Fairlight Books is a publisher of literary fiction based in Oxford. They were founded in 2017 and started publishing in 2018.
The company is run by an ex-energy chief, Louise Boland. Their goal is to promote literary fiction, particularly by new authors, in the UK. You can learn a little bit more about that here.
On record, Boland has said, “As well as working with agents, we’re happy to continuously take submissions direct from authors, and we offer a nurture program for talented new writers, where we work with them on their manuscripts and help develop their writing ready for publication.”
Fairlight has a large, staff that now has around six years of experience. They also have good distribution within the UK and excellent covers. They do not disclose royalty rates.
Their authors have been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, and shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards, the Paul Torday Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.
As well as publishing manuscripts they also have a literary journal. At the time of writing this, their literary journal is open to submissions of short fiction.
They are currently open to submissions of literary novellas (between 25,000 and 50,000 words) and novels. They accept submissions via email and post, but prefer emailed submissions.
For both novel and novella submissions they ask that you submit the first 10,000 words along with a query letter and a synopsis. Make sure to review their specific guidelines before submitting.
They are open to previously self-published work, which is rare.
To learn more or to submit, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.
She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.
