot of the manuscript; how long it is and whether or not you have a full draft; and a summary of your publication history. You can find guidance on how to write a cover letter here.
- Please also confirm that you live in the North of England and that you haven’t used Generative AI in the creation of the work.
- Submit the first three chapters or three stories from your work (or 10,000 words if preferred) as an attached Word file, PDF or similar (.doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf).
- Please format your work in a 12pt font, Times New Roman or similar, with double line spacing and tab indents for new paragraphs and speech. Ideally it should follow the format of Shunn Modern (but there’s no need include your address or phone number on the manuscript – just your email is fine!)
How we’ll get back to you
We’ll send a confirmation email within a week of you getting in touch, and aim to respond to submissions with an acceptance, decline, or request for further information, within two months. Please feel free to chase your submission if you haven’t heard from us.
We provide in-depth editorial feedback as a service on our Ko-Fi page, which helps support the running of our press and create further opportunities in the future.
How to make a stand-out application
All publishing decisions boil down to editorial taste, but you can improve your chances in the following ways.
- Read all the guidelines, and follow them carefully.
- Read our blog on how to write a cover letter.
- Check out what we like reading below to see if your work fits our taste (it may find a better home elsewhere!)
- Edit and proofread the stories/chapters you send to us carefully.
- First impressions are important. The more unique and striking your opening lines are, the more likely you are to catch our attention.
What we like reading
We’re interested in speculative fiction with a weird and literary edge. We want stories that are artfully composed, thematically haunting, inventive and daring. If you write refreshing folkloric and fantasy tales, beautiful and strange science fiction, atmospheric horror stories, contemplative dystopias, wondrous magical realism, or anything else fantastical, we want to read your words.
We’re also interested in writing that interrogates genre and the world around us from a marginalized perspective, including queer, working-class, and decolonial writing.
Books we’ve loved recently include Alien Clay, Ancillary Justice, Lost in the Garden, Mother Naked, Orbital, Piranesi, Sea of Tranquility, Smothermoss and This is How You Lose the Time War.
A sample of our favourite writers: J G Ballard, Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, Susanna Clarke, Lord Dunsany, Shirley Jackson, Ann Leckie, Ursula LeGuin, Stanisław Lem, Thomas Ligotti, Cixin Liu, Emily St John Mandel, Hope Mirrlees and Kurt Vonnegut.
Stories that involve superheroes or time travel are a hard sell, as is excessive violence. Please do not send us YA or children’s fiction, poetry, or work intended as the first part in a series.
Got another question? Check our FAQ page.
