Here is a list of opportunities for novel-/novella-in-flash manuscripts, including publishers of NIFs since the turn of the 21st century. In all cases, do check latest submission guidelines and be sure to confirm that the publisher is open to relevant submissions. If there is any uncertainty, sending them a polite query might be an option before sending a manuscript. Please note that some of these publishers will only accept submissions through agents. I hope to keep building this list. Several publishers have since closed or merged with other publishers and are therefore not listed here. If you are a publisher open to novellas-in-flash and would like to be listed, please let me know via this Contact form. [List updated 22nd September – Prototype Prize added. 17th September – The Broken Spine Chapbook competition & Flume chapbook contest added. Cinnamon Press entry updated to include current “New Voices 2025” submissions call. Bath Flash Fiction Award entry updated to reflect revised deadline – 30th September 2023. Chestnut Review annual chapbook contest replaced by two annual reading windows.]
You can also find further support at the free-to-join Novella-in-Flash Writers & Readers Facebook Group, where there are regular news announcements about publication opportunities.
Small Press Publishers/Independent Publishers who have published more than one novella-in-flash/novel-in-flash in the last five years:
Ad Hoc Fiction (NB Ad Hoc Fiction have mainly published novellas-in-flash arising from the B.F.F.A. Competition below, but occasionally publish additional novellas-in-flash outside of this.)
Bamboo Dart Press
Ellipsis Zine
Fairlight Books
Flash: the International Short-Short Story Press
Reflex Press
Rose Metal Press
Truth Serum Press
V. Press
Competitions
Bath Flash Fiction Award Novella-in-Flash Competition – Annual competition since 2017, closing date now end of September.
Black River Chapbook Competition – for chapbooks of prose 16-36 pages (“prose hybrid welcome”) – April/May or September/October annually
Ellipsis Zine – the magazine usually holds an annual flash fiction manuscript competition in the spring/summer (which is open to novellas-in-flash)
Flume chapbook contest – “Up to 25 pages of prose (flash, long-form, novella, or a blend of genres)”. September 1st to October 15th 2023.
2023 Moon City Short Fiction Award – Although NIFs aren’t specified by name, guidelines encouragingly state: “for an original collection of short fiction…entries may include short shorts, short fiction, and/or up to one novella.” – Ends 1st May 2023
National Flash Fiction Day – Ran a N-I-F competition in 2021
Regal House Publishing – The 2023 Fugere Book Prize for Finely Crafted Novellas
Reflex Press Novella Award – For all kinds of novellas, but this competition has novellas-in-flash among its past winners. Closing date usually in January.
Retreat West Novelette-in-Flash Prize – Ran their competition in 2020 and 2021.
Sandy Run Novella Award | Hidden River Arts– for all kinds of novellas, but open to novellas-in-flash
Sundress Publications Annual E-chapbook Competition – Although NIFs aren’t specified by name, guidelines encouragingly state: “poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid work are welcome” – deadline 31st May 2023
The Broken Spine Annual Chapbook Competition – “prose submissions across all themes and genres”, up to 24 pages. “We particularly encourage submissions from underrepresented writers, including women (or those who identify as female), LGBTQIA+ writers, writers of colour, and disabled writers, although submissions will be read blind.” Closes 30th September 2023.
The Cupboard Annual Pamphlet Contest – prose manuscripts between 5,000 and 10,000 words. “We make no demands on content or genre, with the exception of verse poetry, which we don’t publish.”
The Prototype Prize – a new bi-annual Prize for “work that interrogates the boundaries of established formal, narrative and genre conventions.” “Fiction, poetry and non-fiction prose are all eligible, with no restrictions on style, form or subject-matter, with interdisciplinary approaches particularly welcomed.” Website also states they are “committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition.”
The Watson, Little x Indie Novella Prize – for novel-length manuscripts, style unspecified (three strands: characters & community, climate, crime fiction)
Independent Publishers who have recently published at least one book/pamphlet that could be described as a novella-in-flash/novel-in-flash (example listed):
above/ground press (e.g. Off the Resting Sea)
Alien Buddha Press (e.g. Kahi and Lua)
And Other Stories (e.g. Somebody Loves You)
Broken Sleep Books (e.g. Go On)
CB Editions (e.g. The Absent Therapist, Days and Nights in W12)
Červená Barva Press (e.g. Saying Goodbye)
Cinnamon Press/Liquorice Fish Books (NB prose poetry sequences that read like novellas – e.g. Ed’s Wife and Other Creatures & The True Story of Cowboy Hat and the Ingenue). Cinnamon Press also has a relevant submissions call currently open – “New Voices 2025” – until 30th December 2023 for “full length manuscripts written for adults — poetry collections, short story collections, novels, novellas, creative non-fiction or mixed genre works.”
Civil Coping Mechanisms (e.g. I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying)
Counterpoint Press (e.g. Why Did I Ever, One D.O.A., One on the Way)
Keyhole Press (e.g. How to Predict the Weather)
Kith Books (e.g. Magpie Moon – forthcoming – NB collaborative publishing model)
Impspired (e.g. The bones of the story)
Shanti Arts Publishing (e.g. Paperboy)
University of Pittsburgh Press (e.g. All the Day’s Sad Stories, as part of The Physics of Imaginary Objects)
Independent publishers who have recently published novellas, flash fiction collections and/or hybrid books and have said that they are (or who may be) open to novella-in-flash/novel-in-flash manuscripts
Arachne Press (only open to authors who’ve already been published in one of their anthologies).
Black Lawrence Press (various submission opportunities, incl. Black River chapbook contest, listed above – open to novellas, novels, poetry, and short story collections, and they have previously stated: “enthusiastic about hybrid submissions”)
Chestnut Review – 1st March to 30th April & 1st October to 30th November. Although NIFs aren’t specified by name, this publisher has for a long time been open to flash fiction and encouraged submission of hybrid work: “We love mixed-genre and mixed-media pieces!” & “Chapbooks may be poetry, prose, or hybrid.”
Driftwood Press
Emerge Literary Journal
Fiction Attic (online opportunity for N-I-Fs through serial instalments on Substack)
Fish Gotta Swim Editions
Fly on the Wall Press (although the publisher notes that they have so far preferred traditional novellas)
Leamington Books
Little Thorn Books (publishing novellas in the following genres: Victoriana, gothic, steam punk, magic realism and supernatural)
Louise Walters Books
Paper Visual Art Books – for “novellas, ideally 20,000-30,000 words.” Window closing 31st March 2023.
Peninsula Press
Renard Press
Running Wild Press / RIZE Press
Split/Lip Press
Sundress Publications (“particularly interested in prose collections that value genre hybridization, the lyric, flash, strange or fractured narratives, new fiction, experimental work, or work with strong attention to lyricism and language. These collections may be short stories, novellas, essays, memoir, or a mixture thereof.”)
Vagabond Voices
Larger publishers who have recently published books that could be described as novellas-in-flash/novels-in-flash (example listed):
4th Estate (e.g. republishing Play It As It Lays & The Atrocity Exhibition)
Arcade Publishing (e.g. Haunted Traveller)
Bloomsbury (e.g. republishing The House on Mango Street, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid & Coming Through Slaughter)
Faber (e.g. Grief is the Thing with Feathers, The Coma)
Granta (e.g. Dept. of Speculation, We the Animals, Weather)
Hamish Hamilton – an imprint at Penguin (e.g. Assembly)
Harper Collins (through various smaller imprints such as Harper Perennial, Flamingo & The Friday Project they have published books such as 253, The Lover and With a Zero at its Heart)
Jonathan Cape – an imprint at Vintage/Penguin/Random House (e.g. Two Pints, Two More Pints)
New York Review Books (e.g. republishing Pitch Dark & Speedboat)
Penguin Books (e.g. republishing Mr. Bridge & Mrs. Bridge & The History of Love)
Picador (e.g. Last Orders, The End We Start From)
Viking Books – an imprint at Penguin (e.g. The History of Love, The Midnight Library)
Vintage – an imprint at Penguin/Random House (e.g. 334, The Complete Two Pints)
If you want some help with problem-solving/rekindling a novella-in-flash project, I offer specialist mentoring to novella-in-flash writers. You can read about my NIF experience here. Feel free to get in touch via the form below: