BeWrite Books is currently open to new submissions

Introduction and Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors are advised to read all this important 2,000-word section.

Since its launch ten years ago, BeWrite Books has brought over 120 exclusive new titles to publication in paperback, each with covering full ebook versions perfectly presented in all nine current digital formats.

Although now registered as a Canadian company, the BB team works closely with authors all over the world – mostly by email and telephone but also with frequent face-to-face meetings – in both UK and US Standard English, to publish at least a dozen new titles a year. Its distributors, wholesalers and retailers have massive international reach.

We publish books in several genres – and some that defy genre – but our titles present several things in common; outstanding writing flair and story-telling ability, editorial perfection and beautiful production. Please understand that to maintain the high standard for which we have become known, we must be very selective. Acceptance of a work is the rare exception rather than the rule. We are also fastidious, so do expect a lengthy and painstaking editorial process should we offer to work with you.

It must be stressed that BeWrite Books is a small, independent operation, run on a tight budget and relying largely upon the print-on-demand production process. Sales are mostly made through major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks, etc. Although, through major international distribution and wholesale services, all our paperbacks can be ordered at brick-and-mortar book shops anywhere in the world, we do not routinely stack the shelves of high street bookstores. Some traditional stores do stock and sell BB titles and arrangements are often made with other in-town retailers – especially those local to an author – but, generally, the per-item print cost of our books means that, whilst they are competitive in cover price with the mass-produced product, the traditional sale-or-return agreement between high street retail shops and bigger publishers is difficult for us to fulfill, and that’s not an attractive deal to shopkeepers whose profits, and sometimes very survival, depends upon being able to demand full credit for unsold stock.

It must also be stressed that, although BeWrite Books pays standard industry royalties, it is not yet in a position to offer authors a royalty advance. We pay the slightly higher than normal 10% royalty on paperback and 40% on covering ebook. Where (very rarely) ebook rights only are offered, the author royalty is 25% because the multi-format ebook version alone must cover constant in-house overheads, including professional editorial, design, technical, promotional, admin, legal and marketing time and costs. Royalties are paid bi-annually and are based on net income after retail discount.

BeWrite Books is a tiny, though prestigious, house in an industry dominated by a half-dozen rightly renowned giants. It does not pretend to compete with these major houses and their ability to mass-produce and gain prominent bookshop display with their large marketing and promotional budgets. We do not yet even contend with those larger independent houses using short-run production and whose names have justly become admired through the consistent quality of their publications, often in specialized fields. Authors submitting work to us can expect a high level of in-house professional commitment if accepted, but not, realistically, to achieve best-seller status, big contract prestige or instant fame and a high level of income.

So please do carefully weigh up the pros and cons of a small but dedicated independent, operating on mainly internet marketing and PoD print production and ebooks, before submission. Assure yourself (and, by implication of submission, us) that you have exhausted possibilities in the publishing mainstream before making an approach.

We will honestly answer questions, of course, but we must assume than an author submitting to BeWrite Books knows his/her way around the internet, has done at least some homework, is willing to join us in some promotional and marketing efforts, and that his/her eyes are fully open to our undeniable limitations in some areas. If you’re at all unsure, you would be doing yourself and BB a service, before continuing, by seeking the advice of an independent source: a publishing professional, a reputable literary agent, a published author; someone you trust who has some insider knowledge of the industry and who will understand what BeWrite Books can and cannot offer you.

If you then choose to submit work to BeWrite Books, we’d appreciate your following the guidelines below. All submissions will be immediately acknowledged and professionally dealt with as soon as possible. The company apologizes in advance that, because of the heavy work load on such a small team, its editorial staff is often unable to provide detailed explanations as to why a submission must be declined. Where a full manuscript is requested on the basis of initial submission, however, an editorial report and advice will be freely provided if we must still decline an offer. Fair enough?

Agency representation is welcome, but not necessary. A sample copy of our draft author contract will be sent on request.

Please read everything below before submitting to BeWrite Books.

For Novelists:

BeWrite Books invites submissions from established authors and from so far unpublished writers.

We will not accept:

• Works in Progress. (Please only send synopses and samples from completed manuscripts.)
• Works of under 50,000 or over 130,000 (approx) words.
• Pre-published work (including work self-published in any form by its author).
• Books for children or of exclusive appeal to young adults under the age of eighteen.
• Erotica or works of pornographic or a gratuitously violent nature.
• Heavily romance-driven books, lad- or chick-lit.
• Sword and sorcery fantasy.
• Space opera-style science fiction.
• Works expressing extremist racial, political or religious views. Also no books of a religiously ‘inspirational’ nature, please.
• Stage or screen plays.
• Fan fiction.
• Short story collections.
• Non-fiction, including autobiographies and biographies, will be considered by publisher invitation only.

We can also, under no circumstances, accept land mail submissions of synopses, sample chapters or manuscripts in hard copy. All submissions must be in electronic format (Word or RTF – no PDFs please). With author and editor often separated by thousands of miles, the instant exchange of digital updates of a manuscript is the only practical way to work.

We will not consider more than one submission per author on first contact, nor will we accept a novel intended as part of a series should it not stand alone as complete story in its own right and be offered as such. We would, in fact, prefer not to be presented with series queries by authors who have not yet published a first book with us.

By submitting to BeWrite Books, the author is specifying that a work is not currently under consideration by any other publisher or agent and has not been previously published (even self-published) in print or in any electronic form.

And we ask you to read our brief and simple guidelines section below.

Also see our privacy statement.

Novel Submissions Guidelines:

*A covering email (with the subject line: title – author name – submission – date) should include a little about yourself, your general location and publishing history. If there is a special reason why you feel qualified to have written this book, please tell us.

*To this email (IN A SINGLE WORD OR RTF FILE) should be attached a brief synopsis and the first two chapters of your novel. The attachment should also carry the subject line: title – author name – submission – date. The attached synopsis and partial ms should include title, author name and the word count of the full manuscript.

NOTE: A synopsis must not be confused with the cover notes on the back of a paperback or the jacket of a hardback, which are intended to intrigue a potential reader. Our acquisition editors don’t want to be teased or kept in suspense as a browsing reader might; they need to know the whole story from start to finish ... and they need it in a nut shell.

At this stage, we do not need or want detailed character and chapter breakdown. So the synopsis for BeWrite Books should be a maximum of 1,000 words (a skilled author will be able to sketch a good tale in 500) and should lightly outline the characters and their motivations, the goals, obstacles, conflicts and highlights in the story, including the climatic ending. Unlike the novel itself, the synopsis may tell rather than show.

Submissions that do not include a synopsis will be deleted unread. Submissions and attachments that don’t carry the subject lines exactly as described above will also be deleted unread.

Please read and follow the basic BeWrite Books manuscript layout requirements below and adjust your ms accordingly, even on submission of sample words.

How to Lay Out Manuscripts for BeWrite Books

1. All copy including title, sub titles, author byline and text must be in Times New Roman. Unless for special effect (and clearly noted in brackets within the manuscript) only italics should be used for special emphasis. Words in all capitals and/or bold font should be avoided wherever possible. Headers, footers, and page numbers should not be used.
2. The author’s name (or pen name with true name in brackets) must follow the title in synopsis, sample writings and any invited full manuscript. Alongside title, please include in brackets the approximate word count of the full manuscript. Each item of an author’s work (synopsis and sample chapters) must be defined as complete with the words ‘The End’ to remove any risk of missing lines.
3. Manuscripts must not be ‘justified’. 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. Do bear in mind copyright restrictions involving such material.
4. Chapter numbers should read simply Chapter One, Chapter Two and so on in simple TNR regular point and text should follow after two line breaks. Don’t try to be fancy with your presentation – that’s a job for the design side somewhere along the line.
5. The first word of the opening paragraph of a chapter or chapter section should be kept tight to the left-hand margin.
6. The first word of following paragraphs must be indented (choose whether to use either six spaces or 1.25cms – but please be consistent).
7. There must be no line breaks between paragraphs (i.e. no blank line between paragraphs). Between sections within a chapter, there should be two line breaks (i.e. two blank lines between the end of one section and start of the next).
8. Spelling may be in US or UK English Standard. But it must be consistent throughout the ms. Please be as sure as possible of spelling, grammar and punctuation.
9. If you present something as ‘fact’, be sure. We need it to be substantiated and you will be expected to provide references for all checkable ‘factual’ claims. Even fiction must be truly accurate in its detail or suspension of disbelief cannot be sustained. We’ll let you get away with saying that Hitler had secretly fallen in love with a beautiful Russian spy … but we’ll not be pleased if you get Adolph’s date of birth wrong when she sends him a gift-wrapped Luger. By all means have your lovers on vacation in the Alpes Maritime in August … but don’t have them skiing.

Any potential BeWrite Books author should be willing to work with the edit facilities provided in the Microsoft Word editing program: the ‘insert comment’ and ‘tracked-changes’ systems. If you’re not au fait with these functions, it’s in your interests to become so. Even if we must decline your offer, this and pretty well everything else in these guidelines is what other publishers will expect of you.

When you are satisfied that your submission is properly prepared for presentation, please send the material to contact@bewrite.net. From that address, it will be assigned for editorial consideration. We will immediately acknowledge receipt. Should we have to decline your offer, you will hear from us within a month. If we feel we can proceed further, you will also hear within a month that we are interested in studying your full ms.

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 do not accept:

• Works in progress: only samples from completed manuscripts are considered.
• 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.

A poet should have a minimum of eighty poems in a collection, which roughly equates to one poem fitting on an A4 page for those poets who write longer poems.

How to Submit:

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

• In a covering email, tell us a little about yourself, your geographical location, your writing/publishing history, and please do outline any marketing plan you might have – writing groups, poetry forums, personal readings and/or signings, etc.
• Do not send the entire manuscript. In a SINGLE Word or RTF attachment include only TEN examples of your work.
• The subject line of your email and of your attachment MUST be: title – author name – submission – date.
• Author's name (or pen name with true name in brackets) must follow the title in the attachment.
• All potential BB poets 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, no underlined words or phrases, and no pictures or illustrations included unless by invitation. Please advise us of intended illustration input.
• Spelling may be in US or UK English but must be consistent throughout.
• Be as correct as possible with grammar and spelling; we do not expect perfection on submission, 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 cannot always remain objective).
• Email your submission to bewritepoetry@aol.com.

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. We will acknowledge receipt of your submission almost immediately, but consideration of your work and whether we may be able to take it toward publication will take a little longer.