From 1968 to 1975, Butterworth mostly wrote short stories for New Worlds and many anthologies of New Wave SF. He also edited the small press magazines Concentrate, Corridor and Wordworks. In 1976 he wrote The Time of the Hawklords and founded the publisher Savoy Books with David Britton. In 1977, Butterworth wrote the sequel to ...Hawklords, The Queens Of Deliria. Both books were co-credited to Michael Moorcock who has said that his involvement with the first was negligible and he had no involvement with the second at all

In 1978, Butterworth was the co-editor (with David Britton) of The Savoy Book, and in 1984, he co-edited (again with David Britton) Savoy Dreams. From 1987 to the present, he has been an editor and contributor to David Britton's Lord Horror novel and the Lord Horror and Meng & Ecker graphic series. In 1995 his work was featured in the graphic novel Ledge of Darkness illustrated by Bob Walker (part of the Hawklords series).

Butterworth and Britton fought against obscenity charges in connection with books that they published.

In 2006 Butterworth founded a new book publishing imprint under his own name, Michael Butterworth, which he runs together with Savoy Books. In 2009 he launched the annual contemporary visual arts and writing journal, Corridor8.

Novels by Butterworth

• The Time of the Hawklords (1976; co-credited to Michael Moorcock)
• Queens of Deliria (1977; co-credited to Michael Moorcock)
• Ledge of Darkness (1995; graphic novel illustrated by Bob Walker).

1999 Novelizations

• Planets of Peril
• Mind-Breaks of Space (with J. Jeff Jones)
• The Space-Jackers
• The Psychomorph
• The Time Fighters
• The Edge of the Infinite

In 2006, Michael Butterworth revised and re-ordered the episodes novelized in the above-mentioned 1999 books in a new hardcover, signed and numbered, limited edition omnibus published by Powys Media, under license from Granada Ventures. In addition, he also wrote a novelization of the episode, The Taybor, which had not been included in the original books. The author contributed a foreword as well. This omnibus was entitled: Year two

Anthologies edited

• The Savoy Book (1978) (with David Britton)
• Savoy Dreams (1984) (with David Britton)