SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

General Information

• Query first via e-mail with a brief synopsis (not over 600 words), the opening chapter of your book, and a list of any publishing credentials that may be relevant. Poetry queries can include up to 3 sample poems. E-mail queries to Ms. Lynn Holschuh, Acquisitions: lynn at kitsunebooks dot com.

• All submissions should be done via e-mail, with samples inserted or attached. NO hard-copy submissions unless specifically requested (saves trees).
  If you send unsolicited manuscripts or queries via regular postal mail, it may take a very long time for us to respond. If you don't enclose an SASE, you definitely won't get a response.

• If we are interested in your book, you'll be asked to send the complete manuscript. If we are interested but feel the manuscript is not quite ready, we may ask you to revise and resubmit.

• Responses to queries generally within a couple of months; responses to manuscripts usually within six to nine months.

• We accept submissions in the following categories: Literary Fiction (novels and short story collections); Poetry Collections; Genre Fiction (Dark Fantasy/Noir, Speculative, Magical Realism); Non-Fiction (Memoir, Literary/Scholarly Commentary, New Age/Yoga).

• We are not looking for submissions in the following categories: romance, hard-boiled crime thrillers or mysteries, war, westerns, children's picture books, cookbooks, how-to books, specific-religion inspirational books.

• No previously published material or ebooks. No self-published manuscripts.

Poetry Requirements

• We don't publish chapbooks. We are looking for mature collections long enough to fill a bound book of at least 100 pages of your BEST work, not just all the poems you've written.

• Kitsune Books follows the Chicago Manual of Style for editorial guidance, and our spelling standard is the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary series.

• File format: Microsoft Word

• Use a readable font such as New Times Roman 12 pt or Courier New 12 pt.

• Title page: Include title of the work, approximate word count, your name, street address, phone number, e-mail address, and website URL (if available).

• Include author identification and book title in a running header on every page; number pages consecutively.

• Prose manuscripts: double-space or 1.5-space

• Thoroughly edit and proofread your manuscript before submitting. We are not an editing service.

Contract Information

As an independent publisher, we offer a small advance (depending on the book) plus standard royalty payments for sales. Authors receive a small number of free copies of the book upon publication and a substantial discount if they wish to purchase copies for their own use and resale. Each book gets a limited initial print run, and when those are sold, the book switches to print on demand.

We will help with promotion (creating a press kit, supplying ARCs to reviewers, submitting your book to competitions, etc.), but local promotions such as setting up signings, attending conferences, and similar events are up to the author (which is often true of the big publishers, as well). Initial print runs are published in trade paperback format, usually 8.5 x 5.5. Prose books will also be sold in e-book format.

Kitsune books is not a vanity press, subsidy press, self-publisher, printing company, literary agency, editing service, or publicity agency. We are a traditional small-press literary publisher and offer standard publishing contracts to authors on whose works we are willing to take a chance.