Updated March 23rd: Candlemark & Gleam updated their website to say “Important note about submissions: as of March 23, 2023, Candlemark & Gleam is closed to submissions by authors not already published by the press or not accompanied by a recommendation from a trusted colleague. This has come about because there are many amazing works in the queue, but also due to the problems created by ChatGPT. We’ll announce when we’re open again to unsolicited submissions by authors new to us. We realize that this creates a terrible situation for new writers, and will be looking for longer-term solutions.”
Candlemark & Gleam is a publisher of speculative fiction novellas, novelettes, and novels as well as linked short story collections. They are open to publishing “Cross-genre/interstitial and SF/F hybrid works” but have a preference for “ones with mythic/historical echoes”. They are only interested in publishing work aimed at adults and are not a good fit for traditional horror, unmodified steampunk or anything with a lot of explicit erotica. They link to this anthology as a good way to get a feel for what they are most interested in publishing. They only publish a few books a year, so please spend some time with their catalogue to determine if they are a good fit, before submitting.
They are distributed by Ingram, which is not ideal. Their covers are generally excellent, and some of their books have received a lot of attention, which is good for a small press.
There is one issue in their past of note, which is that in 2014-2015, they apparently ceased communication with an author who had signed a contract with them, and whose book was at the last stages of production, you can read the details of this here, if you scroll down to the post by Gayleen Froese. The editor at the time of the incident, Kate Sullivan, the founding editor of the press, stepped down shortly after, but she is still the lead designer, and listed on the website as such. Athena Andread is is the current editor, and you can learn about her, and the rest of their staff here. Obviously a long time has passed since 2015, and there have been no reports of this nature since then, that I know of, but I think it’s very important to approach a publisher knowing as much as possible.
Other authors have published more than one book with them, which is generally a good sign.
You can learn more about their submission guidelines here. Please follow them carefully before submitting. All submissions must be made electronically.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
