THE BLACK ARCHIVE: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FROM AUTHORS OF COLOUR AND DISABLED AUTHORS
The Black Archive is a series of monographs about individual Doctor Who stories, published by Obverse Books. The editors recently ran a general call for open submissions, which we’re now following up with a specific call for book proposals from authors of colour and disabled authors.
We’re proud of the books we’ve published, and of the diversity of their authors in many respects, but we’re aware that our contributors to date have been skewed heavily, though not exclusively, towards being white and non-disabled. We’d like to change that if we can.
We want to expand the diversity of our authors in general, and will consider proposals for any available story, from anyone meeting the criteria of being disabled or a person of colour. We’ll give particular consideration to proposals from authors whose heritage or impairments might give them specific insight into a Doctor Who story – for instance, by a wheelchair-using author on Genesis of the Daleks, an author of Indian or Pakistani heritage on Demons of the Punjab, a Deaf author on The Well, a Nigerian author on The Story & the Engine, etc.
We have already published or commissioned Black Archives on many Doctor Who stories, and these are no longer available for submissions. A full list of available stories can be found here on the Obverse website.
Note: If we can do anything to make the following process more accessible for you, please contact us as soon as possible on blackarchivesubs@obversebooks.co.uk.
What We’ll Need to See
We’d like you to send to send us, by the end of June 2026, a single Microsoft Word document containing the following:
* A detailed chapter breakdown showing the structure of your proposed Black Archive title. This isn’t just the contents page, but must include a précis of each chapter.
* A long sample of the book. This will need to be 8,000 to 10,000 words long and should not include the overview or synopsis of the story. (Alternatively, you may substitute an unpublished piece of similar length, subject matter and style.) We ask for a sample of this length because experience has shown that sustained writing at the length of a Black Archive is not a skill that can be measured on the basis of a single short chapter.
If you’re not sure what the above should look like, you should read some of the published Black Archive titles on similar stories. The projected length of the final book (excluding synopsis, bibliography etc.) should be not less than 20,000 words and not more than 40,000.
The Process
Please email submissions to blackarchivesubs@obversebooks.co.uk by 30 June 2026, with ‘Black Archive submission: ’ and the name of your chosen story in the subject line. Your covering email should mention any particular qualifications you may have to cover this story. Please include a single Microsoft Word document containing your detailed chapter breakdown and your long sample.
Participants are limited to one submission during this time. We will consider your submission and get back to you by the end of September 2026. We’ll pick submissions based on their merits and in relation to the overall balance of the range.
Based on prior experience, we anticipate that many submissions will be rejected. We’ll inform you of our decision, but we won’t be able to give specific feedback or enter into further correspondence.
If you are commissioned, we will set a deadline for completion in 2027 or 2028. It may be some time after that before your title is published. Commissioned titles will be announced in due course as part of our standard publication schedule.
We’ll discuss the writing, editing and publication process in more detail with participants whose submissions are successful.
