Nicole Kimberling, Editor in Chief
Guidelines for WRiters
Blind Eye Books publishes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists. We do not publish short story collections, poetry, erotica, horror or non-fiction. We would hesitate to publish any manuscript that is less than 70,000 or over 150,000 words.
Please include your real name, real street address and real phone number as well as your email address (presumably real) in the upper left hand corner on the first page of your manuscript. If you write under a pen name, you would put your pen name underneath the title on the first page of your manuscript.
Please adhere to standard manuscript formatting practices. (You can learn more about what this is and why you should comply here.)
Please also submit a short synopsis of the novel.
Please do not send queries, outlines, or partial manuscripts.
Our readers may keep the manuscript for up to thirty days. Please do not query before then. If, however, we’ve kept your story for longer than that, feel free to email the editor and ask for an update.
Blind Eye Books will not consider anonymous writings or manuscripts currently under submission to another publisher.
We accept electronic and paper submissions.
Paper submissions
To submit, please send a recyclable copy of your whole manuscript, and a short synoposis to the mailing address below.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to return your manuscript, so please save yourself the postage by including only a self-addressed, stamped envelope (business-sized) for our reply. If you’d like to be assured that your manuscript made it to us intact, you may also send a self-addressed postcard that we’ll return to you when we receive your package.
Please send manuscripts to:
Nicole Kimberling, Editor
Blind Eye Books
315 Prospect Street Ste. 5393
Bellingham, WA 98227
Electronic submissions
Electronic submissions should be formatted the same way as paper submissions. They should be addressed to Nicole Kimberling at: editor@blindeyebooks.com.
What the Editor Prefers
I have been asked, by one of our authors, Astrid Amara, to write a short piece where I give hints and tips for submitting to Blind Eye Books. But lists of preferences are hard for me to write, since one of the things I most prefer is novelty.
So I’m going to stick to a short list of things I strongly dislike in stories.
Forcibly Impregnating Lesbians—I’m convinced that this is just some sort of wish fulfillment on the part of people who hate and fear lesbians.
Stories Where Four Guys Get Down—I don’t know why, but every story I’ve ever read where four guys got down seemed to lack focus.
Downer Endings—Why would I bother to pay money to vicariously fail and die through the transportative power of fiction when I can fail and die on my own anytime I want for free?
Second Person—You read this and you think that I’m gorgeous and insightful. You go to your checkbook and you write me a check for one thousand dollars… Wait a minute! You don’t want me telling you how you feel? I don’t either.
Rape, especially Rape as a Motivation—I can’t think of a funny line for this. Probably because I just really don’t think it’s all that humorous. And clinical studies also suggest it’s not really all that “motivational” of an experience either; at least not in the traditional “Anthony Robbins Unleashing the Power Within” sort of way.
No ending—You would seriously be amazed at the number of stories I receive that just kind of stop without ending.
Suicide—Even Virtuous Suicide. Even suicide that is a metaphor for the larger piece. Just don't.