Most publishers don’t accept submissions because the sheer volume of new writing overwhelms them. We’ve built a portal to try and streamline the process but if we fall too far behind with our reading, we will temporarily suspend access while we catch up.
This is one of those moments (that's one of our submissions editors in the picture, the others are buried deeper).
If submissions are closed, registered users will still be able to log in and edit existing live submissions, but it will not be possible to create new submissions.
While you wait for our portal to reopen, have a look at our submission guidelines below — well-chosen words will get your book off to the best possible start.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
SUBJECT MATTER
Is your book right for us? Have a look at our list to see if your book fits with our publishing programme. Here’s a list of what not to submit:
- anything not in English
- unfinished work
- poetry
- plays
- screenplays
- short stories
GENRE
We’re not too fussed about rigid genre definitions, but if your work fits one of these categories, do tell us.
DESCRIPTIONS
Spend some time thinking about the short and long-descriptions — they’re our first contact with your book. If they’re well-written and interesting, we’ll be diving in immediately. If they’re not… well… its not a good start is it?
SHORT DESCRIPTION
This is your elevator pitch. Capture the essence of your book in a sentence or two. Grab our attention.
LONG DESCRIPTION
Here's a bit more space to paint the bigger picture. We’re not looking for a chapter-by-chapter synopsis, we’d prefer something more like the book description you might find on the front flap of a hardback jacket. If you think you need to tell us anything about yourself – e.g. how your experience informs your writing – do it here. Don’t feel you need to get anywhere near the word limit in this field!
WORD COUNT
Minimum length of 75,000 words. No maximum (but see file size limit below!)
UPLOADING YOUR BOOK
We do not accept Word files (.doc, .docx). We only accept text files (.txt), rich text files (.rtf) or PDFs (.pdf). Nearly all word processors will output these formats. Go to the FILE menu, select SAVE AS and you should be able to choose one of these file formats. Note that we don’t accept files larger than 10 megabytes.
MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING
Page size: A4
Type: Double spaced, 12pt, black ink, Times New Roman or similar font.
Page numbers: crucial!
Metadata fields: If there is a Title and/or Author field available to you, use it! It will make your book display nicely on our e-readers.
If your manuscript looks like this example, you’ll be ahead of the game.
T&Cs
By submitting you’ll be agreeing to our Terms & Conditions. If you’re thinking of submitting a re-titled Jane Austen novel, you’ll fall foul of a number of our stipulations, so don’t.
LOSS
Keep a copy of anything you submit to us — we won’t send your file back. We’re afraid Head of Zeus can’t be held responsible for the loss of or damage to any file submitted to us.
NEWSLETTER
You obviously like the cut of our jib, so it would make sense to sign up for our newsletter. We won’t spam you, we won’t share your email with any third party.
WHAT NEXT?
We’ll contact you by email or phone. There aren’t many of us, so please be patient. We are looking forward to reading your book and we will get back to you.
