Bitten Fruit Books is Open to Queries

If and when working with authors, our goal is to give a voice to unusual, less mainstream work within genre fiction, especially for first-time authors. We want to help you get off the ground and be able to say you are a published author.

We are a micro-publisher based in the United Kingdom – we are small, niche, and a family-run business and we don't pretend to be anything other than that. We only work with one author at a time, which can mean only publishing one new author a year. This means we will only open submissions for the right author(s).

Query Guidelines

We are currently accepting query letters only. Your letter should include your author details, your book's working title and blurb, a hook, and a synopsis.

Please do not send any excerpts or your manuscript at this stage – just the above. If we're reeled in by the info you send, we may then ask you for a few chapters.

Please do not consider "rejections" to be an indicator your book is not good enough. There are several factors to consider from a publisher's perspective, including current genre compatibility and marketability, the publisher's own roadmap, and so on. In fact, the book itself is a small part of the publisher's business – what we feel we can do with it, with the tools we have, is much more important. It may have excellent narrative and grammar, but if we do not feel we can take it forward, it does not matter how good it is.

What we are looking for: stories that are character-driven and told in an exciting and passionate way as if you are living the journey with your characters, or watching it like a film in your mind. We are not overly interested in tropes or overdone formula – we want your characters, narrative, and dialogue to weave and power the story.

Please make sure your book meets the criteria below before querying us:
  • Your book must be in the genres of either Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Paranormal Romance (any spice level), Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance (any spice level), Women's Fiction, Thriller (can be contemporary or paranormal), or Horror (must have good character drive and narrative, even if it's splatterpunk). We do not publish YA Fiction. Please inform us if your book has descriptive sex scenes so we can let our manuscript readers know. (Please do not tell us triggers.)
  • Your book must be a minimum of 30,000 words and no more than 140,000 words.
  • Your book must be complete – please don't send us a query if you haven't finished the book. If we go on to ask for your manuscript, we expect it to be edited to the best of your ability.

We are not a vanity or hybrid publisher and we do not charge for publishing your book. We also do not currently pay advances. Your book will receive various stages of editing, we will design a cover for it, and we will market it. We create titles in both eBook (EPUB) format, and in paperback (POD), and attempt to upload to all major online platforms through our distributors. We do not currently publish audiobooks or hardcovers.

We are slowly building a list of brick and mortar stores that might stock our books, but it may not be possible to place your book in a physical bookstore. Your book will be promoted primarily online.

Royalties

  • For eBooks, we pay you 30% of the list price for every book sold.
  • For paperbacks, we pay you 15% of the list price for every book sold.
  • Our contract is for exclusive worldwide rights for five years for both eBook and paperback versions (your contract can either be terminated or renewed after the five-year term).
  • We do not pay advances.
If the above sounds agreeable, send your query to submissions@bittenfruitbooks.com and title your email QUERY: [TITLE OF YOUR BOOK]

We also suggest you follow us on Facebook or X as that is where we will publicly post any problems we might be having with our email or tech, or general updates that affect all queries.

If you have more general questions, please use our contact form, or email us at info@bittenfruitbooks.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

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