A traditional publishing contract is the way most books have been published historically. The publishing contract usually means that the author is basically selling their work to the publishing company. The publishing company then creates a book from the author's manuscript and sells it for profit. The author receives royalties which are usually in the range of 6% to 12%. An advance is sometimes paid but this is becoming less common, especially for unknown authors.

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Our Traditional Deal is pretty straightforward:

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1. You (or your agent) will need to send us by email:

 

• A query letter of no more than two A4 pages which must include your "Elevator Pitch" and what books, if any, you've had published before. If you are a new author and the MS you are sending is your first, please say so.

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• A synopsis of your whole book in no more than three A4 pages.

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• Your complete Manuscript ("MS") in Word format (.docx).

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• An up-to-date résumé/CV if your book is non-fiction, which shows your qualifications/experience in your book's field (e.g. you have written a book about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and you hold a first-class BA(Hons) degree in the History of Art and your résumé shows three teaching posts over 15 years). If your MS is purely fictional, this is not necessary. 

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2. We will ALWAYS read your query letter. If that sounds appealing, we will then read your synopsis. Similarly, if that intrigues us, we will read part of your MS - usually the initial three chapters - and subject to our continued interest, we may go on to read the entire MS. 

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3. If we are not going to make you an offer, we will normally send you an email telling you how far in the process outlined in point 2 we got to and briefly why, if time allows. This will give you some indication of why we have rejected your MS and how you might be able to present it differently in future.

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4. If we like your book and believe it will sell (this is our most important consideration as we are a business and businesses must make profits to survive) then we will email you stating:

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• If we can take your MS as it is or if it needs more work (e.g. editing).

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• If we can offer you a Traditional Deal or not. If we can't, we will say why, and maybe offer you a Hybrid Deal instead. 

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• What deal we are willing to offer you (i.e. advance, percentage royalty, contract length, et cetera).

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Our turnaround times will vary according to how busy we are in terms of submissions, but we will try to reply to you within 6 weeks if we can.

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