Marginalised writers are customarily employed as a form of seasonal window dressing. There is a month for every identity, a short period when a few representative authors are invited to perform their trauma for a curious public; a fleeting moment when the publishing industry undertakes a desperate bit of box-ticking and then reverts to its default settings. This is not a picture of positive publishing; this is opportunistic virtue signalling.

M2M Books has no interest in tokenistic diversity calendars; not interested in marginalised communities being offered up to the mainstream as seasonal decoration; consigned to the loft for the majority of the year; writers finding themselves exactly where they were before the brief flurry of activity; out of sight, out of mind; exposed and unsupported; publishers immediately racing on to the next marketable trend.

And in these occasional periods when publishing houses appeal for diverse manuscripts, they are often looking for a specific kind of trauma narrative composed for the Hay Festival demographic. They want to publish the Racism or Homophobia 101 explanation; a comfortable self-serving product drafted for the gaze of the well-meaning liberal. Literature of misery and existential justification.

So, while the industry awaits the next political trend to dictate what is marketable, our mission remains fixed. M2M Books is committed to curating robust literary infrastructure for a spectrum of marginalised audiences – an Internal Library that will remain available and active 365, year after year after year.

This is why our submission window does not close when a heritage month ends. Our submission window remains permanently open; the urgent need for the literary fortification of under-represented communities does not have time for an off-season.

What Submissions are M2M Books Looking For?

We prioritise the complex, the authentic, and the internal; literature that will resonate with marginalised communities, rather than books that beg the world for permission and understanding. We want to publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that offer solace, resilience, and intellectual armour to our various marginalised communities in an increasingly hostile political climate.

Sanctuary for the Serious Writer

If you are a writer who is tired of being treated like a seasonal guest, a case study, spokesperson, or representative of your community, M2M Books is your sanctuary. We are not looking for your anger or suffering to be used as an educational tool for others. We are looking for your literary craft to be deployed as fortification for your own community.

This important work continues. We are building something permanent. We are building for ourselves.

Gareth James – Chief Reader