Cipher Press + ACE
Back in September we were ecstatic to hear we’d been awarded funding from Arts Council England. It’s been a shit year, and the news was a real boost. It means we can grow Cipher Press much faster than we would have been able to otherwise, and that we can throw all our efforts into finding and publishing new queer authors from the UK.
When we launched Cipher we did so with a clear mission: to publish books by the queer authors we feel are missing from bookshelves. To make space in traditional publishing for overlooked LGBTQIA+ voices and identities. We want to publish the radical, weird, important, brilliant, and bold writing that we feel best reflects how diverse and glorious the queer community is. That’s what our Arts Council funding is for – in January 2021 we’ll be opening up our submissions window specifically to trans writers, queer writers of colour, and queer working-class writers who are based in the UK.
It’s really important to us that our submissions opportunity reaches as many writers as possible, and we’re grateful to have some incredible partners onboard to help us achieve that, including Spread the Word, The Literary Consultancy, For Books’ Sake, Clav Mag, and Gay’s the Word. In January we’ll be announcing the submissions window officially across all our socials and on our website, and we’ll be talking about it to anyone who will listen. Our partners have kindly agreed to do the same and, if you’re a fan of excellent books, indie publishing, and queer literature, you can help us too!
In January we’ll post the full submissions guidelines, but in the meantime, we wanted to give both writers and readers a sneaky heads-up…
For writers…
If you identify as trans or gender non-conforming, are a queer writer of colour, or a queer working-class writer in the UK, we’d love to read your work.
We publish adult fiction and creative non-fiction – see what we’ve published so far and have a look at our social media and website to get an idea of the kind of stuff we like. We’re pretty open to anything, so long as it’s queer and fits somewhere within the literary bracket.
We’d really like to open this submissions opportunity to as many people as possible so we’re happy to read unfinished manuscripts, as long as you have written a substantial amount and have a clear view of the direction it will take.
We’re opening submissions to both agented and unagented authors but are especially keen to hear from the latter. We want the submissions process to be as accessible as possible so we’re here for any questions you might have. Please do get in touch via the Contact Us page on our website.
For readers…
We want to work hard to find new writers throughout the next couple of years, rather than expecting them to find us. We want to reach underserved communities and writers who feel excluded from the mainstream publishing world. Our amazing partners have signed up to help us spread the word, but we’d love it if you could too!
If you have a friend, or a friend of a friend, or know someone who knows someone, or have any links to relevant LGBTQI+ community groups, writing groups, queer discos, or anything else, we’d love it if you could share our posts, get in touch, or talk to us. Help us find the best new queer writers in the UK and we’ll show our thanks by publishing their books!
More on this soon… in the meantime do sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or get in touch via the contact us page on our site.
Thanks!
Cipher Press