Book Submissions

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & ADVICE
James Russell Publishing
jrpub2002@yahoo.com
JamesRussellPublishing.com

If you are new to the publishing world the advice below will be of value to you, including the links to other sites that will get you started. Please review the following and visit our Web site for query letter drafting advice. See #14 for our Home Page link.

GOOD ADVICE

You must have a "completed" manuscript ready for publication. If all you have is a great idea for a book and no product for us to see, you are wasting time and effort. Few publishers will accept such submissions from unknown writers. Best advice? Write the book, then submit the manuscript to publishers. Send the manuscript in separate unbound sheets, unless otherwise instructed. However, if you are an experienced writer, you may submit your book "proposal." We do not publish works for hire projects. We pay straight royalties. See #15.

The synopsis you send to us should be no more than one page. We don't need to know all of your qualifications, so don't send us an exhaustive biography. We have many prestigious persons with Ph.D. and Doctorate degrees contacting us. Great credentials, but many have terrible book manuscripts. We want a good book. We can't sell credentials. Best advice -- read books on how-to write compelling stories for novels and books on basic communicative and technical writing for how-to books.

Include an S.A.S.E. (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) with any query mailed by the U.S. Postal Service to receive a response from us. See #4. Include an S.A.S.E. for the manuscript, if we request you to send the manuscript and if you want the manuscript returned.

Never send a manuscript unless we specifically write you to do. For legal reasons we can't read unsolicited manuscripts. Do not send manuscript or query letters certified or registered mail. First Class, Special standard or Priority mail is fine. If you require a receipt, enclose a Self Addressed Postcard or two S.A.S.E.'s and we'll mail it to you when the manuscript arrives to us. Save money, use the U.S. Postal Service "Special Standard" (book rate) mail. The extra speed using Priority or First-Class mail often does not speed up the process. Your manuscript must wait its turn to be read. It can take from 30 to 90 days to evaluate. Never send manuscripts to publishers or agents using FedEx, Airborne, UPS, or Airborne. It does not speed up anything and can even serve to tip off an amateur submission is being delivered.

Mail manuscript on paper, not computer disk. Single or double-spaced is fine. See: 20 Submission Tips for Authors. Do not send an original. You must send a photocopy or computer printed copy. Do not use any sort of binding unless otherwise instructed or your book is already a bound version otherwise all pages must be loose. Expect the manuscript to be not in perfect shape, if returned. They often are damaged from shipping and handling of the manuscript, and we often mark the pages with an ink pen inserting helpful advice. If your manuscript is rejected, these notes can be helpful for you to correct the errors. Many publishers will not do this, but we do, so you will know why a rejection occurred. Make sure you do not send us an original! See #4 above. Note: publishers must have manuscripts available on computer disk. You must own a computer!

Include S.A.S.E. if you need your manuscript returned. If you do not want it returned, state so in your manuscript cover letter and we will destroy the manuscript if we can't publish the book. The manuscript cover letter is a letter you send along with your manuscript. It could be a single page synopsis. It is not a query letter. There are books at the bookstore that explain the difference between query letters, synopsis, outlines and cover letters. You should read them! When shipping your manuscript to a publisher or agent, you should use a cardboard box or bubble envelope. For the manuscript S.A.S.E. you can use a smaller box or a Tyvek or corrugated envelope. Never send those cushion envelopes stuffed with fine paper fibers. When opened they make a terrible mess! Not a nice way to make a good first impression. A source for shipping supplies is BrownCor 800-327-2278. Ask for a catalog. Using a large bubble envelope to mail the manuscript, using a smaller bubble envelope for the S.A.S.E. is the economical. The most economical of all is not to include an S.A.S.E. at all and just print another manuscript when needed. You'll save money in postage and always be submitting a fresh, clean manuscript.

Do not call. However, you may e-mail us. Don't be overly eager, just contact us on occasion. Monthly is fine. If you have important information you feel we need to know about your book? Go ahead and e-mail us. Whenever you contact us, make certain you mention the title of your book, as that is how we categorize our files to find your book and other pertinent information.

Check your spelling and grammar in all your submission materials. Be professional. Publishers and literary agents take seriously writers who have a "finished " product ready for production. You should always have your manuscript professionally edited before you send it to any agent or publisher. This will absolutely reduce rejections and get your book published! Remember, when your book is reviewed by the media that will determine if your book sells or not. Do not give the reviewer a chance to rant and rave on the negative aspects of your book. You have invested many hours writing your book. Invest in a proofreader to edit your book so it can be published. To do less is to invite repeated rejection and failure. See #13 and #34.

If you have an agent, you must inform us who they are with full name and contact information in your query or cover letter.

. We have posted on our Web site helpful tips on how to write an effective query letter to agents/publishers, with a sample query letter you can use as a basis. Improving your query letter is the best investment you can make to sell your book.

. You do not need to be a fabulous writer to be published. You don't need a college degree. What you do need is writing and communication skills to have a great book. You can obtain these skills from reading writing how-to books. We have books on our Web site for writers. You can even hire a professional writer to rewrite your book. Ghostwriters are listed on Web sites and in Writer's Digest Magazine. Many famous authors use the services of ghostwriters, so should you. See #13.

. Read books similar to what you plan to write, so you have an idea of how the writer communicated the subject matter. You could likely do better. That's what you'll have to do in order to compete with other books much like yours in the marketplace!

. Writer's Digest Book Club, listed in the Writer's Digest Magazine, is a great way to obtain books at discount prices. http://www.writersdigest.com Here's the subscription phone number 800-333-0133. It won't hurt to first ask for a complimentary issue, so you can decide if you wish to subscribe. Many magazines routinely send a free sample issue to those who ask.

. We have plenty of advice on our Web site, so make sure you visit and read all the pages of advice. It will help you in a major way to get you started.

. We are not a vanity or subsidy press. We do not co-publish books. You do not pay any fee to have your book published.

We strongly advise you read the data we have written on our Web site before you submit any manuscript to a publisher or agent. You will discover valuable information to submit professionally. The advice will save you much grief and enhance your standing with publishers and agents. We also have links to books for writers you will find to be of great interest and value to you.

If we publish your book it will be published in paperback and in e-book form. Many publishers still do not publish their books electronically.

. There are markets for your book you may have completely overlooked. You may consider adapting your book into a stage play, screenplay, AV (audio video script) or television script. See our Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets book.

. Visit our Advice for Authors page.

. Getting your book published is an arduous process. There are many protocols to follow. Each publisher has their own unique procedures that makes it ever more difficult for writers to meet so many variant submission requirements. However, there is nothing that can be done to change it. Many publishers won't even accept a query letter unless you have an agent. Things are tough out there! These guidelines will help you submit your manuscript to us; it is not valid for other publishers.

. Here's a tip. Often when writers write their first manuscript, and it is repeatedly rejected, the writer gives up on it. What you should do is keep improving the manuscript, adding chapters is one method, so the book will now be more comprehensive. Of course, there are limits to size. Another method you should consider is to pay to have your manuscript professionally evaluated. This way you can correct the errors and resubmit the revised version. Then again, sometimes it is best to set the thing aside and write your next book!

. Use this basic Submission Guideline for submitting query letters to us. Once we read your query and we decide to evaluate your manuscript we will send you a separate set of Submission Guidelines for the procedures to use to mail your manuscript. A Release Form will be sent to you at that time.

. Most e-mail queries sent by authors to publishers and agents are so defective many publishers and agents have given up and no longer accept e-mail query letters. Odds are very high your e-mail (and postal mail) query letter is not up to industry standards. If this is true, in your case, you are going about the entire process all wrong and you can expect many more rejections to be forthcoming. We have a helpful page on our Web site to insure your query letter will meet professional standards to stop query letter rejections! Follow the advice and you will see a marked increase in acceptance letters to submit your manuscript! See #10 for the link.

. You will certainly benefit from the advice in this mailing and on our Web site, if you follow the advice! Remember, professional submissions with professionally written query letters is your best chance of ever getting your book published. They are the vehicles to open doors! Having the best book manuscript in the world is quite useless if you have an unprofessional and inferior query letter. Do not let your letter destroy your opportunity to be published! The query letter is so important, that's why we offer the advice for free -- to help you sell your book! And, of course, we hope you will submit your query letter to us for consideration.

. If you sent us a queary letter and you recieved this Submission Guidelines & Advice mailing with no other explanation, please re-write your query letter and resubmit it to us. Don't forgets to check you spelling! (did you see the errors here?)

. Did you see the spelling and grammar errors in #25 above? Try to find them. Answers: Received should be; received. Re-write should be; rewrite. Queary should be; query. Forgets should be; forget. You should be; your. Avoid, at all costs not to submit query letters with spelling errors. They trigger instant rejections! When you visit our Web site, you will learn more about submissions. We all make mistakes, even editors and proofreaders. But you have to catch them before you mail them! Do not rely on software spell-checkers! They can't tell the difference between; there, their, they're. Print out your query on paper and read it. Mysteriously, your eyes will miss many errors using the computer monitor!.

. When you e-mail publishers and agents are they ignoring your mail? They may not be. It could be your e-mail address is defective! Send and receive an e-mail to yourself, or a friend, and "verify" that the mail gets delivered and is "returned" to you. We receive dozens upon dozens of e-mails with defective return addresses and we can't reply! It's a good idea to test your e-mailing address often. Postal mail is still the most reliable method to use.

. Readers ask if these instructions can be used for submitting screenplays to film, TV, theatrical agents and production companies. No. The entertainment industry has an entirely different procedure. Do not even try to commingle the advice here to submit stage play, screenplays or television scripts. Visit our Web site for screenwriting advice. This also applies to the sample query letter on our Web site for book writers. The format is improper for theatrical submission. The sample letter will only function for the book industry.

. Remember, if you hire a professional ghostwriter or editor to rewrite your script and query letter the odds increase dramatically of getting your book published. It is an investment, is tax deductible and essential for success.

. We do publish e-books and paperback books. We have an e-book Question & Answer page on our Web site. According to book publishing industry predictions 50% of all books sold will be electronic in just a few years. The publishing industry is moving fast converting books to e-format. Now is the time to consider having your book published in the new electronic format. Click here to see our new e-book editions. If we do publish your e-book your book is still printed as a paperback book using the Print on Demand system and available to all markets throughout the world. This includes your paperback version. Both versions will be published.

. We are also limiting our book sizes due to market trends of smaller books. Technical books can be about 200 single-spaced pages. All other books, such as novels must come in at or above 110 single-spaced pages, but no more than 130 single-spaced pages. Screenplays 110 to 120 pages. Three-act stage plays approximately 130 up to 160 pages. Some exceptions to the above are permissible depending on the book.

. We publish screenplay and stage play scripts. See our Advice for Screenwriters page.

. You do not need a literary agent to be published, but they can open up many markets to reach publishers. Here's a Web site to find agents: http://www.literaryagent.com. Again, if you want an agent to represent you have your manuscript professionally edited before submitting it to them. If not, you will constantly be turned down for representation. Writers who employ editors succeed. Those who don't, fail. Paying for editing services is a wise investment and generates great success! See #34.

. Professional editing is expensive at $3 to $5 per page. Here's a firm that only charges $1 per page. This is a very reasonable price! http://www.1on1pub.com/. Here's another source for low cost editing Vilas Sawant. Click here on our Writing LInks for more editors. Note: you should submit your manuscript single-space and still insist on the $1 per page rate. Charging double-space text at $1 or more per page is not a good deal, even if other professionals charge more per double-space page. Proofing and editing should not cost $3 per page, unless the book is being totally rewritten by a Ghostwriter.

. Never send e-mail attachment files to any publisher or agent. Due to virus risk they will not open the files.

. Our basic guidelines for submitting your query letter:

	Query by First Class mail. See a Sample Query Letter
	Include S.A.S.E. with query.
	Do not call or fax.
	If you e-mail a query to us, do not attach files to the e-mail. Insert the query into the body of your e-mail message.
	Do not send your manuscript unless we ask for it.
	Use Postal Service Special Standard Mail to deliver manuscript.
	Make sure your manuscript has been professionally edited and is ready for publishing.
	Your manuscript should meet our page counts. See # 31.

20 VALUABLE TIPS TO GETTING PUBLISHED

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The Lord Pays The Bills! Read Malachias 3:10

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