PART XIII - Self Check Guidelines

 Rejections: Those who do not study the markets invite rejection slips. Below are a few of the most common reasons why we find so many manuscripts unacceptable. Avoid these rejections and you take a good few steps towards being published with us.

1 TOO LONG
Our New ChapBooks are short by traditional book lengths, running to some 30,000 words. This enables us to provide more openings for writers and still be a good 2-hours read. (We do publish longer works, but only if an after an author's first book goes down well with readers). I regret to say that your 50,000 word work is too long for us to consider for publishing.

2 TOO SHORT
Our New ChapBooks run to some 30,000 words +/ - 10% . Your 2000 word short story is to short for a book publisher.

3 ILLUSTRATIONS
Illustrations are very expensive to reproduce in book format, and can only be handled effectively by mainstream publishers who specialise in illustrated books and have the established outlets to take up the large print runs needed to cover production costs. We specialise in high quality poetry and prose, non-fiction and rattling good stand alone stories.

4 RANGE
We cater for readers world wide with a wide variety of interests. We already have an excellent western (or WWII or romance ...) on our lists. We would prefer to publish more different stories, rather than more of the same.

5 CRIME
The golden age of the detective story (ie between the two world wars) has long gone. The problem with crime writing now is that almost everything which can be written about crime has been written before and still is, in our newspapers, magazines, on radio and TV. There are still many dedicated crime readers, who tend to go for established crime busters, eg modern Sherlock Holmes, James Bonds or whatever is the latest fashion. It is very difficult to get new crime works by new authors off the ground.

6 GHOSTS
Everybody writes a ghost story! But the golden age of ghost stories (ie in the Victorian era) has long gone. As there are only about a dozen basic ghost stories, they all tend to be variations of the same old themes. Sorry this time.

7 FANTASY
We recognise that fantasy stories are very popular. But we are concerned that we live in a plastic age, bombarded by fantasy tales presented as virtual reality and are losing touch with real life human experiences. We do not want to criticise fantasy stories in any way, but we prefer to publish more realistic stories, not monsters, magicians, time travel, well-educated talking animals etc. etc. etc.

8 TRAVEL
We use the latest digital printing techniques for printing out from disk on demand, as and when required, so our books never go out of print. Some books, like travellers' tales very quickly become dated, so they are not for us.

9 TRANSLATIONS
We do publish translated works, but only if the original author is popular outside the author's own country. We find it very difficult to get foreign works by unknown authors off the ground.

10 HISTORICAL
We do publish historical novels but only if they can capture the spirit of the age and the mood of the times. We liked your tale about the two little Irish girls sailing to America to escape the Potato Famine in Ireland, but these young heroines come across not at all like Irish Waifs - they are more like 20th century well-educated English schoolgirls - ‘My dear Emily, we have very little choice in this matter. We must go on and do the best we can...'

11 VIOLENCE
We do not publish horror, eroticism, violence, or cruelty for it's own sake, unless it is an essential part of an competent story.

12 PASSIVE
We found these to be very interesting pieces, but too passive (rather than active) and slow moving to appeal to general readers world wide. We need much more active stories with action, drama, and pace to hold the readers' attention.

13 MORALISING
Thank you for your poems. We regret to say that we found these to be too moralising for general readers. People do not like to be told what to think and what not to do. They prefer to learn by their own mistakes, however painful. I can't say I blame them. Sorry this time.

14 TRUE LIFE
Adoption, leukemia, child abuse, (like many other human problems) are very serious subjects, but the novel is not the best medium for them. The novel, by definition is not wholly true, and cannot be taken too seriously. We find our True Life stories, published in our 'Looking Glass' category much more credible, and of greater use to readers with similar problems.

15 U.S. FRIENDS
We publish for a world wide audience. American history, culture, business, art, literature, films, tv, music, politics and military actions outside the US, are liable to grave misinterpretations and misunderstandings. I regret to say that your egotistical, loud-mouthed, sex mad, rootin', shootin' gun-slinging hero does nothing to alleviate this problem.

16 MULTIPLE-SUBMISSIONS
One proposal at a time please! (This is to discourage authors who send in all their previously rejected works in a bundle for us to sort out, with giving a thought to any of our publishing policies or to the requirements of our dedicated readers).

17 REVISED MSS.
We regret that we cannot reconsider any returned manuscript even if it has been revised in line with our returned comments, without a guarantee that we will publish it. That would immediately double our workload and change our role from that of a publisher/author, which we cherish to that of a tutor/student (which it not our job). All we can suggest is shelve your MS for a year (you can still write and submit anything new in the meantime). Look again at your previously returned MS with fresh eyes. Revise the bits which make you cringe, in line with our previous comments. We will then reconsider your returned MS, but make sure it fits our lists, otherwise you'll have to wait another year before re-submitting it.

SUMMARY
... seventeen closed doors? - but all is not lost! Our main entrance is wide open to welcome new authors with talent and potential. The novel is without doubt the most difficult art form to master, but what about sporting stories, biographies, local histories, true life stories? There are plenty of openings in these categories especially the more popular categories . . .

Tip... It is easy to write fiction, but very difficult to get it published. It is much harder to write non-fiction, but much, much easier to have it published!

AND FINALLY. . .We provide openings for authors with talent and potential. We continue to discover exciting new authors and typically we work with half a dozen new authors at any one time. But it is the reader who ultimately decides what should or should not be published. Our aims are to bridge the gap and provide books readers want, which mainstream publishers can't or won't publish, such as minority topics or new authors. We need to sell books to run our business efficiently and pay royalties to our authors, so we make no apologies for promoting out books, whenever we can.

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