Submissions

Two windows a year

We open twice a year and we read everything that arrives inside the window. Please read this page first; it is short, and it will save us both a season.

We accept unagented and agented work on identical terms and read both in the same pile. Nobody's manuscript is fast-tracked. We do not charge a reading fee and we never will.

Reading period	Opens	Closes	Decisions by
Winter window	1 January	31 January	Late April
Summer window	1 July	31 July	Late October

Anything arriving outside those dates is deleted unread, which sounds harsh and is in fact the only way three people can promise to read the ones that arrive inside them. Set a reminder; we will be here.

What we are looking for

We publish three forms and nothing else. Within them we are catholic and hard to shock.

Short fiction: novellas of 20,000–45,000 words, or a collection of stories
Essays: a book-length sequence with an argument, not a gathering of columns
Poetry: a full first or subsequent collection, 50–90 pages
Work in translation, where you can put us in touch with the rights holder
Books that would be diminished by being made longer
Writers who intend to publish more than one book in their life

What we are not looking for

Novels over 60,000 words. We cannot make them work at our scale, however good they are — and some of them have been very good.
Genre fiction, children’s books, memoir, self-help, business books, or poetry for anthologies.
Proposals for unwritten prose. Finish it first. We will still be here.
Manuscripts submitted to twelve presses in one email with everyone in the To: field.
Anything previously self-published in full, unless you tell us so up front, in which case we will still consider it.

How to send it

One email to submissions@manganpress.com. In the body: who you are in no more than 150 words, what the book is in no more than 150 more, and the word count. Attach the first 40 pages as a single PDF or .docx, double-spaced, page-numbered, with your name in the header. Poets: send 12 poems, not the whole collection.

Put the form and the title in the subject line — 'Essays: Ledger of Small Repairs' — and nothing else. No cover images, no mood boards, no links to a trailer.

Simultaneous submissions

Yes, absolutely, and please say so in the first line. We would much rather know we are in a race than find out in a bookshop. If another press offers for the book, email us and we will read it inside ten days or stand aside gracefully.

We ask only that you tell us when it goes, and that you do not withdraw a manuscript on the morning we send a contract, which has happened exactly once and which we have not entirely got over.

If we say no

We reply to every submission, including the ones we decline, and we aim to do it within three months of the window closing. About one in six gets a paragraph saying why; if we ask to see the full manuscript, that is a real signal, not politeness.

A no from us is a no about fit at a press that publishes eight books a year. It is not a verdict. We have declined books we later bought in hardback and read twice.

Who reads it

Submissions are read by Rae first, then by Ellen, then — for anything either of them wants to argue about — by Joss, who has never read a manuscript in his life without costing it out on the back of it.

There is no reader's report template and no scoring sheet. There is a chair by the window, a printed copy, and a pencil, and the honest question of whether we would still be thinking about the thing in March.

A reading chair beside a window — The chair by the window, where the pile is read.

The reading year in figures

2Windows a year
1,400Manuscripts read in 2025
3Months to a reply
4Of the last twelve were debuts

The window opens on 1 January. Until then, the best thing you can do is read three of our books and see whether you would like to be shelved beside them. See the catalogue · Ask a question