We take three percent of submissions. Then we take them everywhere.
Trade publishing at Lighthouse is deliberately small and deliberately slow: a dedicated editor per book, covers drafted in the dozens, and distribution that reaches thirty-eight countries. No fees, ever — we pay you, starting with the advance.
The 18-stage publishing pipeline
Every stage is visible from your author dashboard the moment your book enters the list. Here is the full journey, with typical timelines.
Account & submission
Create your author account and submit online — manuscript, synopsis, and a note on who the book is for. Autosaved as you go.
Day 0Editorial review
A commissioning editor reads your submission — a person, not a queue. Everyone receives a reply; three percent receive an offer call.
Within 14 daysPlagiarism & rights check
Similarity screening via iThenticate and a permissions audit for quotes, lyrics, images and epigraphs.
Week 3Peer / reader review
Academic titles go to double-anonymous peer review; trade titles to our reader panel for structured feedback.
Weeks 3–8Offer & quotation
Trade authors receive an advance-and-royalty offer. Self-publishing authors receive a fixed, itemised quotation — no line called “miscellaneous”.
Week 9Contract
Plain-language contracts, digitally signed. Term, territory, subsidiary rights and reversion spelled out in sentences, not clauses.
Week 10Payment / advance
Advances are paid on signature, not on publication. Self-publishing invoices support UPI, cards, and instalments.
Structural editing
The big argument: structure, pacing, argument, voice. Two to four passes with your dedicated editor.
Months 3–5Line editing & proofreading
Sentence-level craft, then two independent proofreads after typesetting. Nothing ships with our name on a crooked comma.
Cover design
Original commissions — never templates. You'll see directions, not decorations; the record is 43 drafts, and it was worth it.
Interior design & typesetting
Typography chosen per book, print-proofed on the actual paper stock. Ebook and audiobook editions prepared in parallel.
Author approval
You sign off the final proofs — cover, interior, jacket copy. Nothing changes after your yes.
ISBN & registration
ISBN for every edition, copyright filing, CIP data, and Crossref DOIs for academic titles. Your book becomes a permanent record.
Printing
FSC-certified paper, thread-sewn hardcovers, and press checks our production team attends in person.
Distribution
400+ retail and library partners across 38 countries, plus Amazon, Flipkart, Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo. Warehouses in Delhi, London and Singapore.
Marketing & publicity
A named publicist, a launch plan in writing, review mailings, festival submissions and two marketing sprints in the first year.
Launch & events
Bookshop launches, university tie-ins and our own Lighthouse Evenings reading series in three cities.
Royalty dashboard
Quarterly payments, weekly-updated sales by channel and country, and statements a human can read. Forever.
OngoingOpen lists, 2026
Fiction with a long fuse
Literary novels and story collections. We are especially hungry for translations from Indian languages and first novels over 60,000 words.
Reported non-fiction
Narrative journalism, science, business and memoir. Bring receipts: we fact-check everything, joyfully.
Debuts only
Poetry and prose from unpublished writers. The Lighthouse Prize (₹5,00,000 advance) closes 31 August.