Nourish is an imprint of Watkins Publishing, which was established in 1893. It is a UK based press with good distribution through Penguin Random House. Nourish focuses on publishing work related to “food and drink”, whereas Watkins as a whole focuses on ” mind, body & spirit”. Watkins Publishing is not currently open to submissions according to its separate submission guidelines page here, but Nourish is according to their submission guidelines.
Nourish primarily publishes cookbooks. Their cookbooks run the gamut from “The Witch’s Feast: A Kitchen Grimore”, to “The Thrifty Veggie” and “Modern Mediterranean”. They generally have excellent covers. They also publish a number of books that are more lifestyle focused where food and health still play a serious role. I encourage you to spend some time with their catalogue to figure out if your work is a good fit.
They ask that your query be about 10 pages and include the following:
- A short author biography. This will include:
– Your credentials for writing a book on this particular topic
– Details of any published or self-published books you have authored - Your proposal (1–2 pages max). This will outline:
– Your subject matter
– Your audience
– The main competition for the book
– The individual qualities of the book that will make it stand out in the market - A sample chapter or excerpt (10 pages max). If possible, please include a table of contents within your sample chapter.
Submissions must be in English and in 12-point type. They do not specify the font. All submissions must be made by email or post. They try and respond within 12 weeks.
It’s also important to note that they promote their “self publishing” imprint Swift Publishing at the end of their submissions page. This is actually a pay to play imprint, that I think belongs under the vanity umbrella. Self publishing under most definitions of the term is when an author uses a print on demand service and/or an eBook publisher like KDP or Ingram Spark to publish work they found editors for and cover artists for themselves.
Having a vanity imprint is becoming almost standard now, and as long as you are not re-directed from Nourish to Swift, after submitting, it is not a real issue. If you are re-directed, please send me an email at support@authorspublish.com.
To learn more, please visit their submission guidelines.
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.
