Black Library Submissions Window

Every Spring, Black Library holds an open window for writing submissions. Fa/tg/uys will rant at length at how they are sure to get in, and how they'll fix everything when they do.

You will never work for the Black Library

The Black Library is a very small publishing house. Its small number of staff (3 commissioning editors, about a half dozen support staff) mostly came into the role from publishing backgrounds, and will at some point move on to larger publishing houses in due course. Unless you've already broken into the industry, you ain't getting a job there.

It is an open secret that ex-Games Workshop staff in good standing get more than one shot at being commissioned as freelance Black Library writers. They are plenty of ex-GW design staff who now write for Black Library, and that is not a coincidence. Active freelancers who aren't ex-GW are either friends of the staff, prominent GW bloggers or married to GW staff. They are also a handful of experienced tie-in writers who work freelance for BL, and they push most of the sales, but these are much less common than the bulk of the staff, who get the gig through nepotism.

Last year, 1800 people sent documents to Black Library during their open submissions window. Of these, 12 were chosen. 2 were experienced and published authors, 8 were ex-GW Employees (or friends of current employees) and 2 were totally new. Of these 12, only 4 will get a novel deal. This is well below average for the publishing industry.

In 2008, a commissioning editor for Black Library admitted that the open window was mostly a publicity stunt designed to drive sales. This technique is a low-budget form of marketing, and was pioneered by the BBC in the 80's to encourage sales of Doctor Who novels.

You want to be published through the Black Library? Try getting published anywhere else first, it's easier.