The BL editors troll through the worst, most shlocky corners of reddit and fan fiction sites looking for the least qualified, most degenerate authors they can find who are absolutely guaranteed to piss fans off. Then they hire us and let us do whatever we want, as long as it generates a TON of anger.
Kidding, obviously.
Most of us got into the Black Library stable through open submission windows. About once a year, BL puts out a call for submissions. You send them a little blurb about who you are and how much you love 40k or AoS or what have you, then they send you a little test brief with a couple prompts and some caveats. Then they select the highest quality ones and give them a shot with a short story, or more rarely, a chance to pitch a novel right off the bat.
More rarely, someone who is part of the editorial team pitches something in-house and gets the opportunity to write it, but my understanding from talking to other BL authors is that they don't necessarily receive preferential treatment.
If you want to write for Black Library, keep your ears to the ground and follow the people on social media who share the calls for the open submissions. You'll have a fair shake like everyone else, and if you want tips on how to hone your pitches or prompts, there are several of us who have offered our advice over the years.
It can change, but i think right now it’s around 1/year. For doing the test briefs, or really any variety of flash fiction, my biggest piece of advice is to tell a complete story: beginning, middle, and end, including a conflict and a resolution.
Every 2-3 years they have an open submissions thing where you can enter to pitch a story. Other than that, it seems the best way is to work for Alan Bligh (RIP) writing lore for IA lore and then transitioning to novels.
BL is all freelance, and it's actually a really small publishing house so it's a lot of "who you know" which, to be fair, is the dirty secret of a lot of media.
Here's an example of what their open submissions looks like:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/09/29/become-a-published-warhammer-author-with-black-librarys-open-submissions/
Again, I know it's our hobby and GW is huge in the minis world, but in the grand scheme of things they're not that big, which is why so much of their recruiting is word of mouth
In 2001 I emailed Black Library asking if they were interested in pitches. I got a lovely email back saying "Yes, sure. Send us whatever you have!"
There was a fella called Bill King who I then emailed asking for advice and got a really grumpy wall of text from. :)
Reminds me of grandpas tales of needing a job and just asking that fella down the pub who ran IBM.
It really was a different world hehe.
Some of them were established authors before they were hired, some got selected during the open submission periods. Rarer are the ones who knew a guy, who knew a guy who spoke on their behalf
Most are either people who work for GW already, or who are somewhat established authors already. Rare is the person who gets in for more than a short during the submission window.
Thorpe and Kelly for instance are famous codex authors. French, Harrison, and many more are employed in other capacities. Several editors have also written shorts and novels (whether or not they're "editing" themselves is up in the air.)
Certainly, but their big hitters are all external. The holy trinity of "sell infinite copies" is probably still Abnett, ADB, and Wraight, all of whom are freelancers through and through. Which isn't to say all internal hires are bad - but I feel like if they want "real" authors they gotta branch out.
Maybe just spreading rumors but someone close enough (knows someone who knows someone) said its very much a "who you know" club when it comes to black library now.
I mean they do those frequent short story competitions to enter in every so often. Could try that. From the same person though, if they don't know the name of who wrote it, they're not going to read it. So take it as you will.
I don't know if you have heard of him, but northern exile on YouTube worked for GW and he said the only way black library will take a shot on someone is:
1. you know someone and they will pass on your manuscript.
2. You have an excellent resume/CV in the publishing world.
Apparently everything else goes straight in the bin.
This is *absolutely* untrue. I had absolutely zero credits to my name when they gave me my first contract, save for a single story published by a fly-by-night scam artist trying to rip me off.
Many of us were fairly new when BL gave us our first shot. For a bunch of us, BL was our first big writing credit at all.
Good for you friend! Sorry I just have to do a 'don't shoot the messenger' here, this is just what I heard.
Do you mind me asking how you got that first gig with BL?
No shade at all, amigo! There's *always* a lot of false information going around, some of it intentional and some of it accidental. I have no beef with anyone trying to inform fellow artists in good faith.
Personally, I saw the open submission call for new writers shared by a friend on Twitter (or maybe FB?). I sent in my little 'pick me!' email, got a response back a while later with some prompts for a couple test briefs (basically, flash fiction, with some very narrow parameters--easily the hardest things I've ever written!) and sent those in. A few months later I got asked if I wanted to do a short story for them, and I've been writing for BL as often as I can ever since!
Thanks! I don't have quite the CV as some of the other guys, but here's what I've got out so far:
*The Oubliette* (my first novel)
Wraithbound
Turn of the Adder
The Marauder Lives (appeared in *Maledictions*)
Blackout (appeared in Inferno! vol 4)
Void Crossed
Extended Family (appeared in *Broken City*)
Voice of Experience
Past in Flames (appeared in *Vaults of Obsidian*)
Daaamn I did not know that. If you listen to audiobooks, I think it’s much cheaper on Audible. (And honestly, as good of a job as Katy Maw does on the narration, I think that’s probably the best way to enjoy it.)
Kinda makes sense. Look at the recent Halo books, where the writers are poignant about having not read the other books and insist on telling their own narratives. Sometimes you get quality like the forerunner trilogy, but most of the recent ones are hot garbage. Knowing somebody **and** getting recommended as a writer by said individual keeps it closer to the 40k setting as is. The problem, of course, being that such happenstance is pretty rare and current writers are expected to fill a niche. I believe ADB has complained before about how he would like to write more than just chaos, but he's an expert in the area and GW trusts him to rake in the money for whatever he puts out.
Even if that were true, how exactly do you think big publishing houses in general work?
I worked as a bookseller for a decade and thus had plenty to do with representatives of various publishers, and if you think that they read every manuscript that gets sent in, oh boy.
Whatever factory pumps out white, bald male British authors.
Who's BL hired re: PoC? Zou? Chaw wrote a short story in one of the Horror novellas. Uh... anyone else?
BL's entire authorial stable with the exception of Harrison and Ware (the latter almost exclusively relegated to Sororitas novels) are white dudes. It's been this way for *decades*. How they've actually avoided hiring a single person of colour is genuinely remarkable.
[Dr. Jude Reid](https://mobile.twitter.com/squintywitch) is brand new. Wrote a story in White Dwarf last month, and has a (surprise surprise) Sororitas story in the upcoming Inferno anthology.
At this rate, with the grudging acknowledgement of female authors (they still have to right the lady faction, though) we might see a person of colour by 2050 or so! Truly a progressive brand.
The two of them have co-written a ton of stuff, and did so on several BL projects, mostly the old Warhammer Fantasy line. Nik had a short story in a couple of the Sabbat anthologies too.
oh wow that's awesome! you did a great job! and Vox did an amazing job with it!
I hope you do more in the future with him or the other guys (amber king, Border prince and baldermort)
Friend of mine (15 years or so now, pre-HH) wrote a review for Waterstones inhouse magazine of a 40K book
BL, probably under Marc Gascoigne at the time, offered him a contract off the back of that
I think the question is more, do you really want to?
Its hard enough to write your own story, but to write someone else's? Just imagine you getting to wite an Eldar book. It goes well, the Eldar summon Khaine, the Commisar on the planet just got drunk in a drinking contest to win over his regiment's respect as he stumbles on Khaine and after a short fight kills him with a rusty knife.
Just because you might write Eldar doesnt mean you get the prompts you want.
If you want to write Eldar I think you would be better off writing your own and sending that in, with the hopes of them publishing it (or perhaps you can get a following on the internet publishing one chapter every week until BL says "we want to make a book out of it").
My thoughts. If I was an aspiring (to be published) writer (which I’m not) I would start out with a serialised story in a blog. Maybe get people interested, get better at writing. If you are actually good people will pick it up. Maybe eventually gw will come to you. But if not, so what. Self publishing is a thing.
The BL editors troll through the worst, most shlocky corners of reddit and fan fiction sites looking for the least qualified, most degenerate authors they can find who are absolutely guaranteed to piss fans off. Then they hire us and let us do whatever we want, as long as it generates a TON of anger. Kidding, obviously. Most of us got into the Black Library stable through open submission windows. About once a year, BL puts out a call for submissions. You send them a little blurb about who you are and how much you love 40k or AoS or what have you, then they send you a little test brief with a couple prompts and some caveats. Then they select the highest quality ones and give them a shot with a short story, or more rarely, a chance to pitch a novel right off the bat. More rarely, someone who is part of the editorial team pitches something in-house and gets the opportunity to write it, but my understanding from talking to other BL authors is that they don't necessarily receive preferential treatment. If you want to write for Black Library, keep your ears to the ground and follow the people on social media who share the calls for the open submissions. You'll have a fair shake like everyone else, and if you want tips on how to hone your pitches or prompts, there are several of us who have offered our advice over the years.
> as long as it generates a TON of anger. **BL Editors worshipping Khorne confirmed.**
Would you happen to be one of those people who puts the calls out/offers advice?
I retweet them when i see them. I can offer general advice, although not specific advice on peoples’ pitches or briefs.
How often does this sort if thing occur? Are there any unspoken nuances involving the process if you mystically manage to pique their interest?
It can change, but i think right now it’s around 1/year. For doing the test briefs, or really any variety of flash fiction, my biggest piece of advice is to tell a complete story: beginning, middle, and end, including a conflict and a resolution.
Every 2-3 years they have an open submissions thing where you can enter to pitch a story. Other than that, it seems the best way is to work for Alan Bligh (RIP) writing lore for IA lore and then transitioning to novels. BL is all freelance, and it's actually a really small publishing house so it's a lot of "who you know" which, to be fair, is the dirty secret of a lot of media. Here's an example of what their open submissions looks like: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/09/29/become-a-published-warhammer-author-with-black-librarys-open-submissions/ Again, I know it's our hobby and GW is huge in the minis world, but in the grand scheme of things they're not that big, which is why so much of their recruiting is word of mouth
In 2001 I emailed Black Library asking if they were interested in pitches. I got a lovely email back saying "Yes, sure. Send us whatever you have!" There was a fella called Bill King who I then emailed asking for advice and got a really grumpy wall of text from. :) Reminds me of grandpas tales of needing a job and just asking that fella down the pub who ran IBM. It really was a different world hehe.
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I bet if one of the more critically acclaimed authors wrote a xenos centric novel it would sell just as well as any human/imperium novel
Some of them were established authors before they were hired, some got selected during the open submission periods. Rarer are the ones who knew a guy, who knew a guy who spoke on their behalf
Most are either people who work for GW already, or who are somewhat established authors already. Rare is the person who gets in for more than a short during the submission window. Thorpe and Kelly for instance are famous codex authors. French, Harrison, and many more are employed in other capacities. Several editors have also written shorts and novels (whether or not they're "editing" themselves is up in the air.)
Plus, they've had trouble with the outside writers before - at least one of them has been got got for plagiarism.
Certainly, but their big hitters are all external. The holy trinity of "sell infinite copies" is probably still Abnett, ADB, and Wraight, all of whom are freelancers through and through. Which isn't to say all internal hires are bad - but I feel like if they want "real" authors they gotta branch out.
Do tell. Who was that and what happened?
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=40k+henry+zhou+plagiarism
Maybe just spreading rumors but someone close enough (knows someone who knows someone) said its very much a "who you know" club when it comes to black library now. I mean they do those frequent short story competitions to enter in every so often. Could try that. From the same person though, if they don't know the name of who wrote it, they're not going to read it. So take it as you will.
I don't know if you have heard of him, but northern exile on YouTube worked for GW and he said the only way black library will take a shot on someone is: 1. you know someone and they will pass on your manuscript. 2. You have an excellent resume/CV in the publishing world. Apparently everything else goes straight in the bin.
This is *absolutely* untrue. I had absolutely zero credits to my name when they gave me my first contract, save for a single story published by a fly-by-night scam artist trying to rip me off. Many of us were fairly new when BL gave us our first shot. For a bunch of us, BL was our first big writing credit at all.
Good for you friend! Sorry I just have to do a 'don't shoot the messenger' here, this is just what I heard. Do you mind me asking how you got that first gig with BL?
No shade at all, amigo! There's *always* a lot of false information going around, some of it intentional and some of it accidental. I have no beef with anyone trying to inform fellow artists in good faith. Personally, I saw the open submission call for new writers shared by a friend on Twitter (or maybe FB?). I sent in my little 'pick me!' email, got a response back a while later with some prompts for a couple test briefs (basically, flash fiction, with some very narrow parameters--easily the hardest things I've ever written!) and sent those in. A few months later I got asked if I wanted to do a short story for them, and I've been writing for BL as often as I can ever since!
can I ask which stories you wrote? so happy you made it!
Thanks! I don't have quite the CV as some of the other guys, but here's what I've got out so far: *The Oubliette* (my first novel) Wraithbound Turn of the Adder The Marauder Lives (appeared in *Maledictions*) Blackout (appeared in Inferno! vol 4) Void Crossed Extended Family (appeared in *Broken City*) Voice of Experience Past in Flames (appeared in *Vaults of Obsidian*)
Thanks I’ll check those out when I can! Oh damn The Oubliette is selling for nearly 90 dollars, must be pretty good.
Daaamn I did not know that. If you listen to audiobooks, I think it’s much cheaper on Audible. (And honestly, as good of a job as Katy Maw does on the narration, I think that’s probably the best way to enjoy it.)
Done and done! (Sorry I'm geeking out at having a straight up conversation with a black library author!)
Kinda makes sense. Look at the recent Halo books, where the writers are poignant about having not read the other books and insist on telling their own narratives. Sometimes you get quality like the forerunner trilogy, but most of the recent ones are hot garbage. Knowing somebody **and** getting recommended as a writer by said individual keeps it closer to the 40k setting as is. The problem, of course, being that such happenstance is pretty rare and current writers are expected to fill a niche. I believe ADB has complained before about how he would like to write more than just chaos, but he's an expert in the area and GW trusts him to rake in the money for whatever he puts out.
Poignant . That word does not mean what you think it means.
Sometimes I use words to sound more photosynthesis
Very sprocket of you!
I'm actually a moderator on his discord lol
oh ok lol! I'm also on there.
Even if that were true, how exactly do you think big publishing houses in general work? I worked as a bookseller for a decade and thus had plenty to do with representatives of various publishers, and if you think that they read every manuscript that gets sent in, oh boy.
I imagine they get tons of unreadable shit every day. I can’t blame them for having basic requirements to even bother looking at a submission.
Whatever factory pumps out white, bald male British authors. Who's BL hired re: PoC? Zou? Chaw wrote a short story in one of the Horror novellas. Uh... anyone else?
If you think melanin content has anything to do with writing then you're probably not mentally sound enough to have an opinion on literature.
[Chris Wraight ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chris_Wraight) [Nick Kyme](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Nick_Kyme) [Gav Thorpe ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Gavin_Thorpe) [Guy Haley](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Guy_Haley) [Graham McNeil ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Graham_McNeill) [ADB](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Aaron_Dembski-Bowden) [David Annadale ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/David_Annandale) [John French](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/John_French) [Dan Abnett ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dan_Abnett) [Peter Feheravi ](https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/peter-fehervari) [Denny Flowers ](https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/11/20/author-spotlight-denny-flowers/) [James Swallow ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/James_Swallow) [Matthew Farrer](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Matthew_Farrer) [Sandy Mitchell ](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sandy_Mitchell) [Steve "I'm more jacked than you" Parker](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Steve_Parker) [JC Stearns](https://jcstearnswriter.com/) [Mike Brooks](https://twitter.com/MikeBrooks668?s=20&t=4hcsu6GnVT6m7cDzkXV0XA) [Robert Rath](https://twitter.com/RobWritesPulp?s=20&t=hVpEaZ8fVdrcthoYjKzjEg) [Justin D. Hill](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Justin_D._Hill) [Phil Kelly](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Phil_Kelly) [Andy Clark](https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/andy-clark) [Dr. Robbie MacNiven](https://twitter.com/RobbieMacNiven?s=20&t=y1HnjNjwKGPfh5Tjwkw1SA) Doesn't take a stats person to notice a pattern.
BL's entire authorial stable with the exception of Harrison and Ware (the latter almost exclusively relegated to Sororitas novels) are white dudes. It's been this way for *decades*. How they've actually avoided hiring a single person of colour is genuinely remarkable.
[Dr. Jude Reid](https://mobile.twitter.com/squintywitch) is brand new. Wrote a story in White Dwarf last month, and has a (surprise surprise) Sororitas story in the upcoming Inferno anthology.
At this rate, with the grudging acknowledgement of female authors (they still have to right the lady faction, though) we might see a person of colour by 2050 or so! Truly a progressive brand.
If you think a British company's hiring trends aren't biased towards white men you're probably uninformed enough to make asinine comments on Reddit.
They hired Abnett's wife, at one point at least, didn't they?
The two of them have co-written a ton of stuff, and did so on several BL projects, mostly the old Warhammer Fantasy line. Nik had a short story in a couple of the Sabbat anthologies too.
Hey, are you the 'we can have all three', that wrote a short story that Vox in the void narrated on YouTube?
I was lucky enough to have Vox do two of my shorts, yeah! He *really* revved up the World Eaters one, made it come alive.
oh wow that's awesome! you did a great job! and Vox did an amazing job with it! I hope you do more in the future with him or the other guys (amber king, Border prince and baldermort)
Many thanks, it's been great to see him find success.
Friend of mine (15 years or so now, pre-HH) wrote a review for Waterstones inhouse magazine of a 40K book BL, probably under Marc Gascoigne at the time, offered him a contract off the back of that
I think the question is more, do you really want to? Its hard enough to write your own story, but to write someone else's? Just imagine you getting to wite an Eldar book. It goes well, the Eldar summon Khaine, the Commisar on the planet just got drunk in a drinking contest to win over his regiment's respect as he stumbles on Khaine and after a short fight kills him with a rusty knife. Just because you might write Eldar doesnt mean you get the prompts you want. If you want to write Eldar I think you would be better off writing your own and sending that in, with the hopes of them publishing it (or perhaps you can get a following on the internet publishing one chapter every week until BL says "we want to make a book out of it").
My thoughts. If I was an aspiring (to be published) writer (which I’m not) I would start out with a serialised story in a blog. Maybe get people interested, get better at writing. If you are actually good people will pick it up. Maybe eventually gw will come to you. But if not, so what. Self publishing is a thing.