Are you an aspiring novella writer looking for a publisher?
Then we understand your frustration.
Publishers which accept unsolicited manuscripts are hard to come by. Furthermore, not all of them also accept novellas, if their business model focuses on other types of writing.
To help you out, we’ve put together this list of 18 top publishers seeking novellas and which are open to receiving unsolicited manuscripts.
Far from being out of fashion, the genre is actually making a comeback! So, if you wrote a novella, or plan to write one soon, don’t lose hope. There are plenty of novella book publishers looking for new short novels to publish.
Keep in mind that a novella usually has an upper limit of 50,000 words. Anything above that limit is considered by publishing houses to be a novel.
Continue reading to learn about the novella publishers currently seeking submissions!
1. Avon Romance
As their name implies, this publishing house specializes in romance fiction of all types and lengths.
Year founded: 1941
Home city: New York
Famous authors published: Katharine Ashe, Jill Shavis and other top-shelf romance authors.
Submission guidelines: You can read more about their rules for submissions here. As a heads-up, they are relaxed in regards to formatting and they give you an answer either way in a maximum of 6 months.
Types of novellas they are looking for: romance.
2. World Castle Publishing
They are a relatively new publishing house, but already made a name for themselves in the genre of novellas and mass market fiction books.
Year founded: 2011
Home city: Pensacola, Florida
Submission guidelines: They are very friendly and accept submissions electronically, on a wide variety of topics. They don’t charge their authors and pay them should the manuscript get published. You can send the manuscript as an attachment from the first email, as long as you also give a synopsis and your query in the email body. More details here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: All kinds except adult-themed.
3. Reagent Press
An established publisher of comic books, picture books and everything fantasy, for both kids and grown-ups, Reagent Press has delighted readers across the country.
Year founded: 1994
Home city: East Olympia, Washington
Famous books published: The Magic Lands novellas, Bugville Critters, Elves of the Reaches.
Submission guidelines: You can find out everything about the submission process on their home page. Note that submissions are to be sent physically to their P.O. box and an answer should arrive within 2-6 months.
Types of novellas they are looking for: children’s, teen, and adult fiction (but no YA). They take special interest in fantasy books.
4. Albert Whitman and Company
This publishing house was first established as a haven for grown-up literature, but recently it has expanded to include children’s and young adult books as well. They publish both novels and novellas, or series of novellas.
Year founded: 1919
Home city: Park Ridge, Illinois
Famous books published: The Boxcar Children Mysteries.
Submission guidelines: You can submit your work for consideration electronically. Read more here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: middle grade and young adult, in particular.
5. Curiosity Quills
This publisher specializes in dark sci-fi, horror, romance and women’s lit, speculative fiction and cliff-hangers, as well as historical fiction and magical realism. Their collection of books is very interesting and original, which is exactly what the publisher’s mission aims for.
Year founded: 2011
Home city: Reston, Virginia
Famous authors published: Melissa McShane, Samantha Bryant, Robert Chanski
Submission guidelines: You need to fill out a short form in order to submit your work. Do note that the publishing house is very transparent with their system of sharing royalties and all sorts of details usually withheld by other publishers. Read more here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Young adult, or novellas longer than 50,000 words for new adult and adult types. They generally prefer novels but will consider novellas if they are created with serialization in mind.
6. Entangled Teen
This publishing house is an imprint of the Entangled Press company, designed for teenagers and young adults.
Year founded: 2011
Home city: Fort Collins, Colorado
Famous authors published: Chris Conan, Alice Reeds, Lindsey Duga, Jennifer Probst
Submission guidelines: Everything should be submitted electronically, according to their guidelines here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Contemporary, historical, younger and upper YA, romantic thrillers etc. Novels, novellas and easy-to-reads books that will appeal to a broader audience.
7. Entangled Publishing
If you’re not writing novellas for young adults in particular, then you should try submitting your work to the parent company, Entangled Publishing. They reunite under their roof 11 other imprints focusing on other types of fiction. Most of them include romance at least as a sub-plot.
Year founded: 2011
Home city: Fort Collins, Colorado
Famous authors published: Pintip Dunn
Submission guidelines: Manuscripts between 20 and 60K words can be sent electronically, according to their submission guidelines here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: sweet romance, erotic romance, historical and contemporary, paranormal and sci-fi romance etc.
8. Persea Books
This is a prestigious publishing house, for literary novels, and short stories (including novellas). They tend to focus on more serious subjects, though, and do not accept genre fiction like romance, sci-fi and so on. They do accept literary manuscripts for a YA audience, though.
Year founded: 1975
Home city: New York
Famous authors published: Earl Lovelace, Marie Howe
Submission guidelines: You can send your manuscript either through USPS or via email. It may take up to 5 months for you to get an answer, though, and they will only reply if interested. More details here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Any non-genre literature and especially contemporary issues like feminism, minority rights etc.
9. Black Bed Sheet Books
Masters of horror fiction, Black Bed Sheet Books are relatively new on the market, but already very popular. If you’re considering writing a horror, dark or sci-fi novella, they should be your first choice.
Year founded: 2008
Home city: Antelope, California
Famous authors published: Charles Day, Amity Green
Submission guidelines: They accept submissions via email and will respond in about 6 months. Detailed guidelines here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Horror, sci-fi, urban fantasy.
10. Urban Farmhouse Press
They focus on literary fiction (including novellas) and poetry, hailing from Midwestern themes but not limited to them.
Year founded: 2013
Home city: Windsor, Ontario, Canada AND Detroit, USA. Initially founded in Indiana, USA.
Famous authors published: Caleb Tankersley
Submission guidelines: They receive all submissions via mail and perceive a small editorial fee. More details here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: science fiction, literary, contemporary, and any theme as long as it’s driven by original thought.
11. Nouvella Books
Established as a publisher with a mission of helping new authors emerge, Novella books features a sort-of crowdfunding system for supporting the career of new authors. Since its founding, it has grown to receive awards and become very popular. Therefore, since 2014 it started publishing established authors as well, but kept its focus on new writers too.
Year founded: 2011
Famous authors published: Matthew Salesses, Daniel Torday
Submission guidelines: All inquiries and submissions are sent electronically. They are OK with simultaneous submissions as well. You can read more about their guidelines here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Literary short stories and novellas, on any topic, but preferably not niched (romance, sci-fi etc.).
12. Grinning Skull Publishing
A relatively new publishing company focusing on horror topics, they accept both novels and novellas.
Year founded: 2012
Home city: Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Famous authors published: Tom Deady, Neil Davies
Submission guidelines: Novellas should be between 20 and 50 K. Follow the formatting guidelines they offer here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: All horror, adult and YA, but especially horror about creatures.
13. Left Hand Publishers
A new publishing company, LHP have so far published YA, horror and fantasy, along with classic literature novels and stories.
Year founded: 2017
Home city: North Carolina (soon to move to Florida)
Submission guidelines: You can submit novels and novellas directly via the form on the website, but make sure you read the terms and conditions first.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Being a new publishing house, they are not picky about their themes.
14. Carina Press
Carina Press is a publisher under the Harlequin umbrella. Traditionally, they are a publisher of romance books, but they started accepting sci-fi, fantasy, young adult and so on. They also mention that they are open to mixing it up and thinking outside the regular borders between genres.
Year founded: 2010
Home city: Toronto, Canada (but holds offices in 15 countries now)
Famous authors published: Rhenna Morgan
Submission guidelines: You are supposed to send an inquiry first, but they will reply to it in 3 days. Then, you should follow up with the full submission. Make sure you read their guidelines first.
Types of novellas they are looking for: romance, sci-fi, fantasy, historical, contemporary, erotic.
15. Forever and Forever Yours
An imprint of Grand Central Publishing (founded in 1970), this label focuses on romance, thriller and romantic suspense books and novellas.
Year founded: 2003
Home city: New York
Famous authors published: Lauren Layne, Jessica Sorensen
Submission guidelines: You need to send a completed manuscript via email, but make sure you read their guidelines.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Romance and romantic suspense. They are not currently accepting YA or general fiction. They do favor military themes in their romance fictions, of you want to keep that in mind.
16. Holland Park Press
Based in UK, this publishing house accepts novels, novellas and short stories. They are not committed to genres and will review any interesting work, which the author thinks has something to say. Initially, they specialized in bringing Dutch authors to the English-speaking public, but they have since expanded their range of authors to all nationalities.
Year founded: 2009
Home city: London
Famous authors published: Louis Couperus, Marilyn Hacker
Submission guidelines: Submissions can be sent electronically. More info here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: not looking for a specific type.
17. Quattro Books
It’s the most important publishing house in Canada for novellas and short stories. They tend to publish mostly Canadian authors but are open to submissions from authors in other countries, too.
Year founded: 2006
Home city: Toronto, Canada
Famous authors published: George Fetherling, Sky Gilbert, Binnie Brennan and many other award-winning authors.
Submission guidelines: You need to send out printed copies of your manuscript, according to the guidelines here.
Types of novellas they are looking for: No types; all novellas and short stories are welcome, especially if they don’t belong to a particular type.
18. Quirk Books
A new but already famous publishing house, that managed to get its authors into the spotlight repeatedly, Quirk Books is definitely a publisher you should contact.
Year founded: 2002
Home city: Philadelphia
Famous books published: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Last Policeman.
Submission guidelines: Read their guidelines here and choose one of their editors to submit the query or full manuscript to.
Types of novellas they are looking for: Open to all fiction works of all genres, if they have something witty and quirky about them.
As the books that people read tend to get shorter, novellas as a genre are becoming more and more popular, again. Any of the above publishers would make a great place to start your writing career. Choose a publisher you resonate with and don’t hesitate to send them some of your work. Good luck!
Are you aware of any other publishers seeking novellas? Please tell us about them in the comments box below!
…….
Author bio: Miriam Cihodariu is a former academic scholar in anthropology and social sciences, then turned digital marketer and storyteller. She currently serves as the editor of the BookYogaRetreats.com blog. A lifetime ago, in high-school, she published poetry and theater books, to enthusiastic local acclaim. She plans to pick up writing again in the near future and she’s currently working on a short story collection.