About

Since we began in 1976, Scribe has been proudly independent. Our editorial-led approach to publishing means we have a reputation for championing original ideas, powerful writing, and bold points of view, and we’ve often taken on books that other publishers have shied away from: the difficult, the unconventional, the necessary. With offices in Australia, the UK, and the US, our outlook and reach are global and have enabled us to carve out an utterly unique place in the publishing landscape: one of the only true independents in Australia, whose output encompasses the finest of local and international writing.

We have a celebrated history of developing new authors, and books we’ve published have received or been finalists for every major literary prize in Australia, alongside numerous international prizes including the International Booker Prize, the National Book Award for Translated Literature, PEN Translation Prize, and more. Our editors in Melbourne and London spend each day finding stories and writers that matter — sifting through submissions and manuscripts from around the world in an uncompromising pursuit of the best books we can find, develop, and deliver to readers.

We love what we do, and we hope you will, too.

History

Scribe was founded in 1976 by publisher Henry Rosenbloom to publish ‘serious nonfiction’ and ‘books that matter’. Today, Scribe is a unique, independent publisher with a global reputation for publishing the very best in nonfiction and fiction both in Australia and on the world stage.

Scribe’s nonfiction program strives to publish books that are deeply researched, explore important ideas, and drive conversations about perpetually relevant topics such as climate change, politics and justice, health, science, and technology. We are fiercely committed to bringing substantial nonfiction to a broad and diverse audience.

Our nonfiction list features prominent Australian thinkers, journalists, politicians, and writers such as Barry Jones, Niki Savva, Julian Burnside, Veronica Gorrie, Antony Loewenstein, Jenny Hocking, Rebecca Giggs, Josh Bornstein, Gideon Haigh, and Jeff Sparrow.

Scribe has also brought vital new work from the world to Australia, publishing authors of international acclaim, including David Finkel, Katherine Boo, Thomas Piketty, Jane Mayer, and Michael E. Mann. We have championed books at the very forefront of their scientific fields, publishing groundbreaking titles like Gut, Come as You Are, and The Brain That Changes Itself, and we’ve published books by global heads of state, including Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden.

Scribe’s fiction list is made up of powerful and original Australian voices, and its translated fiction program brings some of the most exciting international authors and books to our shores.

Our fiction authors are highly awarded, and Australian books on our list have won or been shortlisted for every major literary award in the country, including the NSW, QLD, SA, and Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, the Miles Franklin Award, and The Stella Prize. Our translated fiction program features many acclaimed authors and translators, including the 2025 International Booker Prize winners, author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi. Other translated works have won The National Book Award for Translated Literature and been shortlisted for The International Booker Prize, as well as attracting multiple awards in their originating territories. Scribe is a four-time winner of the ABIA Small Publisher of the Year Award.

In 2013 we established Scribe UK. More than ten years later, our London office is publishing our Australian and international authors, as well as bestselling nonfiction like Billion-Dollar Whale and The Changing of the Guard, important biographies of figures like Jan Clements, Charles Darwin, and April Ashley, and serious literary work from UK writers including Marina Benjamin, Gavin McCrea, Tessa McWatt, and Ryan O’Connor. Scribe UK was shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at The Bookseller’s British Book Awards in 2018.

In 2017 we began publishing directly into the US, and now bring our books to English-language readers all over the world.

2026 will mark the 50th anniversary of Scribe Publications. The Scribe team will continue to bring you the books that matter.

Sales & Distribution

Book Sellers

Scribe’s print books are sold and distributed to the book trade by the following organisations. Bookshops wishing to place orders can either contact their local sales representative or deal directly with the relevant distributor.

Individuals

All printed Scribe books can be found in all good bookstores around Australia, the US, and the UK, or you can buy directly from our website.

We also sell our e-books through various retailers, including:

  • Amazon
  • Apple
  • Kobo
  • Google

Warning

Please be aware that scam accounts have been impersonating Scribe staff, and using email to contact members of the public. All legitimate communications from the Scribe Australia team will be sent from an email address that ends in @scribepub.com.au. If you receive an email from an account that does not end in this address, that email is not from a Scribe staff member, and is likely fraudulent. 

Please forward all instances of scam emails to info@scribepub.com.au.

Submissions

Please read our submission guidelines carefully.
Any submissions that fail to meet our criteria and do not follow our format requirements will not be read — don’t go to all that effort for nothing!

Submissions in 2026

Scribe accepts unsolicited and unagented submissions. However, to help us cope with the volume of submissions we receive, we now only accept pitches and short writing samples in the body of an email during seasonal three-week windows. In 2026, these are as follows:

1 April through to 21 April
1 September through to 21 September

Any submissions received outside these periods will be neither read nor responded to.

Criteria for eligible submissions

What we are accepting

We are a trade-publishing house (that is, we publish books for general readers that are made available nationally and internationally through the book trade). Accordingly, we only consider proposals for books of this nature. We are generally interested in literary fiction and serious nonfiction.

Please note that, at present, we do not accept poetry, plays, young adult fiction, individual short stories, or children’s picture books for Scribble (see the Scribble site for their submission window).

Submission guidelines

Evidence

You must be able to provide evidence of having previously written for general readers.

Submitting Non-Fiction

If you are submitting non-fiction, please list in your email your previous non-fiction publications:

  • books published by trade publishers, or
  • articles — not letters — published in newspapers or in journalistic outlets such as Good Weekend or The Monthly.

Submitting Fiction

If you are submitting fiction, please list in your email your previous fiction publications:

  • books of fiction published by trade publishers, or
  • short stories published in literary journals or magazines

Awards, Commendations

And/or mention if you have received awards or commendations for your writing.

Important

Please adhere to the points above. We do not accept attachments, multiple submissions, or hard copy submissions, and if you send them, your submission will not be considered.

We encourage all who submit to familiarise themselves with our list. If you can see your work sitting alongside other Scribe titles, and you and your work qualify for submission, we look forward to reading your piece.

How to submit

Email

To submit to Scribe, please send an email to
submissions@scribepub.com.au
during one of our submission windows. 

Subject Line

The email subject should be the title of your manuscript and your name.

Body Of Your Email

In the body of the email (NOT as an attachment), please include the following:

  • a 500-word synopsis of your manuscript (A synopsis is a short but comprehensive summary of the work. It covers the full argument or plot from beginning to end and gives the reader the basic but informative outline of the book. It is not a blurb or teaser.)
  • an excerpt from your manuscript of up to 1500 words
  • a brief writer’s CV listing your most notable previous publication history and/or awards and commendations

What happens next

When you send us your submission, you will receive an automatic reply acknowledging receipt of your email. If we want to see more of your manuscript, we will be in touch within four weeks of our closing date. If you do not hear from us, we are not proceeding further with your submission, and you will not receive any further communication from us. Due to the large number of submissions we receive, we are unable to respond to every submission or provide individual editorial advice.

Rights

Foreign Rights Co-Agents

Permission Requests

If you wish to reproduce an extract from a Scribe publication, please read and observe the following guidelines before submitting a request.

Please submit permissions requests in writing to info@scribepub.com.au and include the following information with your request:

Information About Scribe Book:

  • Title
  • Author
  • Edition, if applicable

  • Page reference and word count of the extract you wish to reproduce

Information about your project:

  • Title of your publication
  • Author
  • Publisher
  • Language
  • Expected publication date • Format (print, eBook, etc.)
  • Projected print run
  • Projected retail price 
  • Distribution territory (ANZ, British Commonwealth, World, etc.)


Please allow 4 weeks for response.

Careers

Currently we have no vacancies, but when we do they’ll be advertised here.

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Open applications

Freelance applications

If you are a freelance copyeditor, proofreader, typesetter, or indexer and you would like to be added to our list of contacts, please fill out our application form.

FREELANCE APPLICATION FORM

Translator applications

If you are a translator who would like to be added to our list of contacts for translations and/or reader reports, please fill out our application form.

TRANSLATOR APPLICATION FORM