Submissions
General submissions closed until 2025.
For information on our call for short stories, visit Short Story Submissions.
What We Seek
Balance of Seven is seeking unique stories that bring something meaningful to the world. We seek stories that not only are good but draw the reader in and make them never want to leave.
We care deeply about what we release into the world. Submissions need to be well-crafted stories that have significant meaning to the author: a labor of love that will resonate with readers.
Our preferences tend to lean toward speculative fiction: stories that open imaginations to the “what-if” of a well-crafted world that feels alive and real. This includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, historical fiction, and magical realism. We are open to other fiction submissions as well, as long as they deliver a meaningful message.
We are dedicated to publishing new and emerging authors, as well as those with underrepresented voices.
Who We Seek
At Balance of Seven, we train up professionals and build relationships that empower our authors to advocate for their own and each other’s work, because ‘starving artist’ is not a label for which an author has to settle.
To that end, we are looking for aspiring authors who:
- Can work well with constructive feedback.
- Are cordial but professional.
- Will support the press’s mission of advocacy for minority and marginalized voices.
- Are driven to advocate for their own work as well as that of their authorial colleagues under the press’s auspices, in the interest of building community and growing the press’s reach.
- Understand that the process of marketing, advocacy, and things like library and bookstore outreach don’t end on publication day.
What We Are Not Looking For
- Heavy romance and erotica genres
- Fanfiction
- Excessive and pointless violence, sex, and swearing—content that pushes the envelope should be necessary to the plot
- First drafts that have not gone through rewrites/polishing
- Authors who are not open to critique and edits that are meant to help them and their story
Submission Guidelines
Send an email to: submissions (at) balanceofseven (dot) com
Mark the subject line: SUBMISSION: (title of your story)
Attach the following:
- Cover page
- Name
- Pen name
- Email address
- Book title
- Is it a single book, or will it be a series? If a series, how many books?
- Word count (for book and for submitted excerpt)
- Approximate genre
- Synopsis
- Synopsis of book
- Synopsis of series (if applicable)
- Beginning of manuscript up to 10,000 words
Format:
- 12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced
- Standard Manuscript Format (see https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html for example)
- Italics as italics (not underlined)
DO NOT copy/paste your file into an email as inline text. Attach your file to the email.
If a submission makes it through this round, we will ask for a full manuscript before making a final decision.
Authors should expect to hear back within 6–8 weeks of submitting their work.