Update April 28th 2024: They have closed their doors along with Polis Books. All that we know is shared in an update to the Polis Review.
Agora Books is a diversity-focused imprint of Polis Books, devoted to crime and noir fiction. In 2018, Publishers Weekly published this article about the initiative, and in 2019 Agora actively started publishing work. So far, even though they have only been active for a few years, they’ve published a fair number of books, and mostly by debut authors.
It can be hard initially to get a feel for what Agora publishes, as their books are not listed in a separate catalogue, or even listed separately directly on the website.
However on their submission guidelines page, they list a number of Agora authors, including Gabino Iglesias, Gary Phillips, Sung J. Woo, Johnny Shaw, and Andrea J. Johnson. You can see the complete listing at the bottom of their about page here. You can also learn more about the editor of the imprint, Chantelle Aimée Osman directly above the author listing on that page.
I really encourage you to spend time with the some of the books Agora has published before submitting. I’m not sure, based on the about page and submission guidelines, if you submit directly to Osman via the email she shares on the about page, or if you should submit through their general submission guidelines address which you can see here. You should certainly follow their submission guidelines when submitting to Osman. If you do submit through the general address make it clear that you are submitting to the Agora imprint in the query letter. The editors will not respond if not interested.
To learn more, go here and to review the details about Agora go here, and scroll down.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
