At Mountain Leopard Press, we strive to push the boundaries of commercial fiction publishing. Like our colophon leopard, we are an agile and adaptable team, putting readers at the heart of everything we do. We are hungry for distinctive, page-turning fiction across a range of genres, including – but not limited to – crime and thriller, romantic comedy, historical and book club. Above all, we love books we can sink our teeth into.
Open Submissions Summer
Our Mountain Leopard Press submissions inbox will be OPEN for the entire month of July (1st to 31st) 2026 to unagented commercial fiction novels. In this open call, we’re on the hunt for crime and thriller, rom-com, women’s fiction, historical fiction and book club fiction.
Submission guidelines:
• We are looking for completed novels written in the English language.
• Authors may be based anywhere in the world.
• We are accepting submissions during this Open Submission Summer from unagented authors. If you have an agent, please do have your agent submit to us directly via the usual channels.
• We are an adult fiction publisher. We do not publish children’s, poetry, short stories or non-fiction.
• We are actively looking for commercial novels that fall into the following genres: Crime & Thriller, Rom-com, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club Fiction.
• If your novel sits outside of these genres, please keep an eye out for future open submission periods that will fit your genre.
• You may submit a novel that has previously been or is currently self-published.
• Please do not submit a novel that has been or is currently traditionally published.
• Please familiarise yourself with the Hachette UK position on AI which you can find here. You will see that we draw a distinction between ‘operational’ uses of AI and ‘creative’ uses – i.e. uses that harness AI to replace the creative work of a human author. Please note that, to the extent that we decide to move forward with an offer to publish your work, we will need to know that your work has been created in line with the Hachette UK Guidelines for Authors on Responsible Use of AI.
What happens after you submit
• Once we have received your submission, we will read and come back to you within 12 weeks of the end of our Open Submissions window.
• Due to the volume of books we receive we’re sorry to say that we’re unable to tailor feedback to every submission.
• Please note that any books submitted to us that do not meet our publishing requirements will be rejected and the relevant submissions will be deleted.
• If we have enjoyed your submission and would like to discuss moving forward with an offer, we will be in touch with you directly and may ask for more information. This is also your opportunity to ask questions about our publishing process and make sure that MLP would be a good fit for you and your work!
Keep an eye out on our Instagram page @mountainleopardpress where we will be sharing more news as well as our new ‘Demystifying Publishing’ series.
Privacy
We will process any information you provide in order to review your submission and in accordance with our Privacy Notice.
Please only provide details that you are happy to be used in this way and do not provide any personal information about other individuals aside from publicly available professional details.
Please submit your manuscript below.