Submission Guidelines

Black Inc. and Nero Books Submission Guidelines

Before you submit your manuscript to Black Inc. or Nero Books, please have a look around our website to get a sense of the range of books we publish.

We accept proposals from Australian writers only, for general and commercial non-fiction – including history, current affairs, sports, and biography – and for literary and commercial fiction.We also accept proposals from corporate organisations for custom publishing projects.

We are not currently accepting submissions for the following genres: fantasy, science-fiction, travelogues, crime/mystery, erotica, poetry or picture books.

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited proposals for Quarterly Essays.

If you would like us to consider your work for publication, please compile the following:

• A subject line stating the title of your book, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, and its genre (e.g. The Boy Who Cried Wolf: Fiction/Literary or The Sunday Sessions: Non-Fiction/Memoir)
• A one-page synopsis of your work
• Fiction submissions: please include your full manuscript
• Non-fiction submissions: you may include all or part of your manuscript, though please note we are unable to accept your submission without a writing sample
• A list of your previous publications, and any other relevant information about you

Please send the above as an email to [email protected]. (We do not accept submissions by post.) You will receive confirmation of receipt, and we will contact you within eight weeks if we wish to discuss your work further. Owing to the number of proposals we receive, we cannot discuss individual submissions over the telephone or in person, and we cannot give detailed editorial feedback. 

Quarterly Essay Submission Guidelines

For editorial queries regarding QE, please contact the Editor:
Chris Feik: [email protected]

Please note, Quarterly Essay accepts correspondence on the current issue, of any length between 500 and 2000 words, with a preference for brevity. A selection of this correspondence is published in the subsequent issue. All published respondents receive a two-year subscription. We do not accept unsolicited proposals for Quarterly Essays.