Book*hug Press Submission Guidelines

Submissions Are Open

Book*hug Press is currently open for submissions of innovative literary fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. Our submission portal will remain open from January 15, 2025 until March 15, 2025. Following this, the portal will re-open again for submissions on October 15, 2025 until December 1, 2025.

We do not publish children’s books, cookbooks, scholarly or academic texts, self-help books, fantasy, thrillers, or crime fiction. We do not accept submissions that use any AI generated text or content.

If you would like to submit to Book* hug Press, please take the time to carefully read our submission guidelines. Please familiarize yourself with our press and the types of books we publish (as well as the types of books we don’t publish). Please browse our complete catalogue for more information. We also highly encourage you to read a few of our books to have an even better sense of our list.

Please note we are currently acquiring books for publication in 2027 and beyond. Our publication schedule is full until that time. We receive hundreds of submissions yearly and publish only 16-18 books a year.

About Book*hug Press

Book*hug Press is a traditional Canadian independent literary publisher working at the forefront of contemporary book culture. We are known for publishing bold, dynamic, and inventive literary fiction, literature in translation, poetry, and select narrative nonfiction. We welcome and encourage submissions from writers at all career stages whose work meaningfully contributes to and reflects contemporary culture and society.

Book*hug Press is deeply committed to building an equitable and inclusive publishing landscape by championing culturally diverse voices and producing born-accessible editions of our titles. To this end, we strive to ensure our catalogue reflects a diverse, inclusive, and just society. We prioritize submissions from equity-deserving writers marginalized by attitudinal, historical, social, and environmental barriers based on race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, economic status, age, gender, and sexual orientation. These equity-deserving groups include but are not limited to women, Indigenous writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, racialized writers, and writers of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

What We Are Looking For

We seek to acquire innovative literary books that thoughtfully engage with contemporary cultural and social issues. We are most excited by writing that challenges and pushes the boundaries of cultural expectations and conventions, work that offers new ideas and perspectives. We love formally innovative writing that takes risks and plays with form and style, but we are not interested in experimentation for the sake of experimentation. We also love hybrid, entre-genre writing. Above all else, we value the quality and craft of the writing.

What to Send Us

For Fiction Submissions

For fiction submissions, please send your complete manuscript and an introductory letter to you and the project you are submitting. Include a detailed synopsis of the work, a comparison to two or three Book*hug Press fiction titles, an explanation of how your book would fit our list, a short author bio, and a list of publications, if you have one. Please package all required materials for your submission into one file (Word or PDF). Please do not submit links to Google Docs or Google Drive.

For Poetry Submissions

For poetry submissions, please send your complete manuscript and an introductory letter to you and the project you are submitting. Include a detailed synopsis of the work, a comparison to two or three Book*hug Press poetry titles, an explanation of how your book would fit our list, a short author bio, and a list of publications, if you have one. Please package all required materials for your submission into one file (Word or PDF). Please do not submit links to Google Docs or Google Drive.

For Nonfiction Submissions

For nonfiction submissions, please send either your complete manuscript or, if unavailable, a full proposal and outline of the project along with a sample of the work (ideally 3-5 chapters). Please also send an introductory letter to you and the project you are submitting. Include a detailed synopsis of the work, a comparison to two or three Book*hug Press nonfiction titles, an explanation of how your book would fit our list, a short author bio, and a list of publications, if you have one. Please package all required materials for your submission into onefile (Word or PDF). Please do not submit links to Google Docs or Google Drive.

Formatting Your Submission

We only accept digital submissions and only through our online Submission Portal. Please do not mail a hard copy of your manuscript to us or send it to any of our team members by email.

Ensure that your manuscript is double-spaced and includes pagination for fiction and nonfiction submissions. Double spacing is not necessary for poetry submissions, but pagination is. Table of contents are encouraged, if available.

Package all required materials for your submission into one file (Word or PDF). Please do not submit links to Google Docs or Google Drive. Ensure that your name, email address, and address email are included with your package.

Name the file following this naming convention:

Full Name_Title of Manuscript_Genre_Submission Date.

Submit your single-file submission using the Book*hug Press Submission Portal (click here)

Additional Important Information

• Please send your manuscript only once. Revised and updated versions will not be read, so ensure you’re happy with your text before sending.
• Let us know in your introductory letter if your work is a simultaneous submission (meaning that you have submitted to other publishers at the same time). If your manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere, please notify us promptly so we can remove your submission from the portal. This courtesy saves everyone a lot of time.
• Owing to the sheer volume of submissions we receive, we will not accept more than one manuscript at a time from one author.
• We are a small team with limited human resources. We receive several hundred manuscripts for consideration each year. As such, our reading piles are very high. We carefully select between 16-18 books each year for publication. While we do our best to respond to your submission as quickly as we can, it may take us up to six months or more to review and respond to your submission. We appreciate your patience. Please do not call or email to check on the status of your submission. We will answer you as soon as we can.