Submission Guidelines

The Quiet Room Press publishes literary fiction and creative nonfiction that is shaped by attention, restraint, and care.
 

We are especially drawn to work that engages with mortality, illness, grief, love, memory, family, and the small losses and reckonings that shape a life. We value writing that stays with experience as it unfolds, rather than writing that explains, instructs, or resolves.
 

What we publish

• Literary fiction

• Creative nonfiction, including memoir and reflective nonfiction
   

We welcome work that is:

• interior and observational

• concerned with ordinary lives and intimate moments

• willing to sit with uncertainty

• written with emotional honesty and structural control

We are interested in books that unfold through scenes, memories, and quiet accumulations, rather than plot-driven momentum or argument.
 

What we are not seeking

• Genre fiction

• Prescriptive, instructional, or self-help nonfiction

• Work focused on motivation, personal transformation frameworks, or advice

• Writing that prioritises explanation, uplift, or conclusions over lived experience
   

Manuscript length

As a guide:

• Fiction: 50,000–90,000 words

• Creative nonfiction: 40,000–85,000 words
   

We are open to shorter or longer works when the form feels necessary to the material.
 

How to submit

Please submit the following as a single document:

• A brief cover letter (one page is sufficient)

• A short description of the manuscript

• The full manuscript
   

In your cover letter, you do not need to justify or market the work. It is helpful to tell us what the book is concerned with, how it takes shape, and why you were drawn to write it.
 

Our editorial approach

We publish a small number of books each year and work closely with our authors over time. Editing is attentive and collaborative, with respect for the integrity and pace of the work.
 

Response times

We aim to respond within three months. If your manuscript is not the right fit for The Quiet Room Press, this is a matter of alignment, not quality.
 

Submitting

Submissions are currently:

• Open 
   

When open, please send submissions to:
hello@quietroompress.nz
 

Include “Submission” in the subject line.

An example of the work we are drawn to

This might be a book shaped by a period of change rather than a single event. It could move through memory, daily routines, and small shifts in relationship or self-understanding. The writing may be fragmentary or loosely structured, attentive to what accumulates over time rather than to plot or argument. What matters is not what happens, but how closely the work observes what it feels like to live through it.