Submissions

Thinking about submitting to Severn House? We’d love to hear from you, but we want to make sure first we’re the right fit for you and your book. These guidelines will give you an idea of the kind of submissions we’d most like to see.

Before submitting, we’d encourage you to familiarise yourself with the kinds of books we publish.

We’re a proud publisher of commercial and genre fiction: crime and mystery, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, sagas, and more! These are the books we love to hear about and are passionate about publishing.

We don’t publish nonfiction, graphic novels, children’s books, poetry, or ‘literary’ (i.e. non-genre) fiction. If your book fits into one of these categories, we’re not the right publisher for you.

If you have an agent, they’re the best person to reach out to us. Please ask them to contact us on your behalf at submissions@severnhouse.com

We do also accept submissions directly from established authors, but here’s a few things to know first:

• We don’t currently publish debut authors (sorry!)

• We’re mainly looking for previously published authors, with established sales records in the US and UK, particularly in the library market

We encourage submissions from a diverse array of voices, including LGBTQ+ authors, authors of colour, authors with disabilities, neurodivergent authors, authors from underrepresented cultures/socioeconomic backgrounds, and authors from any other marginalised community.

Please email submissions@severnhouse.com and include the following:

• A partial (minimum three chapters) or, if it’s complete, the full manuscript of your book (PDF or Word Doc format)

• A full but succinct synopsis of your story as an attachment

• Please use at least 1.5 spacing on the above items

• A pitch of your book and a brief author bio in the body of email (we want to know about you!)

• Information about your previously published works and who they were published with

Feel free to address your submission to the editor who you feel is a best fit for your submission (you can read more about our editors here) but if you’re unsure, you can simply address it to The Severn House Editorial Team.

You’ll receive an automated reply to let you know that your submission has been received and will shortly be allocated to one of our editors for assessment. We will endeavour to respond to your submission within 12 weeks of receipt.

We read all the emails and suitable submissions sent, and if we’re interested, someone from our Editorial team will get back to you. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of submissions we receive, we’re unable to respond to everyone with personalised feedback, but you will receive a response to let you know our decision.