Aurora Metro Publications is an established independent publisher in London. They are run by Cheryl Robson and they now have over 300 titles in print. They have good distribution. They are made up of three imprints, Aurora Metro Books (fiction), Supernova Books (nonfiction), and Amber Lane Press (plays). This review will focus primarily on Aurora Metro, but all three imprints are currently open to submissions.
They publish primary fiction, including literary fiction, historical fiction, crime, mystery, and romance. They also publish novels for Young Adults which covers the 10-18 age range. You can see their young adult catalogue here, but please note that it also includes plays that have a similar target audience. Their general fiction section is here. Please spend some time with their catalog to see if your work would be a good potential fit.
They particularly focus on work in translation, particularly in terms of their YA list. For a well organized and professional website there were a number of broken links plus minor contradicting information. The covers, at least to me, were a little hit or miss.
They also run a yearly contest for women novelists, and reopen to submissions for it in January 2025, but we are not going into details about it because a fee is attached.
For fiction submissions they ask for a full synopsis, three chapters, contact details, an up to 200-word biographical note, as well as links to websites/social media profiles as well as other additional material as outlined on their website.
All submissions must be made via email. To learn more, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 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.
