Nyx Publishing has now closed for submissions. Please check back later.
Previous call for submissions: Witches
What we’re looking for
Nyx Publishing is looking to acquire novellas and novels featuring witchcraft, to be published in autumn/winter 2020.
To be more specific, we’re looking for completed works between 15,000 and 100,000 words. Your novella or novel can be part of a series, but it must provide a satisfying reading experience on itself. The work must be unpublished – this means it cannot have been previously published in any form, including digitally (Wattpad, Patreon, etc). We don’t mind if you have shared a sample of your story online before, but this cannot consist of more than 20% of the total word count of the work.
What kind of witches?
This is a broad call for anything witchy or magical. We accept both adult and new adult categories – a coming-of-age story is also acceptable if the intended audience is adult. Perhaps the supernatural elements of your story are quite subtle, like magic realism, or perhaps you have created a full-blown fantasy world. We’re interested in stories that are gothic, comic, paranormal, romance, historical, urban-fantasy, classic fantasy, or a mix of several. The only requirement is that they feature witches in some shape or form.
While we use the word ‘witch’ here as a category, this is intended in a broad sense. It includes Wicca, pagan beliefs, Kulam, Obeah, and all of the other hundreds of folklores around the world. Whether your writing is inspired by the Navajo skin-walker legend or Japanese mythology, we’d love to read your story!*
Do you accept queer content?
Yes.
Very much yes.
Our first publication is called Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology. We would absolutely love to publish more (trans-inclusive) queer fiction.
We also welcome stories with neurodiverse and disabled characters.**
What about erotic content?
On-page sex is fine as long as it serves the story. We are not looking for erotica or erotic romance at the moment, however.
The fine print
- Nyx Publishing is pursuing world-wide publishing rights in English for a limited time, for print, digital, and audiobook.
- The contract is negotiable. A novella will generally get a fixed payment offer, while a novel gets offered a competitive royalty rate. If your preference is otherwise, this is open for discussion.
- Multiple submissions are acceptable. If your book is part of a series, please only send us the first book and mention the number of other instalments, and whether they have been completed.
- Your country of residence does not matter to us – as long as we can find a way to pay you.
- We try to give at least a couple of lines of individual feedback on every submission, but depending on the volume of submissions, this might not be possible.
- Let us know if you are submitting elsewhere, and if you have been offered a contract.
- We reserve the right to close this call for submissions at any point in time.
How to submit
To submit your story for consideration, please send your manuscript in .doc or .docx format to submissions[at]nyxpublishing.com, with the subject line SUBMISSION and the title of your manuscript. You can address the email to Celine (no need to be formal). Add your manuscript in .doc or .docx format as an attachment. We prefer a clean 12pt font like Times New Roman or Arial. If you want to save us some time, please only include the title of your story in the document (and no other personal information like your name and address), and use proper indenting (no tabs).
Please include a short summary of your story in the body of your email. You don’t have to overthink it, as we assess stories by themselves. A cover letter is unnecessary. You should receive a confirmation that we have received your manuscript within a week – if not, please do send it again or give us a nudge. Everyone who submits will be informed of the outcome in July.
If you have any questions about submitting a story, please direct those questions to submissions[at]nyxpublishing.com as well.
Caveats
* If you’re writing about a culture you are not intimately familiar with or are a part of yourself, please ask yourself if you are the right person to write this story.
** Again, ask yourself if you are the right person to write about neurodiversity or disability. We’re looking for actual representation, not stories where someone’s disability is cured through magical means.