She Writes Press Toward Equality in Publishing

Submissions will be open for the 7th Annual STEP contest from June 15–August 31.

The 2025 winners will be announced by the end of October 2025.

Please visit us next spring for 2026 contest news and dates.

Since 2018, we’ve been proud to play a role in the much-needed elevation of women writers of color.

Each year, we run our She Writes Press Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest to offer two women authors publishing packages (plus a 500-book print run), one author per season, with She Writes Press. The purpose of this contest is to support inclusivity across our own lists, and to fortify our own mission to give voice to women writers.

Both packages include the full services of the She Writes Press Publishing Package (each valued at $15,000):

Custom interior design for up to 100,000 words
Custom cover design
E-book file conversion and upload to 130+ distribution partners
Traditional distribution to the trade via Simon & Schuster
Proofreading of the final manuscript
Copyright filing and obtaining your Library of Congress control number
Warehousing of short-run printed books
Preordering and fulfillment of all orders
Support of the book through the production schedule and post-publication by an assigned editorial manager

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:

The STEP recipients will be selected on the basis of the merit of each entry, which consists of a query letter, full chapter summaries, and the first 50 pages of the work. You can also submit a query letter and a full-length nonfiction book proposal. We will ask as part of the submission process that you tell us about your heritage or background.

Contest Parameters

NO FEE TO ENTER
SUBMISSIONS OPEN FROM JULY 15, 2025 TO AUGUST 31, 2025

WHO CAN ENTER:

One entry per person. Open to the all countries and regions. Entries for the STEP program are accepted from July 15, 2025 through August 31, 2025. Entrants must satisfy all the following requirements:

Anyone over the age of eighteen
Women only (a writer identifying as female/woman, trans, non-binary, or genderqueer)
Women of color (by which we mean people whose heritage is African; Indigenous to the Americas and Australia; Latinx; Asian/Pacific Islander; Arab; or people of mixed racial heritage with one or two parents who fit into the above groups).
Agented or unagented work qualifies

JUDGING PROCESS:

She Writes Press Publisher Brooke Warner enrolls industry professionals to review and vet the submissions. Our external judges and internal editorial team review the submissions to select the top five finalists. The top five contenders will be contacted BY mid- September 2025. Lastly, a panel of diverse published authors and literary agents will select the two STEP winners, who will be announced by early October 2025. The top five contenders and the two winners will also be contacted directly via email.