Publishing Unique Titles Since 2003
Adventure Books of Seattle
Publishing Unique Titles Since 2003
House Rules for Book Submissions
For Novelists
Adventure Books invites submissions from established authors, but does consider work from new writers. Check the Submissions page for details on what types of books we publish.
House Rules for submissions apply ONLY
when we ask you to submit your entire manuscript.
We do NOT accept:
- Works in Progress
- Manuscripts under 40,000 words or over 180,000 words
- Manuscripts for children
- Erotica or works of a pornographic nature
- Works expressing extremist racial, political, or religious views.
- Stage or screen plays
- Fan fiction
- Manuscripts in paper form
- Works in languages other than English
- Manuscripts previously published in print, i.e. Lulu.com and others
- More than one submission per person
- Sole-author short story collections.
All short story collections are by specific invitation only.
By submitting to Adventure Books, the author is specifying that a work is not currently on offer to any other publisher or agent.
Manuscript Formatting
All formatting, including title, sub titles, author byline, and text must be 12 point Times New Roman or Garamond.Unless for special effect, (and clearly noted with brackets within the manuscript) italics should only be used for special emphasis, etc. No underlined words or phrases will be accepted under any circumstances.
Words in all-capitals should be avoided whenever possible. Headers, footers, and page numbers must not be used. We add those later when we format the book for printing.
The author's name, or pen name with true name in brackets, must follow the title in the manuscript.
Author's work must be defined as complete with the words 'The End.' Failure to include the author's name will result in rejection. Failure to include 'The End' will be viewed as a work in progress, and will also result in rejection.
Manuscripts must not be 'justified.' All work must be tight to the left margin.
The first word of the opening paragraph to a new section, or new chapter must be tight to the left margin, and not tabbed or indented. Following paragraphs must be consistently indented. Choose whether to use either five spaces or .3" but BE CONSISTENT.
Lines should be spaced from the menu in Word. Do not use 'single,' 'double,' or '1.5.' Set to 'At Least' and 12 point or 13 point only.
There should be NO extra line breaks between paragraphs. Between sections within a chapter, there should be two line breaks. At the end of a chapter, there should be three line breaks. NOTE: This means that each chapter will not necessarily start on a new page. Do not insert section breaks or page breaks into the document. We do this later during print formatting.
Punctuation should be consistently followed by ONE space. ONE space only after full stops. ('periods') If you are a consistent double-spacer after periods, we will reject the manuscript rather than go through the tedious process of fixing this.
All figures of one hundred or less must be fully written out and hyphenated like this: twenty-seven. Exceptions are if the number represents normal usage as in a street, bus, or train number. (SAS Flight 707...23 Jones Street, for example.)
Double quotation marks should be used around dialogue. Words or hearsay quotes within main dialogue must be in single quotation marks. Where practical, unvoiced thoughts, song lyrics, book titles, etc. should be in italics.
Because of international readership, the first time you use a phrase that will be presented later in the book as initials needs to be spelled out. Examples: Member of Parliament (MP) Military Police (MP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Spelling and basic grammar can be either in U.S or U.K. English Standard, but be consistent throughout the manuscript.
Common abbreviations, such as Mr, Mrs, Dr, Sgt, St, (street) St (saint) should not be followed by a period.
'sir' and 'lady' should always be in lower case, unless used as a title: Sir Richard and Lady Wigan. "Yes, sir."
Editors do not expect perfection, only a genuine effort. Editors DO expect proper names to be correct. The use of 'Sodom Hossein' or 'Abraham Linkoln' will discredit everything else in your work.
Automatic spellcheck and grammar checks can be used, but only as a guide. Make sure you proofread your finished manuscript by eye carefully, especially when using 'Replace-All' functions.
Unusual spellings of words should be checked by the author, and if correct, insert 'correct spelling' next to the word, in brackets.
Everything presented as quoted fact must carry the rider. (source material available)
Be careful in the use of capital letters when defining job descriptions. Do you mean a president, or the President? A church, or the Church? A prince, or the Prince? Do not use capitals for lower job descriptions such as manager, head waiter, chef, foreman, or editor.
66 or 99? When using 'smart' quotes (preferred) be sure that apostrophes are presented the right way around. Erroneous apostrophes can be corrected by holding down the 'ctrl' key and double-tapping the apostrophe key.
Dashes and ellipses: Dashes must be presented in full or as a double hyphen, to distinguish them from single hyphens. Both dashes and ellipses must be spaced on either side like this ... or this -- . The only exception is when using an ellipse to designate a cut off word. Example: "What do you mean by this intrus..."
Ellipses must be three dots only. No more, no less.
Punctuation must be kept within double quotation marks and outside singles. Repeated use of bad punctuation around your dialogue will result in either outright rejection, or at least a return of your manuscript to you for corrections.
Proofread your copy thoroughly before submitting. This will add good credibility to your work in the eyes of an editor.
Any potential Adventure Books author must know how to use the 'Comments' feature in Microsoft Word. We use this exclusively for editing.