TIPS for authors making a submission

1. Don’t tell us your book is for everyone or anyone – we can’t market a book to everyone!

Along with this we don’t want to hear phrases like “This book is for…
… all business owners
… everyone who wants to get ahead in life
… anyone who wants to be happy
… anyone between the ages of 25 and 65
… kids
… parents of kids
… anyone who was ever a kid
I think you get our point.

2. Don’t tell us it’s unique unless you’ve taken a field huge steps ahead and no one in the whole world has done anything like this before – that’s unique.

Tell us what’s different – it doesn’t have to be unique but it does have to be good and different.

For help with points 1 and 2 read our book Brand Power, which will be out soon.

3. Tell Us There ARE Other Books In This Genre – That’s Good!

If there are other books it means there’s a market and as long as you’ve written a great book then we’ll be able to sell it.

One way to check if your target market exists is to have a look at what magazines exist for them. If you find trillions of magazines, with a nice high price tag, it tells you two things: 1. people in your target market can read! 2. they spend money on reading! Both conclusions sound facile, but this is the truth – you need people who are prepared to spend money to read what you write, otherwise, don’t write it.

4. Don’t Try To Be Funny Just Be Yourself – advice from my Mom

If you’re not funny then please don’t try to be, really, you’re great just as you are. We want you to write naturally and with feeling. If you are funny, then that’s great too.

My mom’s other advice was “Don’t try to be clever, just be yourself” – so don’t try so hard to use big words or clever phrases!

Write for my mom!

5. Don’t take offense if we say no.

We will wherever possible give you some feedback on your submission. It will not be personally directed at you – it will be about your manuscript and our suitability as the publisher.

It may be blunt. It may be a short email, with what we think is valuable advice. This advice is free. Delete it if you don’t like it, we don’t mind!

Don’t take it personally and don’t give up. And remember we reject 97% of applications, so you’re in the majority!

6. Finally, check what books we want to publish before submitting!

Please don’t send submissions of your drawings of faeries, ghosts or goblins. Don’t send submissions of poems, children’s books or conspiracy theories. We will not be interested in publishing them.

And for everyone worried about making a submission, we’re nice people really – follow our rules and we’ll get back to you quickly with a decision!

Debs & Joe

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