Submit your book!

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 information about you, as the author, including best 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   • We do not publish books with excessive profanity or sexually explicit scenes.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 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 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 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, Amazon and Barnes and Noble among many others. One of the benefits of this is that 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 copy editors 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 design. The entire process usually takes somewhere between four and seven months after signing the contract.
2. Your already-high percentage of the royalties rises 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 able to sell your book, the full rights would automatically revert to you.
5. Although we do not currently provide much of a monetary advance, we do provide a number of free author copies of the hardcover, paperback, and e-book, as well as many other high-value perks including a rigorous developmental edit, formatting and typesetting, cover design, marketing, and more.

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!