Poetry and experimental fiction are not the easiest things to publish. They resist the categories that make books easy to market, easy to shelve, and easy to explain to a reader in a hurry. We publish them anyway — because the most compressed, the most formally daring, and the most genuinely surprising writing tends to live exactly here, in the work that doesn’t fit anywhere else. If you have written something that belongs in this category, this is the right page.
Always open — query any time
Poetry Collections
Poetry is the most compressed form of human expression we have. A good poem does in twelve lines what a novel does in three hundred pages — it shifts something in the reader, permanently. A good collection does that repeatedly, building something larger than any single poem could carry alone.
That is what we are looking for. Not just strong individual poems, but a collection with genuine cohesion — a body of work that knows what it is and why it belongs together.
What We’re Looking For in Poetry
We are open to collections across the full range of what poetry can be and do — contemporary and free verse, formal and traditional forms, narrative sequences, ekphrastic work, experimental and avant-garde poetry, political and protest writing. The form is your choice. What we are looking for is mastery of whatever approach you have chosen — poems that are fully realised, where every word is the right word and every choice is a choice. We are not attached to any particular school or style. We are attached to work that works
What We’re Not Looking For in Poetry
- Collections without a discernible organising principle or sense of unity
- Work that relies primarily on shock value or provocation without craft to support it
- Erotica or sexually explicit content
- Work previously published as a collection in full
Individual poems within a collection may have been previously published in journals, magazines, or anthologies — this is normal and expected. Please note any such publications in your query.
Experimental Fiction
Some books are impossible to shelve. They make a reader say “cool” — and then stand in front of the bookcase wondering where exactly to put them. That is not a problem we want to solve. That is a book we want to publish.
Experimental fiction at Simile Press means any work of fiction that plays with form, structure, or the conventions of storytelling in a way that serves the story rather than merely drawing attention to itself. The experiment has to earn its place. The story still has to work. But if the way you have told it is as interesting as what you have told, we want to know about it.
This might look like:
- A novel in which illustrations are integral to the narrative — not decoration, not a graphic novel, but something that could not be the same book without them
- A novel that plays with structure, format, typography, or the physical form of the text in ways that change how it is read
- A work of fiction that sits at the boundary of genres, forms, or disciplines and refuses to choose between them
- Anything that a publisher looking at a category dropdown would find genuinely difficult to file
The only requirements are that it conveys a story and that the form serves that story. Beyond that, we are listening.
What We’re Not Looking For in Experimental Fiction
- Work that is formally unusual but narratively empty — the experiment has to serve the story
- Erotica or sexually explicit content
- Work that exists primarily to demean, dehumanise, or harm
- Work previously published in full in any print or digital form
If your work is hard to describe, do not let that stop you from submitting. Use the query form to tell us what it is in your own words. We would rather read a good explanation than miss a good book.
Who Can Submit
South African writers only — whether based in South Africa or living abroad. If South Africa is home, or has been, this call is for you.
No restrictions on experience level or publication history. Debut writers are as welcome as established ones.
Submissions accepted in English and Afrikaans. The natural inclusion of vernacular phrases or passages from any South African language is warmly welcomed — bring the full texture of the language you actually inhabit.
How It Works: Profit Share
After production costs are recovered, every rand of profit is split 50/50 between Simile Press and you. Payments are made bi-annually alongside a full, transparent sales and cost report.
For a full explanation see our Publisher Model page.
Your Rights
Your work is yours. It remains yours.
By publishing with Simile Press you grant us exclusive publication rights to the collection or work as a whole, worldwide, in print and digital formats, for the duration of our agreement, the right to translate between English and Afrikaans for an additional edition in consultation with you, and the right to use excerpts for promotional purposes.
For poetry collections, individual poems remain entirely yours — to submit elsewhere, republish, perform, or use in any way you choose. We hold rights to the collection as a published whole, not to the individual poems within it.
All other rights remain with you. If a title goes out of active distribution or our agreement ends for any reason, rights revert to you cleanly and promptly.
How to Submit
Simile Press reads submissions on a two-step basis. Your first submission is a short query through the online form below — not your full manuscript, not a lengthy proposal, just enough for us to understand what you have made and whether it is likely to be right for us. We aim to respond to all queries within 14 days. If we would like to read further, we will ask for the full manuscript, proposal, or sample pages as appropriate. You will never be asked to send more than we need at each stage.
No attachments at this stage. No reading fee. Just the form.
Thank you — your query has been received.
Simultaneous Submissions
We accept simultaneous submissions. If your collection is accepted elsewhere before we respond, please notify us immediately so we can withdraw it from consideration.
Previously published individual poems are welcome within a collection. Please note their publication history in your cover letter.
Response Times
Query responses within 14 days. Full submission responses within 90 days. If you have not heard from us after 100 days, send a polite status enquiry. We respond to everything.
A Final Note
Poetry is the least commercially safe thing a publisher can choose to invest in. Experimental fiction runs it a close second. We know this. We publish both anyway, because a press without poetry is a press with a missing chamber in its heart, and a press that only publishes what fits neatly on a shelf will always miss the most interesting books.
We will be honest about what that means in practice. With work like this we cannot always rely on the reader finding us — sometimes we have to go find the reader. The right audience for a formally unusual novel or a politically restless poetry collection may not be browsing the bestseller lists. They are somewhere specific, in communities and conversations we will have to seek out deliberately. That is part of the work of publishing this kind of writing, and we accept it as our responsibility rather than the author’s problem.
South Africa has a rich and restless tradition in both. If you have built something you believe in — whatever shape it takes — we want to hear about it.
Simile Press is an independent publisher based in Johannesburg, South Africa, committed to quality poetry, transparent author agreements, and shared success.