Galley Beggar opens submissions exclusively to women

Independent publisher Galley Beggar Press is opening a submissions window exclusively to women.

Until 11th April, the Norwich-based publisher will be accepting submissions exclusively from women in the hope of redressing the imbalance between the number of women who submit to them in comparison to men.

Eloise Millar, co-founder of the press, told The Bookseller that while the publisher received "wonderful" submissions, 85% of them are from men and this has filtered down into its list, which is currently 75% male.

Millar said: "We don't regret any of our authors - we think that they are all absolutely fantastic, and we want to work with all of them, for many years. But we also want to make sure, going into the future, that there's parity (in terms of gender - and also other groups).

"So while we'll continue to have two totally open submissions windows twice a year (in July and November), at other times of the year we'll be opening submissions to particular groups. In this instance, to women writers; in future - and for example - to groups under-represented in publishing, such as BAME writers, etc." 

She added: "This is hugely important to us - and not least because we need to make sure that we're not perpetuating some of the all-too-real problems in publishing and the voices it represents."

Guidelines for submissions are available from the Galley Beggar website.

Galley Beggar’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, co-published by Faber, won the 2014 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Fellow indie Influx Press recently opened an exclusive submissions window for women of colour.