Submissions
Getting Published
Getting published is a very arbitrary business and the whole process is rapidly changing and evolving due to the new technologies for Print on Demand and eBooks. The quality of a work isn’t necessarily the key – books are successful based on the amount of marketing effort and spend by the publishers and the authors themselves. After all, readers don’t know how good your book is before they buy it – they’ve just got the blurb, the front cover, maybe the first couple of paragraphs and possibly a recommendation or a review on the Internet or through social media channels.
It used to be that the only way to be considered by a publisher (like ourselves) is to get an agent, who acts as a first filter of quality for publishers. And it’s understandable – there’s some awful, really bad writing out there. It’s expensive for publishers to wade through the dreaded slush pile in the hope of finding hidden gold. However, the use of an agent introduces yet another hurdle between the author and the reader, which we find is often unnecessary. Having an agent can mean that your slice of the earnings goes down even further, and the price to the reader goes up just a little. The more links in the supply chain, the greater the complexity and the greater the total cost.
There are some handy reference sources out there. The ubiquitous Writer’s Handbook (ask at your local bookshop or library for the latest version) has plenty of contact details and some useful tips. The Bookseller magazine gives you a flavour of what drives retailers and publishers – and if you know what makes them tick, you can tailor your submissions more effectively. And, of course, there is the Internet with its vast and ever expanding communities of writers and service providers (like you and us!).
The Submissions Process
Before submitting to us please consider the following points and read our FAQs.
- We provide pre-publication author services that must be paid for (please ask us about this first).
- We do not provide ‘advances’ to authors.
Please submit your manuscript using either email or our submission form below:
* Please write in the space provided a very brief synopsis, as well as the genre of your submission.
* Upload a single document preferably in Microsoft Word (or similar) format containing your work.
* If you are submitting a novel, please send a synopsis and some chapters (3). If you are submitting non-fiction, a proposal, outline or fragment is fine but remember that the more material you can share with us, the easier it is to consider your proposal.
Alternatively email us attaching your manuscript.
Our BOOK PROPOSAL form can be downloaded here
