Chapter Twelve: Submissions Are Open Now

Hello!

We hinted at this in the last newsletter, and it’s true: we’re searching for our next books, and we’re opening for submissions of completed manuscripts from now until June 14.

We like books that are electrifying (that’s The Witch of Prague), books that you can sink into like a warm bath (that’s The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo), and, most of all, books that shift the way you see the world.

All the details are below.

In anticipation,

Rachel, Huw, Lara & Rebekah

Instructions for sending us your book

Do you have a complete, unpublished manuscript languishing in submission doldrums? Have you heard that your book is too weird, niche, or uncategorisable to sell? And does it seem like the kind of book that fits Homeward’s ethos and interests?

We’re opening submissions from now until June 14. Please send us:

• A query letter

• A full manuscript as a docx file

• Either a novel, novella, or short-story collection

We’re only accepting completed works. We’re primarily interested in speculative fiction—science fiction, fantasy and horror—and books that don’t fit easily into any one genre.

Click here to access our submissions platform.

If we acquire your manuscript under contract, we pay a small advance and offer a high percentage of royalties.

These are some examples of the kinds of books we’re looking for:

• Lara would like to see books like The Gilda Stories (Jewell Gomez), Lote (Shola von Reinhold), and The Works of Vermin (Hiron Ennis)—weird, sexy, queer, fantastical stories filled with history, politics, excess, and art.

• Rachel is all about that intense sense of place and time, whether we’re talking the weird history of Gentlemen of the Road (Michael Chabon), the vivid city imaginary of The Saint of Bright Doors (Vajra Chandrasekera), or the invented cultures and societal upheaval of Five Ways to Forgiveness (Ursula K Le Guin).

• Rebekah likes stories where everything isn’t spelled out, but is open to multiple layers of interpretation: The Employees (Olga Ravn) or I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman). These are both works in translation—and we’d love to see books which weren’t originally written in English.

• Huw wants big faith-testing literary science fiction, like The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell) or Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson)... and tear-your-heart-and-guts-out voice-driven horror: The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones) or The Devourers (Indra Das).

That’s just to give you an idea: we’re also open to strange things of varieties we haven’t mentioned! If you have a weird, unpublishable, interesting book, especially if it’s in that empty space between literary fiction and speculative fiction, we’d love to see it.

The other week in New York!

Thanks to everyone who came to our Witch of Prague event at Topos Too in Brooklyn, and to Eliot Routh and Chris Kammerud for the event photos.

We got great questions from our audience—especially about the use of Prague-local legends and mysticism, and the influence of Czech new wave humor in the book. “The strong laugh of one person can sometimes destroy the whole edifice of totalitarianism,” said author J.M. Sidorova, referencing Václav Havel’s Power of the Powerless.

First reviews are in for The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo

We just heard from the printer—Jade is arriving at our warehouse (Huw's garage) on Wednesday of next week. You can order one here!

Meanwhile, reviews are beginning to arrive. One bookseller writes: “What a treat! Jade Yeo reads with the distinct humor of Bridget Jones and the self assured confidence of Jane Austen's boldest heroines. A fun romp and a serious reflection on the perils of being a woman. Homeward Books picked a winner with this one.”

Another says: “A quick-witted, warm romp through London in the Roaring 20s, through the eyes of Geok Huay (also known as Jade). The brief, but busy journal entries that make up this novella are full of character and immense humor, along with commentary on race, womanhood, and class in 1920s England. A brief, yet compelling drop into the world and perils of womanhood in the period, and a quietly defiant, compellingly funny woman at the core of the story. I can't wait to see more from Homeward Books!”

Some pretty interesting things we’ve been reading on the internet

A sentence is a way of being in the world, says George Saunders, and gives a few interesting examples.

“Genre is not neatly diagrammable or mappable precisely because maps make gaps,” writes Vajra Chandrasekera, “and that summons Things to arise in the gaps and change the territory.” An oldie but a goodie that we re-read this week.