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Contact Selfishgenie
We are always pleased to hear from readers. The best feedback always comes from the people who buy the books. If you would like to e-mail us with your thoughts, observations or questions, please use this address:
enquiries@selfishgenie.com
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enquiries@selfishgenie.com
Like us and follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfishgenie
Follow us on Twitter @selfishgenie
To contact any of our authors, please use the e-mail address or links to social media shown in their profile on the "Our Authors" page.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We are open for submissions.
Please read carefully before making a submission to us - it will save you time in the long run.
- Submissions should be of 10,000 words (ish) or the first 3 chapters, whichever is the shorter. Full manuscripts should not be submitted at this stage and will not be read beyond the first 10,000 words anyway.
- You should accompany your submission with a single page (A4) synopsis of the remainder of the story. The synopsis should include the total wordcount for the manuscript.
- To help us to get to know you better, please also attach a short biography:
- Real name (if writing under a pen name)
- Place of birth
- Education
- Current and/or previous employment (no need to go into detail, “I’m a plumber” will do).
- Hobbies and other interests.
- Any plans you have for future books.
- Submissions should be by electronic files in .docx or .pdf format.
- Submissions should be sent by e-mail to submissions@selfishgenie.com Please don’t waste the planet’s precious resources by mailing paper copies.
- Submissions do not have to be formatted to the publisher’s expected standards. However, the publisher is likely to be impressed if you have taken the time to format it the way we like it. You can download our formatting guidelines below.
- If the publisher is “hooked” by your submission, they will request a full manuscript, so do not make a submission if the manuscript isn’t ready to go, because it just annoys the publisher.
- While all efforts will be made to respond to your submission promptly, please allow at least 3 weeks for a reply.
- If your submission is rejected, the publisher will provide some feedback on why it didn’t appeal to them.
WHAT WE DON’T PUBLISH
Fiction
- Children’s books
- Young adult
- Poetry (A specialist genre which we prefer to leave to specialists) *
- Pornography (we know, the line between pornography and erotica is a fine one, so we’ll use our judgement).
- Anything with wizards, dragons, magic swords or rings, orcs or elves – unless they’re very, very funny.
* If you have checked out our "Books" page you will see that we have published three anthologies of poetry. However, these were exceptions to our "no poetry" rule and were made for unique reasons.
Non-fiction
- Politics.
- Religion.
- Spiritual, new age and paranormal.
- UFOs and conspiracy theories.
- Niche hobbies and pastimes.
- Technical manuals and books, including books on gaming.
- Photography and art (printing costs are too high).
- Lifestyle, “inspirational” and self-help.
- Martial Arts (too much risk of getting sued if someone is injured).
- Keep fit, health and nutrition (see above).
- Academic and textbooks.
If in doubt, e-mail us a synopsis of your book and we’ll think about it and get back to you.
FAQs
Q. Do you charge for your services?
A. No. We believe that the publisher works harder for the author if they have to be paid by results, ie from a book's royalties. There are options to pay for certain additional services not covered by the basic contract, but most of the costs for those can be paid for from royalties.
Q. Who owns the copyright for my book once it has been published?
A. The author owns the copyright for the book under all circumstances unless they legally transfer it to a third party. That would never be us. We only hold the contractual right to publish the book. We may hold the copyright for the cover design where a cover hasn't been provided by the author. See our draft contract for further details.
Q. Is the contract negotiable?
A. To a certain degree. If the author presents us with a book that has been professionally edited, proof read, formatted or provides a good quality cover, we will reduce our share of the royalties. The more work the author has done in advance, the greater the reduction, but there is a minimum split of 80:20 in the author's favour.
Q. How much marketing do you do?
A. If there is no marketing there are no sales, so we market all the books we publish relentlessly. If we didn't, we'd never make any money.
Q. Can I get out of the contract?
A. If it was easy to get out of the contract there would be no point in having a contract. However, the contract only covers the first book offered (unless the author wants to extend it) and there are break clauses included, so it isn't a lifetime commitment. See our draft contract for further details.
Q. How much control do I have over the final version of my book?
A. We would never wish to publish a book that the author isn't happy putting their name to, so the author has the final say on the version that is published. We would never impose our views on the author. However, we do reserve the right to withdraw our offer to publish if an amicable agreement can't be reached, just as the author can withdraw the right to publish their book.
Download our draft contract and formatting guidelines..
Q. Do you charge for your services?
A. No. We believe that the publisher works harder for the author if they have to be paid by results, ie from a book's royalties. There are options to pay for certain additional services not covered by the basic contract, but most of the costs for those can be paid for from royalties.
Q. Who owns the copyright for my book once it has been published?
A. The author owns the copyright for the book under all circumstances unless they legally transfer it to a third party. That would never be us. We only hold the contractual right to publish the book. We may hold the copyright for the cover design where a cover hasn't been provided by the author. See our draft contract for further details.
Q. Is the contract negotiable?
A. To a certain degree. If the author presents us with a book that has been professionally edited, proof read, formatted or provides a good quality cover, we will reduce our share of the royalties. The more work the author has done in advance, the greater the reduction, but there is a minimum split of 80:20 in the author's favour.
Q. How much marketing do you do?
A. If there is no marketing there are no sales, so we market all the books we publish relentlessly. If we didn't, we'd never make any money.
Q. Can I get out of the contract?
A. If it was easy to get out of the contract there would be no point in having a contract. However, the contract only covers the first book offered (unless the author wants to extend it) and there are break clauses included, so it isn't a lifetime commitment. See our draft contract for further details.
Q. How much control do I have over the final version of my book?
A. We would never wish to publish a book that the author isn't happy putting their name to, so the author has the final say on the version that is published. We would never impose our views on the author. However, we do reserve the right to withdraw our offer to publish if an amicable agreement can't be reached, just as the author can withdraw the right to publish their book.
Download our draft contract and formatting guidelines..
| draft_contract.pdf |
| formatting_guidelines.pdf |