Adventure Books of Seattle

Submissions are now OPEN again at AB for full-length books in the categories listed below. However, we have changed our policies regarding print publication. 

Starting June 20, 2009 Adventure Books will be considering books for publication ONLY to our Amazon Digital Text Platform. This means your book, if accepted, will be published only for the Amazon Kindle Book Reader Store, and not in print form. Exceptions to this rule are strictly the choice of the editing staff. In other words, if we feel strongly that your book is marketable in print, we may offer you our standard contract for print. The reason for this policy is because AB believes the Kindle Platform is a good place to 'test' your book for marketability. Books we have already published for the Kindle are on the Titles for Kindle Reader page and these titles have done well. If we like your book for the Kindle, we will offer you a generous royalty on sales.
The only rights you give us on such a book is the right to publish it for the Kindle only, unless we offer you a print contract as well. You keep all standard eBook rights, and all print rights as well. The Kindle uses a secure file format and can only be read or downloaded by people with a Kindle, and although Amazon is now offering these books over iPhones, too...the vast majority of people are downloading for their Kindles. 

See below for categories of books we publish and how to submit. Due to the new Kindle policy, we are going to relax our restrictions a bit on genre, since our investment in time and money for a Kindle publication is less than a print investment. If you think you have a good book and it doesn't strictly fit the genres listed, give us a try anyway. 
 
How to Submit Your Book: 
Send a synopsis and a cover letter telling us a bit about yourself and your book by email to Book Submissions.

Attach the synopsis to your email in either Word document or Rich Text Format.

Hint: A good synopsis is how we base the majority of our decisions to see more from an author about their book. 'How to Write a Synopsis' is near the bottom of this page if you need a refresher.

Response time on submissions and queries for books is usually 30 days or less.
We do try to respond in a timely fashion, but if you didn't get a response, type
'Verify Book Submission' into the subject box of an email and send your request HERE.

What We Seek:

Hard Science Fiction - no fantasy, or anything resembling fantasy, even for Kindle releases.

Due to the number of submissions in this category, we've decided to narrow this field a bit further, and try to make it clearer for authors. We DO NOT seek Star Wars type material, or books based on 'contrived universes'. A contrived universe-based book is where the author invents entirely new worlds and societies that have no relation to life on Earth in any form. Unless your book is a very good example of this type of writing, such as Dune, we would probably reject it. Possible futures extrapolated from events in the present is a theme we look for occasionally. Space adventures based in reality where the main characters do NOT refer to themselves as 'Cap'n' or 'Boss' are another.

Sci-fi we would have published:

Red Planet, The Core, 2010, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Gattaca, 1984, Timeline, The Road, Brave New World.
  
Survival -  We love survival stories, or collections of the same. Or a book about a specific incident regarding human survival under extreme circumstances. We suggest you check Google to see if your particular subject has already been done before in detail. For example, we wouldn't do another book on Amelia Earhart or Sir Ernest Shackleton's adventure in Antarctica. Those two have done thoroughly, and many times.

True-Life Non Fiction -  Human triumph over adversity, in a remarkable (and TRUE) fashion, is a theme we actively seek in this category. Presented facts will be checked through news sources. This means if you write a book claiming you were lost a sea for a month - we have to check your story before publication is offered.

Romance - No formula-type Harlequin-type romance books are considered. Both historical romance and present-time romance novels are considered. We look for quality writing and if you do sex scenes, we ask they be done tastefully. Query first.

Crime Fiction:  No detective stories. We like hard-core crime from the point-of-view of the criminals, not the cops trying to catch them. Excessive violence does not worry us, as long as it is not gratuitous and fits with the story.

Crime we would have published:

Natural Born Killers, The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger.

Other Genres:  General fiction, historical non-fiction, how-to books with a realistic slant, and biographies are considered. Query first.


HOW TO WRITE A SYNOPSIS FOR A BOOK SUBMISSION

Editors need to know if your story works, and they need it in a nutshell. Authors will often confuse a 'blurb' with a synopsis. A blurb is text that the publisher might use to help sell the book. Blurbs are often found at the publisher's website, or on the sleeve jacket of the book. It leaves a bit of mystery, it tries to build some excitement. IT IS NOT A SYNOPSIS. A good synopsis will be 1,000 words or less that outlines the premise of the book, the entire plot from start to finish, and describes the main characters and their motivations in detail.

Some writers mistakenly think that book editors are looking to steal their ideas, so they don't want to give away the ending. Instead of laying out the book, they try to lead the editor along with mysterious and ambigious statements. This is the sign of an amateur, and a sure road to rejection.

Writing a good synopsis is tough. Basically, you are trying to boil down the whole book into less than a thousand words. You will usually have to edit a synopsis several times before it's ready to send out to publishers. But a good one will save you a lot of wasted time. It will either generate a faster response by a publisher to see your work - or the work will be rejected faster. Saves a lot of time on both sides.
  
However, a good synopsis tells an editor that you are a serious writer.

We may be picky, but we love to give new authors a chance when we can.

Payments and Royalties:

Print Versions: Payment is through a pre-negotiated contract based on gross royalties from sales, and is one of the most generous in the business. We do NOT charge any upfront fees from our authors. Books are marketed mainstream through Amazon, traditional bookstores, Barnes and Noble, and other retail outlets using 90-day sale-or-return and standard 55% trade discounts from retail pricing. All books published appear on the Ingram Advance Notice Annotation List.

Published for the Amazon Kindle Reader: AB pays one-half of all royalties from sales of a Kindle Version book to the author on a quarterly basis. Our usual charge for a Kindle book is $2.99-$3.99 of which AB receives 35% of that figure per sale. You are paid half of the 35% royalty we receive. In addition, we are more likely to give an unknown work a 'chance' through the digital platform and test the market, rather than in print, which requires much more work and funding. New authors are encouraged to submit.

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