Blackwarren Books strives to publish fiction featuring protagonists that are LGBTQIA+, members of the BIPOC community, or other marginalized groups. We want to see them in stories where they save the day, solve the case, defeat the villain, find the treasure, rescue the innocent, and leave the world a better place than they found it.

While we won’t publish Romance (as there are already hundreds of publishers who will), Blackwarren Books believes that one’s orientation, gender identity, race, religion, and many other aspects of one’s self are to be celebrated as strengths of the character, not just adjustments to a protagonist’s romantic potential. Romantic elements are welcomed, but are not the protagonist’s pure motivation, and romantic interests will not be a matter of “damsels/dudes in distress”, but equal, respected partners by the end of the story.

Protagonists are expected to acknowledge systemic difficulties they face, and why they choose to keep fighting, searching, and pushing forward. All this despite possible challenges of mental health, neurodivergence, realities of one’s race, orientation, gender identity, body image, and past trauma. Minority protagonists will be expected to emerge triumphant regardless of challenges with either a happy ending, or hope for their future.

For novels, manuscripts must be a minimum of 50,000 words to be considered. For short stories, manuscripts must be between 10,000 and 25,000 words. Creative pieces may be submitted by the author, or by a representative. Manuscripts must be complete in order to be reviewed by an editor. Blackwarren Books does not accept erotica submissions, nor do we accept submissions generated by AI.

Please send your submissions to submissions@blackwarrenbooks.com. We accept .doc files, PDFs, and links to Google Drive documents. Include the following information in your email:

• Your name

• Your contact information

• The genre of your story

• Whether it’s intended for one of our short story anthologies

• If you have a preferred editor

We look forward to reading your creative manuscript!