Anything political (excluding works tied to a storyline), excessively violent, horror, adult mystery, thrillers, descriptions of sexuality (e.g., erotica, on-page acts, or exploration of sexuality), historical fictional about real people, anti-religious, or stereotypical of Muslims or other groups. We are also not a good fit for books that have witchcraft or polytheistic protagonists. No picture books at this time unless we requested them.
We primarily publish fiction for Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audiences. We also accept select chapter books and nonfiction.
Works can be of any length.
Overall, we want to see Muslims and Muslim communities across all genres. Please double-check our shop and imprints. While Muslim experiences vary, we lean toward orthodoxy.
The current timeline to respond to all queries is two to four weeks. We endeavor to provide personalized feedback for all our rejections.
For solicited/event/and full submissions, we aim to respond within twelve weeks of receiving your manuscript. If you have not heard from us within that time, please nudge us!
The manuscript must be written by a Muslim author, has a Muslim lead, or theme(s) for Shush Books. Unagented submissions are accepted from April 14 - June 14.
If you are NOT a Muslim author and/or your book doesn't have overt Muslim themes, please submit to Sorra Books. Unagented submissions are accepted from
October 4 - January 4.
The manuscript must be COMPLETE and have gone through some editing. They must also adhere to our moral mission. Please submit exclusively to us (or less than five outstanding queries). We ask that you do this out of respect for the time we input into each and every query.
The book doesn't have to be polished—however, we will prioritize the editing process over the publication date if need be.
Manuscripts are discussed internally and will be passed on to another editor as we see fit. This also means that a no from one is a no from the whole publishing house.
Our standard contract states that our authors' royalties are given to charity after their death. This is an Islamic concept (sadaqa jariya), so if you do not agree with this, please do not submit your manuscript to us.
Note: For religious purposes, we do not work with male authors for manuscripts unless solicited or for Saladeen Books.
Shaherazad Shelves is a Muslim-owned, women-owned press.
We reserve the right to refuse any material that would make the team feel uncomfortable or manuscripts that contain content that is offensive or contradictory to our beliefs. Authors whose projects mention or explore these topics have the right to send their manuscripts elsewhere.
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