Submissions

Novel Proposals

1. If You Have a Literary Agent

Your agent should read the guidelines below, then send us an email via incoming[at]angryrobotbooks.com, or query us through our contact page.

We typically estimate 10 weeks to read and respond to a proposal; more if you’ve attached a full manuscript. All times are approximate, and depend upon our current workload, so we thank you for your patience.

See below for more about what we’re looking for.

 

2. Black Voices Matter Open Submissions

We are currently accepting un-agented submissions from Black authors. Please read this blog post for the full details.

 

3. If you DO NOT have a literary agent

 

We do not currently accept proposals from unagented authors. If you do not have an agent, we cannot accept a proposal from you.

The only time we relax this rule is during our Open Doors Submission period, when we accept unagented proposals. The dates during which we hold this vary from year-to-year, so please keep an eye on our website and our social media channels, where these dates will be announced with plenty of notice.

 

Angry Robot is absolutely committed to the publication of works by writers of all genders, ethnicities, colour, orientation, nationalities and religious beliefs. We make publishing decisions based on the quality and commercial viability of the works submitted to us for consideration, and not on the personal backgrounds of the authors.

 

What We’re Looking For

We currently only publish novels (think 70k+ words), whether standalone or as part of greater series. We are not looking to publish short works such as novellas, short stories, short story collections, poetry or plays, graphic novels, or non-fiction at this time.

All our books are “genre” fiction in one way or another – specifically science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We’re looking for all types of sub-genre, e.g. hard SF, space opera, cyberpunk, military SF, alternate future history, future crime, time travel, and more. We also have a particular love for ‘genrefluid’ SFF/H, which messes around with and mashes genres together.

We currently only publish books for adult audiences – that is books which feature adult themes, situations and “language”, usually with adult protagonists. We are not looking for any specifically junior, teenage or YA titles – the only exception is books which could be considered YA-crossover, at home in the SFF/Horror section of a bookstore as readily as in the YA section.

Although based in the UK, we publish internationally, with our titles being distributed worldwide by PenguinRandomHouse. The vast majority of our titles are published in all English-language territories, notably the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, and most of our sales come from the USA. This means that we generally expect to acquire World English Language rights for any title we publish, and will not be able to buy a book with US/UK/Commonwealth rights only, except in very rare cases. We also require eBook rights as standard, have a great Rights team who’ve secured translation deals for many of our titles, and produce audiobooks in-house.

If your work has already been published, even just as a self-published or ebook-only release, we cannot accept your proposal. We also do not contract any work-for-hire titles.

We offer advances and royalties appropriate for a medium-sized publisher of good standing.

Beyond all of this, what we’re really looking for in your writing is this:

A “voice”, which comes from…

 

  • Confident, capable writing that’s been properly polished
  • Pacy storytelling
  • Stories with a message
  • Characters that live, have a “voice”, have real relationships and emotions, even in extreme situations
  • A sense of vision, a rounded universe that lives and breathes
  • Clever construction, good plotting, a couple of surprises even for us jaded old read-it-alls
  • And often… a heightened experience – an intensity, extremity or just a way of treating plot or situation in a way we’ve not come across before.