Independent Publishers Guild

Our mission is to foster strong and distinct literary voices and those who experiment with narrative, plot, and structure. We are also a home for authors dabbling in the darker genres and liminal spaces. 

An independent publisher in Leeds, West Yorkshire (but founded in South London in 2020). We focus on books by new and emerging writers, alongside established authors. Our mission is to foster strong and distinct literary voices and those who experiment with narrative, plot and structure. We are also a home for authors dabbling in the darker genres and liminal spaces. We are proud members of the Independent Publishers Guild and the Indie Press Network.

Wild Hunt Books

Wild Hunt Books are seeking short stories for our upcoming anthology, Modern Decadent. The anthology embraces the fin de siècle literary and arts of the decadents, along with 19th century symbolism and aestheticism. We also welcome stories with a good dash of proto-Weird in the vein of Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen, Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Robert Chambers.

We encourage stories that subvert the expected and societal norms, embrace 'art for art’s sake' and toe the line of logic. We like stories that present people and situations that are not what they first seem. We would love to be unsettled. We want to know about secrets and decaying beauty; how society can rot from the inside. Realism is out and Decadence is in. 
Submissions should be between 1,500-5,000 words (we are not seeking poetry, flash fiction, scripts, novels or novellas). We are only open to stories written in English (no translations) and not previously published, including on personal websites and blogs. We are looking for single author contributions and are not seeking multi-author written stories. All stories must be original to the author and not penned by generative AI or similar. While we accept submissions from writers anywhere in the world, we prioritise those residing in the United Kingdom, regardless of nationality or citizenship. Please only send one story per writer. We will delete multiple submissions.

Submissions are open from 19th January and close on 1st February 2026.

Now open for short story submissions for the Modern Decadent anthology

We’re now open to unagented manuscripts from 12-26 October 2026, 18:00 GMT. It’s a fun time to read new manuscripts. At Wild Hunt Books, we are a literary publisher that is gripped by excellent writing and characters, and that tends to lean towards novels that dip into the dark and experimental.<div><br></div><div>The editor is looking for full-length novels between 50K-95K words. Please send your full manuscript formatted in 12-point, double-spaced Times New Roman font with page numbers in Word Doc only (we do not accept PDF, RTF, etc).</div><div><br></div><div>To get a sense of what the editor is looking for:</div><div><br></div><div>I consider authors from around the world, but I do prioritise authors living in the UK of any nationality or background writing in English. </div><div><br></div><div>I am seeking novels that speak to the heart of the company: Our mission is to foster strong and distinct literary voices and those who experiment with narrative, plot and structure. We are also a home for authors dabbling in the darker genres and liminal spaces.</div><div><br></div><div>I love books that have clear, engaging prose from the start, and don’t sacrifice on character or story. I’m looking for novels that are close to their characters and worlds. I also like a strong authorial voice. I tend to gravitate towards fiction rooted in reality even if it incorporates genre. While I’m not the perfect editor for pure genre, I do enjoy novels that play with genre and upend genre expectations or motifs.</div><div><br></div><div>Some of my favourite genres are literary mystery, magical realism, horror, Gothic, epistolary, folk horror and the literary weird. I really need a book to grab me from the first page (first line is even better!). I also really like to be surprised by a book, i.e., does the story or character spin in an unexpected way? I’m particularly taken with contemporary set books, but I will consider historical fiction, especially if it’s post-1850.</div>

Wild Hunt Books

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