Queries are Currently: CLOSED to agented and unagented submissions. We open again 4.28.2025.
Cloaked Press is proud to begin taking queries from fantasy, science fiction, and horror authors and agents to bring new stories to life. Here we will try to answer any and all questions regarding our query process and what you can expect from us.
General guidelines on what we are looking for:
- Engaging, thought provoking, imaginative, and/or uproariously funny stories. These could be Novels and Novellas or Single Author Short story collections
- We aren’t big fans of stories that focus on anything related to child/sexual abuse – tasteful and tactful flashbacks that are part of a character’s backstory are acceptable, but let’s not be graphic for the sake of shock value.
- Graphic sexual content of an adult nature isn’t strictly off the table, but, we aren’t really looking for erotica either.
- Animal cruelty isn’t something we are a fan of either. With this one, we aren’t talking about the slaying of fantastical creatures. We expect that to happen in fantasy/scifi and even horror stories. What we mean would be the torturing of animals just to be cruel and for shock value.
Our Official MSWL
Cloaked Press is an inclusive publishing house that enjoys emphasizing all voices. We are looking for a variety of genres and voices. Character driven stories will always be at the forefront of our wish list. Please be sure to follow all guidelines for submission. We can’t wait to read your stories!
We are looking for new voices in the following categories, this is also a list of what genres and subgenres we consider for the press. We accept Novellas and Novels.
In all categories we accept romance subplots, genre-blending, LGBTQIA+, HopePunk, Speculative fic, and Own Voices:
Adult and New Adult
Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Contemporary Fantasy
Grimdark
Fairy tale
Magic Realism — heavy on the magical
Paranormal Fantasy
Sword & Sorcery
Horror Fantasy crossover
Steampunk
Gaslamp
High Fantasy
Oceanpunk
Dark Academia
Romance Fantasy
Cozy Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Science Fiction
Cyberpunk
Space Opera
Apocalyptic
Steampunk
Biopunk
Science Fantasy crossover
Sci-fi Horror Crossover
Dystopian
Hard Scifi
Horror
Psychological Horror
Supernatural & Paranormal
Creature Features
Zombies
Vampires
Dark Fantasy Horror crossover
Cosmic horror
Horror Comedy
Gothic
Dark Academia
Wild West/Weird West
Folk Horror
Romance Horror
Horror Thrillers
Occult
Cults
Give us your unlikely heroes and heroines, the anti hero, your morally gray MCs… We want fresh takes in all genres, new ghosts, scary vampires, witches and other macabre things. Show us your characters with trauma and questionable pasts. Do you have a fresh take? We want to see it!
What We’re Not Looking For
Erotica
Torture for torture sake
Gore without story
Contemporary romance
Contemporary novels
Christian Fiction — however religious concepts, like in Gothic Horror are accepted.
Middle Grade fiction
Young Adult fiction
Children’s books
Manifestos
Memoirs
Non-fiction
(We are just not the best home for these! It’s nothing against them!)
Books we love:
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
The Vagrant by Peter Newman
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore
Our promise to you, if we come to a mutual agreement to work together:
- We will have our Cover Designer build a fantastic cover for ebook, paperback, and possibly hardcover. To do this, we have a form that we will have you fill out, as well as feedback from our team here who will read the story to assist with theme/focus. We will also contract graphics for promotion (see below).
- We will provide ISBNs for editions published across Amazon, and Ingram Spark.
- We will communicate with you every step of the way to bring your book baby into the world, because, let’s face it. This is a big deal.
- We will promote your work across all of our social media platforms and email subscriber list prior to and after publication. The materials we use will be available to you to use as well, including banners, for your personal author platform (Facebook, Twitter, Insta, etc.)
- We also provide editing, proofreading, and formatting.
How to Submit
What to submit:
Please send your query letter in the body of the email to query@cloakedpress.com
(Follow the guidelines below!)
As separate attachments please include the following: (Attachment rules below! Please follow them!)
1-page synopsis
First 10 pages of your manuscript
1 page of your favorite part of the book!
Please Follow the Below Rules for Submitting.
Attachment Rules:
All attachments should be .docx or .doc format.
Manuscripts should be complete and edited to the best of your ability, we know that it will possibly still need editing and that’s OK. Please use the following formats when preparing your manuscript for submission:
- Times New Roman 12pt
- 1” margins
- .5” indent first sentence of each paragraph
- Spacing of 1.5 between lines
- Title each attachment with what the attachment is, and the book title
Thank you for adhering to these standards. We love reading submissions and following the standards listed above will enable us to make decisions regarding your submission more quickly. We will send a confirmation email when your submission is received. All efforts will be made to make a decision within 8 weeks. If you have not heard from us within that time frame, please feel free to send us a gentle reminder as sometimes emails do get lost or rejected. To help prevent that, add us to your White List in your email program to prevent our replies from going into the junk mail folder.
Query Letter Rules:
Your query letter should include the following:
1. Open with Dear Editor, or Cloaked Press!
2. About the book (Title, word count, genre & age category), some comparison titles (2 is fine), your expected audience for the book.
3. A blurb enticing us to read the pages! (This can be about 3 paragraphs, but remember your blurb and synopsis are different!)
4. About you! (We want to know what else you’ve published, your credentials, and something that makes you the person to write this book!)
5. A closing statement (IE: thank you for your time) is a good way to end before your signature!
6. Your name, social media accounts, and email best to contact you.
Confused on how to query or write a synopsis? Here are some great references:
HOW TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER
THE 1 PAGE SYNOPSIS