Editorial Policy
- Comma will not publish anything that could be deemed libellous in character, or offensive to any individual or group of individuals. Any material that could be regarded as racist, sexist, ageist, ableist, homophobic, audist, transphobic, blasphemous, or offensive to minorities or any specific groups, communities, or characteristics, will not be considered, and Comma reserves the right to not respond to writers or agents representing it in any way.
- Comma only publishes works of fiction, or specially commissioned semi-fictionalised history. Unless specifically commissioned to do so, it is advisable to steer clear of real life characters, alive or dead, even disguised ones. We do not publish fictionalised biographies or works that borrow from, or develop scenes or ideas clearly taken from another author's work, whether out of copyright or not. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in our books are entirely the work of the authors' imagination (although some commissions within our 'History-into-Fiction' series may be set against a backdrop of real life events). Any resemblance of fictional characters to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
- Comma reserves the right to refuse to publish a piece of work if it contains copyrighted, trademarked or patented material (song lyrics, long quotations from other works, etc.) for which permission/re-use rights have to be sought.
- We cannot publish any formula, recipe, or other type of instruction (even in a fictional context) which, if repeated by a reader, could cause them or anyone else physical or mental harm. For a full explication of our restrictions, see our publishing contract 'boilerplates' (available on request).
- If an author is invited to submit a story to a specific anthology, this is not the same as being commissioned. In short, if the story submitted is not suitable for whatever reason (either unsuitable because it breaches some of the rules above, or unsuitable because it doesn't meet the specific book's brief, or simply because it is not up to the literary standard expected), we will not publish nor will we pay a ‘kill fee’ (i.e. a payment for something we don't publish).