Anything political (unless tied to the storyline), excessively violent, horror, adult mystery, descriptions of sexual behavior (e.g., erotica, on-page, or exploration of sexuality), historical fiction about real people, or stereotypical of Muslims or other groups. We are also not a good fit for books that have witchcraft or polytheistic protagonists.
We primarily publish fiction for Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audiences. We also accept select chapter books and nonfiction.
Overall, we want to see Muslims and Muslim communities across all genres. We are also very interested in Muslim-friendly fiction.
Please double-check our books and imprints. While Muslim experiences vary, we lean toward orthodoxy.
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 any 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. Please submit exclusively to us (or less than five outstanding queries) and that you notify us if you have a literary agent. We ask for this out of respect for the time we input into every query.
While your book doesn't have to be polished, we will prioritize the editing process over the publication date if need be.
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 back by then, please nudge us!
Contracts state that our authors' royalties after death are given to charity. This is an Islamic concept (sadaqa jariya), so if you do not agree with this, please do not submit your manuscript to us.
Do NOT submit work produced by generative AI.
Note: For religious purposes, we do not work with male authors for manuscripts unless solicited or by referral.
Shaherazad Shelves is a Muslim-owned, women-owned press.
We take off Fridays, the month of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha in addition to regular breaks.
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.