UPDATED 2016: No longer open to submissions by non Australian authors.
Black Inc. Books is a respected independent publisher based out of Australia. Their books are distributed through Penguin Australia. Even though they are based in Australia, they publish authors from all over the world.
They publish primarily non-fiction and fiction. They publish poetry and have published many books by the famous Australian poet Les Murray, but they are not open to unsolicited poetry submissions.
They have published many well known authors from a wide variety of backgrounds including Diablo Cody, Hamish McDonald, Diane Keaton, and Raj Patel.
The fiction they publish ranges from serious literature to chick lit. The non-fiction includes memoir and research based work. It is good to look through their catalog, particularly their recent and forthcoming publications to get a feeling for what they are looking for.
You must submit to them via email. Submit a short (no more than 1,000 word) synopsis of your work, a total word count for your manuscript, a list of previous publications if you have any (this is where literary journals can be very helpful), any relevant information about yourself. All that can be in the body of the email. It can be in the format of a query letter.
Attached the completed manuscript as a word document. If you are a non-fiction writer whose work is not complete, send a proposed chapter outline and a sample chapter. They try to respond to all submissions within 3 months.
To learn more about Black Inc. Books visit their website here. To learn more about their submission process visit their guidelines here.
