Submissions
Annual Submissions Window
We will not be opening for submissions again in 2024, due both to the volume of work we’ve received and read this year for the Prototype Prize, and to the very restricted scale of our publishing schedule.
We are very sorry to not be able to open for our usual August submissions period, and cannot accept unsolicited submissions at this time, as we simply don’t have the capacity to read and respond to them.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted their work last year. We were overwhelmed by the number we received. We are still working our way through each submission, and everyone will receive a response via Submittable. If you have not heard from us yet, your manuscript is still under consideration. We will not be able to offer individual feedback, but please be assured that every submission will be read and discussed, and given proper consideration.
Please read our guidelines below if you are interested in submitting to future submissions windows:
We are interested in a wide range of work and encourage proposals which resist easy definition or categorisation. We want to publish writing that is courageous, original, demanding and inquisitive. The best way to get a sense of the varied work we publish is to look at our back catalogue, and to read some of our books if you can.
Submissions are open to all, regardless of age, gender, race, religion and background, and we are particularly keen to hear from writers in groups that have been historically underrepresented in literary publishing.
We will ask for a covering letter, which should give a brief synopsis of the work and explain why you think it’s the right fit for us, along with a full manuscript.
We prefer all submissions to be uploaded via our online Submittable portal, a link to which will appear below when submissions are open.
If you have any questions or accessibility issues, please write to us at admin[at]prototypepublishing.co.uk.
Prototype Anthology
We will not have an open call for submissions to the next issue of our annual anthology, PROTOTYPE 6 (2024). The anthology will instead comprise of work selected from submissions to our development programme and prize, in order to make our workload manageable. We apologise for any disappointment caused by this change from our normal submissions process, and will resume open submissions in 2025 for issue 7.
