Skip to content Chiselbury Publishing is an independent British publisher with an eclectic list of fiction and non-fiction.
We are always interested in discovering distinctive new books, compelling stories and authors with something worthwhile to say.
Our catalogue ranges from military and general history, biography and memoir to thrillers, historical fiction, contemporary novels and even westerns. We are not restricted to particular genres. What matters is whether a book captures our interest and whether we believe there is an audience for it.
We are primarily interested in original, previously unpublished work, although we will occasionally consider exceptional books that have fallen out of print and deserve to be rediscovered.
We are selective about the books we publish. Inevitably, we decline many submissions, including some that may be perfectly good books. A rejection simply means that we do not believe a particular title is right for our list. Please don’t take it personally!
Chiselbury is an independent, royalty-paying publisher.
We aim to make our publishing agreements fair, transparent and straightforward. Our contracts are generally simpler than those used by many larger publishing houses.
We do not normally pay advances against royalties, although these may be considered in certain circumstances.
We work closely with our authors and expect them to take an active interest in helping their books reach readers. Publishing is a collaborative undertaking, and an author’s willingness to participate in promotion and publicity is important.
Chiselbury provides professional publishing services, including editorial guidance, cover and interior design, production, distribution and marketing support.
Our books are distributed through the established book trade and are available to order through major booksellers and online retailers.
We work with authors to develop appropriate promotional opportunities, including publicity, social media, interviews, events and other marketing activities.
We believe that successful publishing is a partnership between publisher and author, with both contributing to a book’s success.
Please include the following with your submission.
Tell us briefly about your book, what makes it distinctive and why you think it would be suitable for Chiselbury.
For fiction, provide a synopsis of approximately 500 to 1,000 words, including the complete storyline and ending.
For non-fiction, provide an outline of the book, its principal themes and a proposed chapter structure.
For fiction, we normally expect a completed manuscript. Please send the first three chapters or approximately 5,000 words, together with your synopsis. You may also submit the complete manuscript if you prefer.
For non-fiction, we are happy to consider proposals for books that have not yet been completed, provided they include a detailed outline, proposed chapter structure and sample chapters.
Please indicate the current word count, or anticipated final word count if the manuscript is not yet complete.
We are publishers, and however much we might like a book, we also need to believe that people will want to buy it.
Please tell us:
We are not expecting a detailed marketing plan, but we do want to know that you have thought about your potential readers.
Tell us something about yourself, particularly any experience, expertise or background relevant to your book.
Please also include details of your website, social media accounts, existing readership or other connections that might help promote the book.
We do not expect every author to have a substantial social media following, but it helps!
Please tell us whether the manuscript has previously been published, self-published or submitted to other publishers.
If it has been published before, please provide details of the original publisher, publication date and current rights position.
As a general guide, we expect most full-length books to contain between 70,000 and 110,000 words.
However, appropriate length varies considerably according to genre and subject. Some books need fewer words, others more.
If your manuscript falls substantially outside this range, please explain why in your covering letter.
Please submit your manuscript as a Microsoft Word document (.docx).
We cannot accept PDFs, printed manuscripts or other formats for initial consideration.
We do not expect manuscripts to be professionally typeset. In fact, we would prefer that they were not.
Please follow these straightforward guidelines:
There is no need to worry about final page layout, paragraph indentation or other typographical details. We will deal with these during production.
Manuscripts may be written in British or American English, but spelling and usage should be consistent.
Please proofread your manuscript carefully before submitting it.
We expect manuscripts to have been checked for spelling, grammar and obvious errors. Modern word-processing software provides excellent tools for this, and there is little excuse for submitting a manuscript riddled with basic mistakes.
We cannot undertake a serious assessment of work that has not been adequately prepared.
Some non-fiction books, particularly works of history, biography and reference, require an index.
Where an index is necessary, authors should be prepared either to arrange for professional indexing once the book has been typeset or to undertake the necessary preparation themselves.
Authors who intend to prepare their own index should identify and mark indexable names, subjects and terms in the manuscript using appropriate indexing tools in their word-processing software.
The final index will normally be compiled against the typeset pages, once pagination has been established.
Please discuss indexing requirements with us at an early stage, as the arrangements will depend on the nature of the book and the production process.
If your book contains photographs, illustrations, maps or other visual material, please indicate this in your submission.
You must either own the necessary rights or be able to obtain permission for their use.
If we decide to proceed, we will require individual image files of suitable quality and resolution, together with captions, credits and permissions information.
Images should normally be supplied as high-resolution JPG, PNG or TIFF files. Wherever possible, photographs should be supplied at a resolution suitable for printing, generally 300 dpi at their intended reproduction size.
Please do not submit photographs of scrapbook pages, old photograph albums or printed book pages as substitutes for original image files. Such material is rarely suitable for professional reproduction.
If you are proposing an illustrated book, please also give us an indication of the number and nature of the illustrations.
We recognise that artificial intelligence tools are increasingly used by writers for research, editing and other supporting tasks.
However, we expect the creative and intellectual substance of any manuscript submitted to Chiselbury to be the author’s own work.
We are not interested in manuscripts written predominantly by generative AI. We are looking for original writing by human authors.
Any substantial use of generative AI to produce manuscript text or illustrations must be disclosed at the time of submission.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work is original, factually accurate where appropriate, and does not infringe anyone else’s copyright or other rights.
We reserve the right to decline manuscripts containing undisclosed or inappropriate AI-generated material.
Our principal interest is in new, original works.
We will occasionally consider previously published books, particularly important or neglected classics that have fallen out of print, or titles for which there is a compelling reason to introduce them to a new readership.
However, we are generally not interested in republishing books simply because they are no longer available.
If you believe your previously published work merits reconsideration, please explain why, provide details of its original publication and confirm that the necessary publishing rights are available.
We receive more submissions than we can publish and cannot guarantee that every manuscript will receive a detailed response.
We aim to review submissions within 8 to 12 weeks, although this may take longer during busy periods.
If we are interested, we will contact you to discuss the manuscript and the possibility of publication.
Please do not telephone to chase submissions.
We know how much work goes into writing a book, and we take the decision to publish seriously.
We are looking for books that interest us, that we believe in and that we think readers will want to buy.
If you think your book fits that description, we would like to hear from you.
Please send your submission to info@chiselbury.co.uk.