Hera Books has stepped in to sponsor the Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) Prize following HarperFiction’s withdrawal.
The Canelo-owned, female-led publisher became involved after it was revealed last month that HarperFiction had stepped down as a sponsor. Hera Books will help judge the entries and publish the final unpublished category winner’s manuscript.
Publisher Keshini Naidoo told The Bookseller: “Female comedy, not just in this sphere, but in general, is really marginalised and something like the Woodhouse Prize doesn’t centre women’s voices; there’s such a wealth of clever, acerbic women writing and they don’t get their due.
“The prize, with its mission of amplifying witty, accessible and commercial women’s fiction from a range of voices, perfectly matches Hera’s roots as a women-led publisher. In a world in which we are beset by dark news on a daily basis we need levity more than ever – and that’s why CWIP’s mission is not only admirable but deeply important, and we are honoured to be uniting with them to bring the winner of the Unpublished Prize to the market.”
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Hera Books is a female-fronted publisher that launched in 2017 “to democratise the publishing process and have a non-agented pipeline, to find more of a range of voices”, and Naidoo said that this ethos helped influence her decision to support the award.
“As a publisher who regularly acquires works from unagented authors in an effort to break down industry gatekeeping, which can be especially daunting to authors from marginalised backgrounds, we’re well versed in publishing authors with no agent or publishing experience, which makes this partnership with the CWIP Unpublished Prize such a good fit.”
Naidoo added: “The Hera publishing roster includes authors like Nancy Peach and Kathleen Whyman, who have been previously shortlisted for the CWIP Unpublished prize, so we know that there’s a wealth of writing talent just waiting to be discovered, and we can’t wait to get started on reading the submissions.”
Last month, founder Helen Lederer also revealed a new self-published category and more focus on “wit”, with other supporters including US publisher Atmosphere Press, publisher Fuzzy Flamingo and cosmetics founder Eve Lom.
Lederer said: “I’m so excited for CWIP 2025 – Our new publisher Hera has a proven track record in championing witty women writers and by adding a self-published category to ‘big up’ the intrepid self-published authors out there – we’re really hitting our target of empowerment through wit. And of course, we can’t wait to read the array of published witty women’s novels – because frankly do we need a laugh.”
Nick Courtright, founder of Atmosphere Press, told The Bookseller: “CWIP is such a wonderful prize, giving great opportunities to funny literary talent, and we need more of that in this crazy world. I’m especially glad that it’s now open to hybrid published and self-published authors, as these writers have taken the matter of getting their work out there into their own hands. CWIP is the best way to recognize this important – and hilarious – talent.”
Entries for the prize open on 14th April. For more information, visit comedywomeninprint.co.uk.
