E-Book Information

Submission Guidelines for GLB Authors

for both Print and e-Book Publishing on the Internet

We do not require an inquiry letter with a general description of the work, but that will sometimes save time and effort to make sure the topic and scope are of interest. We will be happy to discuss the work preliminarily by phone [415-621-8307] or by email.

Although we have several publishing approaches for you to select from, guidelines for submissions of manuscripts for consideration are similar for all. In general the topic of the work should be of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, etc. communities where most of our audience is found. Outright pornography is not accepted, but the fiction may be erotic in nature. (There may be differences of opinion on the definitions here, we are aware.)

Manuscript Submissions: It is important that your first or cover page includes the title of the work, the author's name (pseudonyms are acceptable), the real name of the one submitting the manuscript, the address and email address if available by Internet, and the date of submission. Generally the manuscript can be attached to an e-mail; in any case we need one computer copy of the entire manuscript. If you wish the manuscript returned if it is not accepted, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope suitable for its return. Manuscripts must be in English.

For Fiction (novels and novellas) it is helpful to submit a chapter-by-chapter outline of the work, so we can get some idea of the general story and its progress to its conclusion. Short stories for print publishing must be collections, although we do publish individual short stories as e-books for downloading only. We generally do not publish books with fewer than 100 pages (that would apply almost solely to poetry) and most novels would have over 60,000 words (please have a total word count if possible). Novellas* (short novels) must be at least 25,000 words and by definition fewer than 60,000 words. Short stories are best kept to a 5000 to 7500 word length. For short stories, please submit the entire story for consideration primarily. For complete books, more than 120,000 words is usually too long.

Non-fictions are more variable but again should be more than 100 printed pages, generally from 40,000 to 120,000 words. Again Chapter headings are important, and the subjects included in the individual chapters should be presented in general scope in an outline form for our consideration.

Because the book-in-development is designed and laid out in a computer, obviously the manuscript should be in final (or near-final) form on disk for easy access. It is helpful if you indicate what word processing program was used to write the text. Regardless of program, we use only Windows computers so the material must work in a Windows environment. If you normally work on Macintosh or some operating system other than Windows, make sure it is in a format that Windows can "read" (e.g. Rich Text Format if originating on a Macintosh). Our word processing program of choice is Word Perfect, but we can generally convert other formats without problems. PLEASE do not try to make your work fancy for this file; that will cause more problems and require more time to remove, because what we need is the actual text, in the paragraph form with tab indents as is necessary for the work. It is not necessary to use double spacing for this file.
NOTE: Do not submit a manuscript in MS Works format! That is not actually a valid word processing program and it will cause problems. Also, we do not read "simultaneous submissions" (manuscripts sent to many different publishers at the same time), since acceptance may become confused with several publishers becoming involved and mistaken about rights.

Along with the computer disk it is helpful to have a printout of your work in the form you would like to see in the eventual book. This is vital for poetry, of course, since formatting may be extremely important there. If you want to incorporate art work or decorative fonts, feel free as long as those extras are restricted to the print out and not complicating the text computer file. In most cases. the text can be transmitted by computer as an attachment to email instead of by disk as long as the processing is performed in either Word Perfect or MSWord. We still would like to have the printout to resolve possible questions that come up.

**PLEASE NOTE: It is necessary for manuscripts for printed books to be between 60,000 and 120,000 words. Shorter manuscripts will not be considered for printing unless in combinations (e.g. two novellas). (*See also below: special magazines for short lesbian and gay men's novellas) Longer manuscripts should be pared down if possible. Books shorter than 60,000 words risk not being visible on book store shelves because the spine is too narrow for printing and will not normally be
bought in book stores. Shorter manuscripts may be acceptable for e-books (royalty may be less). Do not submit manuscripts out of these limits without discussing the situation with us.

* New Internet magazines for e-books have been set up to take advantage of the interest in shorter
fictions than novels that has become apparent for e-books. There are two new web sites:

E-GayMag.com for novellas for the general gay men audience.

E-LesMag.com for novellas for the general lesbian audience.

For some specifics on a particular choice of publishing, click on the following:

Cooperative book publishing
Combined Print Book and E-Book Publishing
Poetry e-Book publishing
General information about GLB Publishers

GLB PUBLISHERS
P.O. Box 78212
San Francisco, CA 94107

http://www.glbpubs.com

W. L. Warner, Editor and Publisher

(415) 621-8307 Fax (415) 621-8037
glbpubs@glbpubs.com