Familiar
Browse open submission windows

For publishers

Submission management softwareFrom open call to signed contract

Open a submission window, read the manuscripts as a team with likely AI-generated work flagged on arrival, and send the one you want a contract to sign. Authors check their own status instead of emailing you.

Get startedBrowse open calls
  • Included in every publisher plan
  • Authors can submit without an account
  • AI detection at 1 credit a manuscript

Everything between the open call and the contract

Presses and literary magazines use the same steps every reading period: open a call, read, decide, and tell every author. Familiar keeps each step in one place.

Submission windows

Say exactly what you’re looking for.

Each open call gets its own public page with your genres, word count range, deadline and questions. Authors see the rules before they start, and the call stops taking manuscripts when it closes.

  • Opening and closing dates, or an open-ended window
  • Custom questions: free text, single or multiple choice
  • Optional reading fees, with waiver codes
  • Accepted file types and a limit per author

Reading as a team

Every reader works from the same queue.

Assign readers and editors to a submission, or have each review stage assign its own. Scores, private notes and tags stay with the manuscript, so a hand-off is a click rather than a forwarded email. See how Familiar works for publishing teams.

  • Review stages you design for each window
  • Scores from 1 to 10, with comments
  • Notes that @mention a colleague
  • Tags and bulk updates

AI detection

Catch AI-generated submissions before your readers do.

Open reading periods now pull in machine-written manuscripts, and volunteer readers feel it first. Turn on AI detection for a window and Familiar checks the opening chapters of each manuscript as it arrives, with Pangram, and puts the score beside the submission. Familiar never rejects anything on its own.

  • An AI-likelihood score with a confidence level
  • Human-written, AI-assisted and AI-generated shares
  • Run or re-run a scan on any single submission
  • One credit per manuscript scanned

Decisions and response templates

Answer every author, even on a busy week.

Write your decline letter once. It fills in each author’s name, title and call, and is emailed the moment you decline, for one submission or a batch of fifty. Whatever you decide (accept, decline, revise and resubmit, or hold), the author sees it on their own status page.

  • Templates for acceptances, declines and anything else
  • Preview and edit a letter before it goes
  • Decline a whole batch at once

For the authors who submit

Fewer “did you get my manuscript?” emails.

Authors get a page that shows where their manuscript stands. They can message you from the submission, withdraw it while it waits for a first reader, and submit without creating an account. Agents can submit on a client’s behalf.

  • Status from submitted to decision
  • Messages kept with the submission
  • Every submission to every press in one list

Stop running submissions from an inbox

Here’s what changes when every submission lives in one place.

  • Submissions pile up in a shared inboxEvery submission lands in one queue, by window
  • Status tracked by hand in a spreadsheetStatus changes as readers and editors work
  • Manuscripts forwarded from reader to readerReaders are assigned, and score and note in one place
  • Authors email to ask where things standAuthors check their own status page
  • Readers wade through machine-written spamLikely AI-generated work is flagged on arrival
  • Decline letters written one at a timeOne template declines a whole batch, personalized
  • Author details retyped into every contractAn accepted manuscript goes straight to a contract

From open call to signed contract

  1. Open a window

    Set the genres, word counts, deadline and questions, then publish. The call gets a public page and a place on the marketplace.

  2. Read and score

    Submissions arrive in the window’s queue, scanned for AI if you turned it on. Readers score and note what they’re assigned.

  3. Decide

    Accept, decline, ask for a revision or hold. Declined authors are emailed the letter from your template.

  4. Send the contract

    Send a contract from your template with the author’s details filled in. Once it’s signed, the book joins your catalog.

Submissions platform FAQ

Works with the rest of Familiar

An accepted manuscript doesn’t start over. It carries on through the rest of Familiar.

Open your next call in Familiar

Submission windows come with every publisher plan, from $39 a month. Set up your first one and share the link today.

Get startedSee publisher pricing