SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT

(FOR A BOOK)

NOTE: TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED WHILE WE REORGANIZE SAVANT WITHIN K. SIMMONS PRODUCTIONS, OUR NEW PARENT COMPANY

WE WILL ANNOUNCE HERE WHEN SUBMISSIONS RE-OPEN


A.  READ THESE SAVANT FAQs FIRST:

1. Savant Books and Publications (SBAP) will ONLY consider previously unpublished book manuscripts of 42,000 to 60,000 words in length in the form of a complete Manuscript Submission Package (MSP) the exception being children's books (see below). SBAP does not accept or read partial MSP's, partial manuscripts, or manuscripts-in-progress. Savant publishes softcover, perfect-bound books, which, dictated by sales, we may later release in the form of eBooks, aBooks and/or audio books. We only publish enduring fiction and non-fiction literary works "with a twist" that broaden the reader's point-of-view or expand his/her world. We do not accept works of gratuitous violence or sex. We strongly favor works in which the narrator's voice is in third person past tense, in which character development is strong, and, in which highest quality literary wordcraft is evident. Illustrated CHILDREN'S BOOKS must be 2,500 to 10,000 words in length; we highly recommend you already have an illustrator. Illustrations must consist of no more than 20 black and white line drawings. WE ARE A "PRODUCTION" PUBLISHING HOUSE, NOT A SELF-PUBLICATION HOUSE, CUSTOM PRINTER OR VANITY PRESS. WE DO NOT PUBLISH PHOTO PICTURE BOOKS; COMIC BOOKS; COOK BOOKS; or BOOKS WITH COLOR INTERIORS, PHOTOS OR ILLUSTRATIONS.


2. SBAP is fee-free. Savant does not charge authors any pre-publication fees for copyright, ISBN, bar codes, editing, cover design, polishing, proofreading, press release(s) or Savant marketing and publicity devices or plans. Likewise, SBAP does not issue advances.

3. Except for Savant poetry anthologies, SBAP is a royalty-paying publisher. Savant authors are issued a written contract and paid a royalty on net title sales. It is the primary author's responsibility to take care of any co-author, illustrator, or literary agent fees.  Savant authors retain copyright to the work and full financial rights to "spin-offs" such as plays or movies.

4. SBAP was created by and for authors. The author and Savant staff will, together, progress the manuscript through editing, layup, polishing, cover-design, proofing, publicity, marketing, distribution, sales and fulfillment. In return, we expect Savant authors to take a strong, proactive role in publicizing their author name and book title, as well as marketing and selling their book. This includes doing specified emailings (we tell you when and how), participating in monthly Savant chats, maintaining author and book websites with blogs, doing public appearances and hosting regular author/book release parties. If you don't plan to do the above, don't submit an MSP.

5. If contracted, Savant author's must provide a valid U. S. Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). If you can't obtain one, we can't finalize a contract or pay you royalties.

7. Contracted Savant authors are assigned a professional editor. The author and editor work together as a team at no expense to the author to move the manuscript from author-centric to Savant reader-centric. This takes, on the average six months. If you are not willing to extensively digitally edit your work with a professional editor, are not willing to accept changes to your manuscript, or are not willing to honor Savant form and format, do not submit an MSP. Savant is NOT a self-publisher or vanity press; do not submit an MSP if you are seeking self-publication "assistance" or want a custom-designed work. 

8. Contracted authors, after editing, polish their works together with their editor and our Editor-in-Chief. There is no charge to the author for this. Polishing takes, on the average three months. If you are not willing to polish your edited work until it's "perfect" with an editor and our Editor-in-Chief, or accept editor, Editor-in-Chief and/or publisher suggested changes to the interior and cover, do not submit an MSP.

9. SBAP provides professional layup and cover design free-of-charge to authors. In general, authors are discouraged from creating their own covers, though Savant cover artists take into consideration all author suggestions.

10. Once approved and assembled, a whole-book proof is sent to a professional book proofreader for final proofing at no cost to the author. This takes, on the average, one additional month. If you are not interested in having your book professionally proofread, or are not willing to accept, without reservation, Savant proofreader-recommended changes to the cover and interior, do not submit an MSP.

11. SBAP designs and provides for each author a two-year, tailored, Publicity and Marketing plan (PMP) at no charge to the author. PMP's commonly include a professionally created press release, YouTube teaser, author/book synopsis and summary, three excerpts, book review copies, suggestions for and time of author and book release parties, radio/TV appearances, podcasts, world-wide distribution, and publicity recommendations at no charge to the author.  They will be professionally edited, polished and proofed not unlike the work together by the author, editor, cover artist, Editor-in-Chief, Director of Publicity and Marketing and Publisher. Changing from being a writer to an author involves not only the above, but also the willingness to "shamelessly promote your author name and works." Savant authors, especially first-time authors, are expected to follow their P&M plan in order to publicize and market themselves and their work. If this does not appeal to you, do not submit an MSP.

12. Printing is done on-demand. Except for Savant anthologies, Savant Books and Publications (SBAP) does not require authors to purchase any minimum number of books. Instead, SBAP provides authors with five complimentary publicity copies of their published work, and offers author's the ability to purchase their works in lots of ten (10) books at 50% off the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) for personal and consignment sales, appearances and book-signings. This special price includes book-rate shipping anywhere within the USA including Hawaii and Alaska.

13. SBAP will issue books as softcover works, and, sales warranting, reissue the work after one year as an eBook with machine-read capability at no charge to the author. Savant may additionally reissue the work in audiobook, aBook or other formats as indicated at no charge to the author. 

14. SBAP publications are listed on and available for purchase at all Savant Bookstores, Amazon.com, Kindle, affiliated and feeder online book sales channels, as well as at interested independent bookstores throughout the world.  SBAP books are currently distributed worldwide through Savant Distribution, Amazon Extended Distribution, Ingram and numerous other sub-distributors. 

15.  SBAP is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and is a U. S. publisher.  Royalties and contract payments are all subject to the tax laws of the United States of America.



B. ADJUST YOUR MANUSCRIPT SO IT MEETS ALL THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:

  • General Format - All manuscripts must be in either Microsoft Word (.doc), Open Office (.docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf). Do not send manuscript submissions in any other format. NOTE: If your manuscript is accepted, you will will work with a professional editor using Microsoft Word's (.doc) "review tracking" feature. Be sure your word processing program has this feature and you know how to use it. If you don't know how, check out:

good MS Word explanation

good Apple Pages explanation

  •   Special Formatting - All manuscripts must also:
  1. Have ONE-INCH MARGINS at top, bottom, left and right sides;
  2. Use solid black, regular, 12-point, Times New Roman font;
  3. Use regular, italics (i.e. oblique style), non-smart quotes ("), and/or non-smart half-quotes and apostrophes (') only - ALL OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS MUST BE REMOVED;
  4. Be LEFT-JUSTIFIED only (do NOT right or left-and-right justify);
  5. Be ALL DOUBLE-SPACED;
  6. Have THREE hard returns before a chapter heading and TWO hard returns after it;
  7. Have ONE hard return at the end of each paragraph (do not insert an extra blank line);
  8. Use a ONE-INCH auto-indent at the start of each paragraph;
  9. Include TWO spaces after all terminal punctuation;
  10. Use space-hypen-hypen-space ( -- ) for dashes;
  11. Use three periods without spaces (...) for ellipses wherever dialog is interrupted;
  12. Strictly employ words, phrases, sentences and/or paragraphs rather than visual devices for all time/location transitions; 
  13. Avoid use of graphs, tables, illustrations and/or photographs;
  14. Use CONTINUOUS LINE-WRAPPING within paragraphs;
  15. INDICATE PAGES (e.g. AUTHOR'S LAST NAME - PAGE 2 OF 42) at the top of each page in a header
NOTE: SBAP favors narration (non-dialog) written in third-person, past-tense. We do not look favorably on narration written in first-person and/or present-tense. 

NO OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS including bold, other fonts, sizes, styles, colors or devices are allowed. 
Manuscripts that do not adhere to the above will not be read. If accepted, all editing must adhere to the above requirements. 


C. CREATE AN EMAIL TO

savantsubmissions@gmail.com

with the SUBJECT LINE stating AUTHOR'S LAST NAME and MANUSCRIPT NAME followed by "MSP" (e.g. "JANIK - HAWAII ROGUE - MSP").

D.  COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING SIXTEEN QUESTIONS INTO THE BODY OF THE EMAIL AND FILL IN THE INFORMATION REQUESTED:

  1. A short Letter of Introduction (150 words maximum):
  2. Working Title:
  3. Subtitle or Byline:
  4. Author pen name for this work, if any:
  5. Author's actual, legal name:
  6. Author's actual residence address:
  7. Author's complete mailing address:
  8. Author's contact phone number:
  9. Author's email contact address:
  10. Total number of words in manuscript:
  11. Full Synposis (250 words maximum):
  12. Brief Synopsis (50 words maximum):
  13. Chapter-by-Chapter Synopses (2 or 3 sentence summary of each chapter):
  14. Author's Biography:
  15. List of ALL previously published works (title, pen name, internet link):
  16. Explain to whom and how you plan to market your work:
NOTE: SBAP WILL WEIGH YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ABOVE IN ITS DECISION TO PUBLISH A WORK, SO USE PERFECT ENGLISH, AND BE CLEAR, COMPLETE AND CONCISE. 

E.  ATTACH THE COMPLETED and FULLY-FORMATTED MANUSCRIPT TO THE EMAIL AND SEND.

Savant will auto-acknowledge receipt of your MSP via email. Authors are permitted only one manuscript under consideration at Savant and one under consideration at Aignos Publishing at a time. Submitted materials will not be returned.

Do not send speculative documents, partial manuscripts, or incomplete MSP's. Do not send any requests or manuscripts by postal mail, we will simply discard them.

Savant Books and Publications LLC
2630 Kapiolani Blvd #1601
Send all other correspondence to savantbooksXgmail.com
(replace "X" with "@")
Phone/Mssg 808-941-3927


NOTE:  Savant is on Hawaii Standard Time (HST) and receives phone/messages only on weekdays between 9 a.m. and noon Hawaii Standard Time.