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FAQs

Please read everything below before submitting to BeWrite Books.

For Novelists

BeWrite Books invites submissions from established authors but will also consider work from so far unpublished writers.

We will not accept:

• Works in Progress: please send only samples from completed manuscripts.
• Manuscripts under 60,000 or over 130, 000 words.
• Manuscripts for children (Young Adult novels must appeal to a readership of sixteen or above).
• Erotica or works of a pornographic or gratuitously violent nature.
• Works expressing extremist racial, political or religious views.
• Non-fiction books including autobiographies, biographies, cookery, health, or self-help books whether of a practical or *inspirational* nature.
• Stage or screen plays.
• Fan fiction.
• Manuscripts in paper form.
• Works in languages other than English.
• Manuscripts previously published in print.
• More than one submission per person.
• Sole-author short story collections.

By submitting to BeWrite Books, the author is specifying that a work is not currently on offer to any other publisher or agent. Please also see our privacy statement.

Submissions

1. Please fill in the submission form and attach the following:

• the synopsis (1,000 words maximum),
• the first 1,000 words of your manuscript and
• another 1,000 words chosen from within the book in the SAME attachment.

NOTE: A synopsis must not be confused with the 'blurb' on the back of a paperback or jacket of a hardback, which is intended to grab the attention of a potential reader. Our acquisition editors don't want to be teased or kept in suspense; they need to know the whole story from start to finish ... and they need it in a nutshell.
The synopsis for BeWrite Books should be a maximum of 1,000 words and should sketch the characters, their motivations, and highlights of the story including the ending. Unlike the novel itself, the synopsis should tell and not show.

Please read and follow the BeWrite Books manuscript layout requirements described below and adjust your ms accordingly, even on submission of sample words. Failure to comply could result in your work being rejected unread.

You will normally receive notification of receipt of a submission within two weeks. However, the evaluation process can take much longer. The time between acceptance of a submission and publication is largely a matter of how long it takes to make any necessary adjustments to bring your manuscript to perfection and design and provide a cover. A rough guide would be that a standard length, well presented novel will see full publication within six to eight months of acceptance.

How To Lay Out Manuscripts for BeWrite Books

Because your work is intended for print publication, the following layout requirements must be closely followed (these are requirements and not merely guidelines. Valuable professional editorial time cannot be spent on such basics).

BeWrite Books' own 'house style' rules basically follow current print publishing standards. Some requirements, however, follow 'house rules' particular to BeWrite Books. These are emphasised below in italics and must also be adhered to before work will be considered.

1. All proposals to BeWrite Books must be submitted using the BeWrite Books submission form. No hard copy or work in any other electronic format will be accepted. The only formats we can accept are MS Word or RTF.
2. All copy including title, sub titles, author byline and text must be in 10pt Times New Roman. Unless for special effect (and clearly noted in brackets within the manuscript) only italics should be used for special emphasis, etc. No underlined words, phrases or paragraphs will be accepted under any circumstances. Words in all capitals and/or bold font should be avoided wherever possible. Headers, footers, and page numbers must not be used.
3. The author's name (or pen name with true name in brackets) must follow the title in manuscript. Title, author's name and any headings should be in lower-case 10pt Times New Roman font. Author's work must be defined as complete with the words 'The End'. Failure to include the author's name will result in manuscripts being rejected. Failure to clearly mark the end of a work with 'The End' will be viewed as defining a work in progress, therefore also resulting in rejection.
4. Manuscripts must not be 'justified' nor should lines be laid out in any way other than toward the left margin. Words (lines of poetry, songs, quotes, etc) intended to be 'centred' should be marked for such treatment in brackets in a note to the editor but kept, like all other text in the original ms, to the left margin.
5. The first word of the opening paragraph of a chapter, chapter section or short story or short story section must be tight to the left-hand margin.
6. The first word of following paragraphs must be consistently indented (choose whether to use either six spaces or 0.25cms - but be consistent).
7. Lines should be spaced at 1.25 or 1.5cms
8. There must be no line breaks between paragraphs (i.e. no blank line between paragraphs).
   Between sections there should be two line breaks (i.e. two blank lines between the end of one section and start of the next).
   At the end of one chapter there should be three line breaks before the chapter heading of the next chapter (i.e. three blank lines between the end of one chapter and the chapter heading of the next chapter. Note: this means that each chapter does not start on a fresh page).
   Between the chapter heading and the first line of the chapter, there should be two line breaks (i.e. two blank lines between the chapter heading and the first line of the chapter).
9. Punctuation must be consistently followed by only ONE space.
10. All figures of one hundred or less must be fully written out and hyphenated (twenty-three) unless to reflect normal visual usage as in a street, bus or train number (SAS Flight 707).
11. Double quotation marks should be used around dialogue. Words or hearsay quotes within main dialogue must be in single quotation marks. Anything outside main dialogue (including unspoken thoughts) requiring quotes must be within single quotation marks. Where practical, unvoiced thoughts, song or book titles, signs, etc. should be presented in italics rather than within single quotes. (Where a manuscript uses a single quote system for dialogue, this will be accepted if it is consistent and the quotation mark rules above should be reversed).
12. Pre-attributed dialogue must open with a colon and not a comma and dialogue must start with a capital letter. eg. Krass the Invader said: "It is a good day for a cup of tea." Consistently incorrect punctuation around dialogue will lead to rejection. When it is a simple slip of the fingers, we will make adjustment. But an editor will quickly lose patience if the same basic mistakes are made repeatedly and will return your copy for author revision. (Where single quotes have been accepted for dialogue, the quote should be introduced with a comma rather than a colon).
13. Because of international readership, the first use of a phrase or term to be used thereafter as initials must be spelled out. eg: Member of Parliament (MP), Military Police (MP), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Managing Director (MD).
14. Spelling may be in US or UK English standard. But it must be consistent throughout the ms.
15. Common abbreviations (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, Sgt, St (street), St (saint), Col, Gen, HW, MD, etc.) should not be followed by a full stop (period) … sir and lady should always be in lower-case unless intended as a title (Sir Harold and Lady Peevish of Wigan Hall) or for intended emphasis.
16. Be as correct as possible with grammar and spelling. Editors do not expect perfection, only genuine effort. Editors do expect proper names to be correct. The use of Edinboro, Gen Pattern or Sod'em Hussein will discredit everything in your work.
17. Automatic spelling and grammar checks must be used before submission, but only as a guide. If it becomes obvious that a spellchecker or replace-all facility has been used for convenience only, and the result not afterwards properly proofed by eye, a manuscript will be returned for correction. For instance, should you decide to change the name Rod to Rob with a replace-all function and make an error, we will not go through the tedious mechanics necessary to correct the resulting tRobdens and pRobdeds in your copy any more than, vice versa, will we go to the trouble of fixing daylight Rodberies and other pRodlems. The manuscript would be returned for your own adjustment.
18. Unusual spellings of words, names, place names, etc. must be checked and the author must confirm by inserting in text (correct spelling).
19. Everything presented as fact must carry the rider (source material available).
20. Be especially careful in the use of capital letters when defining job description. Do you mean a president or the President, a church or the Church, a prince or the Prince, a chief or the Chief? Do not use capitals for lower job descriptions like manager, head waiter, chef, foreman or editor.
21. 66 or 99? If using 'smart' quotes (preferred), be sure that apostrophes are presented the right way around. Be sure to check that in all cases where you mean an apostrophe to signify possession (John's nose) or to stand in place of a clipped letter in a word (gone fishin'), it is in the shape of a closing single curly quote (9). Erroneous apostrophes can be reversed by holding down the ctrl key and double tapping the apostrophe key. It is, again, something any editor would expect an author to see to before submission as correcting the error throughout a manuscript is a tedious, purely mechanical job.
22. When using dashes -- or ellipses … dashes must be presented in full or as a double hyphen to distinguish them from regular hyphens, and ellipses must include THREE dots -- no more … no less. Both dashes and ellipses must be spaced either side … like this -- or this. The only exception is when they are used to curtail a word. For instance: Jamie said: "What do you mean by this intrus…" George cut him short. "You know exactly what I mean, you hypocrite."
23. Punctuation must be kept within double quotation marks and outside singles (or vice versa if a manuscript is presented using single quotes for dialogue). Repeated use of bad punctuation around dialogue will result in rejection or the return of a manuscript for author adjustment.
24. Proof read your copy thoroughly several times before submission. If possible also have it proof read by a non-partisan reader (friends and family can often be not at all objective).

Any potential BeWrite Books author whose work is to be taken to edit must know how to use the 'comments' facility in 'Word'. We use this exclusively for editing. If this poses a problem, please ask for our own simple instructions.

For Poets

BeWrite Books invites poetry submissions from both established and unpublished poets. We are looking for original, high quality work that presents an unusual perspective. Although all forms and styles of poetry are welcome, we typically discourage work that relies heavily on abstract concepts such as love, death or depression.

Much like the fiction department, we also do not accept:

• Works in progress: only samples from completed manuscripts are accepted.
• Manuscripts for children
• Erotica or works of a pornographic or gratuitously violent nature.
• Works expressing extremist racial, political or religious views.
• Manuscripts in paper form.
• Works in languages other than English.
• Manuscripts previously published in print.
• More than one submission per person.

BeWrite Books has previously published works by Tony Lewis-Jones, A. Gregory Frankson, Heather Grace Stewart, Kathryn McLoughlin Collins, and John G. Hall. BeWrite aims to publish two to three poetry collections per year, depending on the number and quality of submitted manuscripts. Typically, the process of full print publication can take four to six months per book. Submissions are welcome year-round. Editor will respond in up to 3 months.

How to Submit:

Failure to comply with the following requirements could result in your work being rejected unread.

• Fill in the submission form and attach no more than ten poems from your completed manuscript. All proposals must be submitted using the BeWrite Books submission form; do not directly email any member of the BeWrite editorial team with a submission. No hard copy or work in any other electronic format will be accepted. The only formats we can accept are MS Word or RTF.
• Do not send the entire manuscript.
• Author's name (or pen name with true name in brackets) must follow the title in the submission.
• Please also include a brief biography, including previous publications and writing experience.
• All submissions are strongly requested to adhere to the following format; 10-to-12-point type only, preferably in Arial or Times New Roman; black ink; no bolds, underlined words or phrases, and no pictures or illustrations included.
• Spelling may be in US or UK English standard, but must be consistent throughout.
• Be as correct as possible with grammar and spelling; we do not expect perfection, only genuine effort. Proof-read your copy thoroughly several times before submission; if possible, also have it proof-read by a non-partisan reader (friends and family can not always remain objective).
• If you are an aspiring poet, however, who does not yet have a full collection, but are building towards one and you want to see if your work is to our poetry editor's taste, then send a sample along to the Select Six

By submitting to BeWrite Books, the poet is specifying that a work is not currently on offer to any other publisher or agent. Please also see our privacy statement.

Cait Myers (Publisher)
caitmyers@bewrite.net

Click here for the BeWrite Books Submission Form

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Refunds will be given at the discretion of the Company Management. 
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