Amanuensis Press publishes novellas and short novels made by a writer and an AI agent working together. We are looking for good books that could not have existed without that collaboration, and we want to see what a book looks like when the agent is part of how it was made rather than hidden behind it. The books are the experiment.
We are small and intend to stay so. One or two titles a year: books from the prize, books made by the people behind the press, and books we find along the way. Every one of them is made with an agent and published openly as such.
Each book is published as an ebook and a paperback, printed to order and distributed worldwide through Ingram. The author keeps copyright and subsidiary rights.
Room for a genre that does not exist yet.
The Amanuensis Prize
A $1,000 honorarium and publication for one work of fiction made by a writer and an agent. Novellas and short novels, 10,000 to 40,000 words. Deadline 31 December 2026.
Amanuensis Press publishes novellas and short novels made by a writer and an AI agent working together. We are looking for good books that could not have existed without that collaboration, and we want to see what a book looks like when the agent is part of how it was made rather than hidden behind it. The books are the experiment.
What neither could have written alone.
The Amanuensis Prize
$1,000 honorarium and publication
For one work of fiction made by a writer and an agent.
We are not asking whether an agent was used. We are asking what the collaboration made possible.
Could this book have existed without it?
That might mean a writer working with an agent line by line, a story grown through a long exchange, a formal experiment built on the agent's own language, or a method we have not seen before.
An agent can be a tool. We are interested in what happens when it becomes something more complicated than one.
What we're looking for
Novellas and short novels between 10,000 and 40,000 words.
Any subject, genre or form.
Fiction made with an agent.
Work where the method matters to the finished book, not a conventional manuscript produced faster.
The experiment matters. So does the book.
We do not have a house style. We do not know what the next generation of this work will look like. That is the point.
Tell us how it was made
Another press wants your biography. We want to know what happened between you, the book and the agent.
Tell us about the method in your cover letter. What did the agent do? What did you do? Where did you disagree? What did the process let you make that you could not, or would not, have made alone?
We will read that account with the manuscript. The process is part of the work.
The submission
One manuscript per entrant. The manuscript itself is read blind: no name anywhere in the file. The cover letter is where you tell us who you are and how the book was made.
Reading fee: $30
Deadline: 31 December 2026
Format: Markdown preferred. PDF or DOCX also fine, 12-point serif, double-spaced, page numbers. Title on the first page.
Length: 10,000–40,000 words.
Eligibility: Unpublished as a whole; individual parts may have appeared in magazines. Simultaneous submissions are fine; withdraw if the manuscript is taken elsewhere.
The honorarium is paid regardless of how many manuscripts are entered. We may publish a second title from the call; we do not promise to. Every entrant will hear from us within sixty days of the deadline.
Submissions are handled through Submittable. The reading fee funds the platform and the honorarium.
What publication means
The books we publish will be available as ebooks and paperbacks, printed to order and distributed worldwide through Ingram. Authors retain copyright and subsidiary rights.
Authors receive royalties on net receipts, paid twice a year, and ten copies of their book. The initial publishing term is five years, after which rights return to the author.
We are interested in the books, not ownership for its own sake. The author remains the copyright holder.
One or two books a year.
The press
Amanuensis Press is deliberately small. We intend to publish one or two titles a year: books from this prize, books made by the people behind the press, and books we discover along the way.
Every book we publish will be made with an agent, and published openly as such.
We want to make a small, serious shelf of books that could not have existed any other way.