How the Submission Process Works

Okay, I got an email asking to see my work. What now?

If we ask you to submit material to us, first we will ask you to attach and send electronic files of a short synopsis and then the complete book manuscript all in one long file, and  in Rich Text Format.

What's a Short Synopsis?

It is an overview of the plot. Don't worry about the writing here, just "tell" us everything that happens in the main story. If your book is a mystery, you don't have to say who the villain is, but you must say how the the story is resolved--"Lt. Watkins calls all the suspects together, explains how he solved the case, names the guilty party, and arrests the villain"-- It's okay to give a hint of subplots--"subplots include a secondary love story between minor characters"-- but don't include any details. A short synopsis should not be longer than two pages, double-spaced.

What is Rich Text Format? And what's wrong  with the document files I already have?

It's quirky, I know, but we don't  support Microsoft Word, mostly because of the commands embedded in the program that make the typesetting programs we use do strange things without notice. In fact this is true of most other word processing programs as well, due to embedded commands that are part of almost all word processing programs. Converting to rich text removes those commands and saves us a great deal of work later on, if the book is accepted..
It isn't difficult. Here's how to do it:

Open your Title.doc file.  

From the "file" menu at the top, choose "save as" .

From the menu in the little window, choose Rich Text, and save the file.

You will then see a file in your list of documents that will have the same name as your original document file, but with an RTF extension. Title.rtf.

Rich Text is very much like any other text .txt file, except that it allows for special characters like Italics to remain intact.  Rich text can be read by virtually any word processing program and  saving in it  is included as an option with almost all of them.

You  want the book in one long file? Mine is saved with each chapter in a separate file. What now?

Open the first chapter file of your book, choose "save as," and name it for the whole book file. Scroll to the end of the chapter. From the "insert" menu at the top,  choose "insert file" and highlight and insert the file for Chapter Two.  Save again. Repeat this process until all the files are in the whole book file. Keep track and when you have finished, use the search function to search for "chapter" to  make sure no files were put in twice, or in the wrong order.  Don't laugh, we have done that.

What  happens after you get the file?

We cut and paste the synopsis and first three chapters into a file, remove the author's name, and email that file to the members of the Book Selection Committee. Members of the committee are volunteers, all published authors, and they meet once per month (usually on the first Saturday) to discuss the submissions and  vote on  whether to accept the book. The authors' names are removed in case a committee member may know an author. Removing the names insures the decisions are based on the work alone, not on personalities.

Why do you have a committee?

When the current publishers purchased the company, there were already books on the site by Arline Chase. It would certainly not be fair for us to make decisions about our own future work, since we are NOT a vanity press. Also having a committee ensures  a variety of tastes, so that a good sci-fi or western novel will not be returned because of anyone's personal taste. The committee has decided on whether to accept work by both the current publishers, without knowing the names of the author, and using the same process they will use to consider your work.

My book is part of a series. What if the committee doesn't like book two?

Series books are not subject to further review by the committee.

How long will it take for my book to be out if the committee says yes?

We wish we could give a definite answer. It can take between three weeks and three months to prepare a book, depending on the length and the amount of editorial work to be done, whether photos are included, etc. Further the committee accepts or declines solely on the merit of the work, and does not take into consideration the number of books already in the pipeline.  Some months they don't accept any. Last month they accepted five books.  Five books can take six months work. So everything depends--first on the nature and complexity of the work you have submitted, and then on the number of books that were already in process before yours.