How does it work?
Submit information about your book idea, through our online form. Click on the Apply link at the top right of this page.
Our mentor panel will evaluate all the entries we receive and shortlist 10 finalists. The finalists get a chance to pitch their book idea to a jury, get feedback and make connections for potential publishing opportunities. The LitMart finals pitch event will be held at the Bangalore Literature Festival on 6-7 Dec 2025.
What to submit?
A 250 to 500-word proposal/synopsis covering the story idea, background and/or characterization and/or plot summary along with an excerpt or a chapter from your manuscript (1-4 pages). LitMart is open to English language submissions only across fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry.
What is the selection procedure?
Submissions will be accepted only via the online submission form. 10 finalists will be selected. Finalists will be required to confirm their ability to attend the LitMart pitch event at the Bangalore Literature Festival.
LitMart Pitch Format
The format for the final pitches could be in any format that suits the book idea best – storytelling, short video, slide deck, short play or musical, dance, stand-up, improv – really, anything, as long as it is within THREE minutes. The pitch will be followed by a short Q&A from the jury. Pitching will be in front of a live audience.
Timelines
The deadline for submissions is 11pm IST on Sunday, 16th November 2025.
The 10 finalists will be notified on or before 10pm on 23rd November 2025 via individual emails.
Terms & Conditions
- Only unpublished authors can apply to participate in LitMart and the pitch competition accepts only unpublished work.
- However, if you have previously self-published other work, please disclose this at the time of applying.
- An individual is allowed to submit a maximum of 2 entries only.
- An entry submitted for ScreenLit cannot be submitted for LitMart.
- The Bangalore Literature Festival is only a facilitator via LitMart to connect aspiring authors with literary agents, commissioning editors and publishers. We do not guarantee or commit to any publication deals or commercial contracts from the event.
- LitMart is a platform for feedback and not a competition. The decisions and feedback of the jury is theirs alone and the Festival does not have any influence on the same.
Jury
Ameena Hussein
Bio
Ameena Hussein is a Sri Lankan author and co-founder of the Perera-Hussein Publishing House. Her non-fiction book Chasing Tall Tales and Mystics: Ibn Battuta in Sri Lanka won the State Literary Prize for Humanities, 2020. Her novel The Moon in the Water was longlisted for the
Man Asian Literary Award and the Dublin IMPAC.
Arunava Sinha
Bio
Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern, and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Bengali and Hindi into English. He also translates fiction and poetry from English and Hindi into Bengali. Over 90 of his translations have been published so far in India, the UK, the USA, and Australia. He teaches at Ashoka University, where he is also the co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation, he mentors young translators, and he is the Books & Ideas Editor at Scroll.
Chaitanya Srivastava
Bio
Chaitanya Srivastava is a communications and PR strategist currently looking after marketing at Bloomsbury Publishing. Previously, he led publicity and marketing at Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, where he blended traditional publicity with digital storytelling to champion award-winning, bestselling, and critically acclaimed authors. His campaigns have won awards from the Singapore Book Publishers Association in both 2024 and 2025. Outside publishing, Chaitanya writes on books, culture, and lifestyle for Scroll India, Esquire, Elle, and The Federal.
Deepthi Talwar
Bio
Deepthi Talwar is an Editor with Westland.
Himanjali Sankar
Bio
Himanjali’s written many books for children and some for adults. Mrs C Remembers, her first novel for adults, won her the FICCI Award for Upcoming Author of the Year. She’s pleased that her latest novel, The Burnings, has made family and friends worry about what lives inside her head.
Karthik Venkatesh
Bio
Karthik Venkatesh is Executive Editor with Penguin Random House India where he commissions and edits non-fiction and fiction. He is the author of two books for young adults: 10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be and 10 Makers of the Indian Constitution and the editor of Where The Gods Dwell.
Kanishka Gupta
Bio
Kanishka Gupta runs Writer’s Side Literary Agency, the leading South Asian agency he founded in India. Among his notable authors are Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi (International Booker winners for Heart Lamp, 2025), Daisy Rockwell (International Booker winner for Tomb of Sand, 2022), Avni Doshi (Burnt Sugar, shortlisted for Booker prize 2020), and Jerry Pinto (Windham-Campbell prize, 2016). He has worked closely with the 2022 Booker winner, Shehan Karunatilaka on multiple projects.
In addition to his publishing endeavors, Kanishka curated a critically acclaimed series for Scroll.in titled “Publishing and the Pandemic.” This series features comprehensive reports, commentaries, and first-person accounts detailing the impact of the pandemic on publishing in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. If you are interested, you can access the series through this link: Publishing and the Pandemic.
Meenakshi Singh
Bio
With over fifteen years of experience in the publishing industry, Meenakshi leads marketing and publicity initiatives, overseeing brand strategy, communications, and campaign execution for a leading publishing house. Her expertise lies in building a book’s presence and connecting authors with their audiences through innovative and impactful public relations and marketing campaigns.
Sayantan Ghosh
Bio
Sayantan Ghosh is the editorial director of Simon & Schuster India. His writings have appeared in Ambit Magazine, Electric Literature, The Quint, Firstpost, The Telegraph, The Hindu Business Line, The Times of India and numerous other publications. He was awarded the Editor of the Year award at the Publishing Next Industry Awards 2023. His first novel, Lonely People Meet, was published by Bloomsbury India in October 2025. He lives in New Delhi.
Rashmi Menon
Bio
Rashmi Menon is Associate Publisher at HarperCollins India. She has been a part of publishing for seventeen years, commissioning and editing many bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction. Rashmi loves acquiring books that are both timely and timeless. When reading too many manuscripts makes her go cross-eyed, she switches to audiobooks in her non-stop quest to decode bestsellers.
“If you can’t describe a book in one or two pithy sentences that would make you or your mother want to read it, then of course you can’t sell it.”