Submissions

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We are currently open for both agented and un-agented manuscript submissions. Please submit your manuscript in an email to submissions@splinterpress.com. Include a query letter in the body of the email, and your manuscript (the first three chapters only) as an attachment. A few general guidelines to keep in mind:

  1. Query Letters
    • Query letters should be 600 words or less, in the body of your submission email.
    • Include information about your manuscript, including the title, genre, intended audience, and total word count.
    • Share details about yourself as the author, including contact information.
  2. Manuscripts:
    • Attach the first three chapters only, including a prologue, if any. 
    • Your submission must be double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman with one-inch margins. Send your manuscript as a Word document attachment or Google Doc link. No PDFs.
    • We publish manuscripts between 40,000 words and 140,000 words in length.
    • We do not publish books with excessive profanity or sexually explicit scenes.
    • The genres we accept include uniquely engaging science fiction, fantasy, dystopian, science-fantasy, and other speculative genres for adults and young adults. We do not accept submissions in middle grade or children’s literature at this time.
  3. General guidelines:
    • After receiving your submission, we may 1) request that you revise and resubmit, 2) request the first ten chapters or your full manuscript, or 3) reject your manuscript for publication. We will notify you in an email once the decision has been made. You can expect a response in around eight weeks.
    • Do not send duplicate manuscripts. If you do not receive a response within eight weeks, please email again with any questions rather than submitting again.
    • If your manuscript was sent to multiple publishers, please contact us immediately if it is picked up elsewhere (if still within the eight-week period).

CONTRACT

Splinter Press currently publishes through e-book and print-on-demand services such as  Amazon and IngramSpark, among many others. One of the benefits of this is that, while we don't offer high advances, we are able to offer our authors higher royalties than they are likely to find with a bigger publisher. Some of the other highlights of our Splinter Press contract include: 

  1. We have in-house developmental editors, line editors, and copyeditors to help make manuscripts the best they possibly can be. You can expect several months of rigorous editing (by you and us) before publication. We also have amazing cover designers and formatters, and will keep you included during the design. The entire process usually takes somewhere between five and twelve months after signing the contract.
  2. Your already high royalties rise automatically after a certain number of your books are sold.
  3. We publish e-books, print, and eventually audio books for each of our authors.
  4. We will continue to promote and sell your book for as long as we possess the rights to do so. But if ever the worst were to happen and we were no longer selling copies of your book, the full rights would automatically revert to you.
  5. We can publish previously published works as long as you currently hold all publishing rights.

While we do promotion and marketing for every book we publish, be prepared to be heavily involved in promotion via social media and appearances for your book and brand. We believe you are the best advocate for your book!

We look forward to working with you!