Submissions

We are closed to unsolicited submissions for all genres until further notice.

How to Submit for Publication

All submissions are handled electronically. Click here to submit a work now.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions are handled electronically.

At this time, we are accepting submissions from the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

We publish the following lengths of work:

  • Novels: Works of 50,000 words or more

  • Novellas: Works of 30,000-50,000 words

  • Novelettes: Works of 10,000-30,000

  • Short Stories: Works of 3,000-10,000

You will have to provide a legal name and valid email address. If you do not use Google, you may have to create a Google account. You can link a Google account to your existing email address. See here for more information, or contact us at submissions@authors4authorspublishing.com with questions.

While not required, you can also provide a pen name, the approximate length of your work, and the genre of your work. We currently specialize in speculative fiction and romance but will consider all genres for publication.

Please do not submit unless your manuscript is complete.

Please review our formatting instructions below and format your materials accordingly.

If writing a romance or erotica piece, please review our special guidelines for that genre.

If writing a short story or novelette (stories up to 30,000 words), please review our considerations for those stories.

After completing the form, you should upload either a Word or Google Doc of your work. Please send ONLY the first chapter OR the first 3,000 words, whichever works best. If you have a query letter prepared, you may upload that instead of OR with your work.

Someone from Authors for Authors Publishing will contact you within 5 business days confirming receipt of your submission. At that time, we will provide you with an estimate for when you should hear back from us regarding your work.

Formatting Requirements:

Before you send us your full manuscript, please format to these standards:

Please send your manuscript as a single document—never send individual chapters.

Please name your document the title of your work.

Page Layout

Margins should no less than ¾” and no larger than 1”, and pages should be US standard 8 ½”x11”. Use a 10-12 size font in a standard font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, colored black. The main text should be left aligned and line spacing spacing set to one and a half (1.5).

Paragraphs must be indented and should be indented via formatting and not TAB. If you need help with this, please let us know.

Chapter and Scene Breaks

There must be page numbers, though location is optional. Scene breaks should be one pound sign (#) or three asterisks (***) centered to the page.

Chapter headers must be either a number, such as “chapter one/1,” a chapter name, or a combination of them if you so choose, but they must be present. Upon the start of a new chapter, use a page break rather than spacing.

Punctuation/Grammar

Please follow grammar guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style:

  • Double quotation marks for dialogue.

  • Single quotation marks for dialogue within dialogue.

  • Single space after a period.

  • Em-dashes (—) and ellipses (...) have no space on either side within a sentence and act like a period at the end of a sentence.

Overwhelmed with formatting your manuscript? Feel free to download our pre-formatted Google Doc, and copy your text or write directly in it.

No need to use tab or extra spaces: the text automatically indents. If you highlight new chapter titles and use the menu to apply "Heading 1" for numbers and "Heading 2" for names, it will add your chapters to the table of contents for you!

Submission FAQs

How do I submit a work?

Please read the Submission Guidelines above, then click here to submit your work.

What if I have problems with the submission form?

Please review Google's instructions for creating an account. If you are still having problems, please contact us here.

How long does it take to hear back about a submission?

We will provide you with an estimate about when to hear back once we receive your submission. Unfortunately, this will depend on how many submissions we have at the moment, so it will vary. If more than 5 business days have elapsed, and you have not received an email confirming receipt of your submission, please contact us here.

I was asked for a full manuscript, but it isn't ready or finished yet. What should I do?

In general, try not to query or participate in the #PitMad events until your manuscript is finished. If you have already queried and been asked for a full manuscript, please respond and let us know the situation, and provide an estimate of when you can have the full manuscript to us.

Are there any criteria for being published?

No! We are excited to help all authors realize their publication dreams. Please provide your best polished work for submission. As a note, we do specialize in speculative fiction and romance, so if we do not feel we can adequately support a work outside of that genre, we'll let you know.

I'm excited to submit to you—but my manuscript isn't ready yet. What should I do?

We're happy you're excited—but please do not submit anything until your entire manuscript is finished. If we asked you to submit via #pitchwars or other hashtags, please email and let us know when you anticipate being finished with the manuscript.

Do you send out form rejections?

No! Form rejections are dehumanizing and disheartening. As a community of authors, we believe in affirming and developing talent, so every submission will receive a personalized response. If your work is not accepted for publication, we will let you know where to revise and improve your work, and even help you find resources to workshop and edit it. If your work is outside our specialization, we may suggest that you consider publishing it elsewhere so your work receives the exposure and marketing it deserves!

Can I resubmit a work?

Yes! We understand that revising and improving a work is part of the writing process. However, if we took the time to review your work in detail, you should address in some way all our requested revisions before resubmitting.

I already self-published my book, and it's part of a series. Can I submit? What would the plan be?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer for this question. We will determine how to proceed with serial authors on a case-by-case basis. Feel free to email us here with a link to your published work so we can decide the best way to proceed.

I live in London. Can I submit my novel?

Yes! We can accept submissions and publish any authors who are citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Do I have to pay you to review or publish my manuscript?

Absolutely not! If you wanted to shell out money for editing, proofreading, and publishing, you would be self-publishing. We are a publisher—that means we invest our time and capital into publishing the book and then split the proceeds from the sale copies of said book with you in what is known as a royalty payment.

What formats do you publish?

We specialize mostly in electronic publishing and distribution—ebooks, Kindle Unlimited, Overdrive, Scribd, Kobo, and other electronic book distributors. For longer works, we also distribute paperbacks via Ingram Spark for print-on-demand and retail orders. We also use in-house readers to create and distribute audiobooks.

My work was accepted for publication. Now what?

First of all, congratulations on your acceptance, and welcome to the Authors 4 Authors family! Once your work is accepted for publication, a project manager will contact you to draft and sign your contract. You will then work with our team of editors and marketers to make final edits and prepare your book for publishing. Unlike other publishers, you can be involved in the selection of cover art, drafting of the back cover blurb, and other important publication choices.