Per Bastet Publications is currently closed to unsolicited submissions.

What is a solicited submission?

If we’re talking to you, online or at a conference, and you tell us about a book you’ve written, and we say, “Send it to us and let us have a look at it,” that’s a solicited submission. If somebody else tells us about your book, and we contact you and say, “Would you let us have a look at that?” that’s a solicited submission. If you show us something at a pitch session at a conference and we say, “We’d like to see more of this,” that’s a solicited submission.

What We Want And What We Don’t (Probably)

We’re interested in stories, novellas, and novels of all genres, though our main interests are speculative fiction and mysteries. Our editorial manager is squeamish, so graphic sex and violence is better submitted elsewhere. If you absolutely insist on sending us something gritty, make sure it’s better than you think it needs to be.

We’re open to previously published manuscripts as long as the submitting author now controls all electronic and print publishing rights.

If you’re invited to submit your manuscript, send an email to perbastetpublications AT gmail DOT com with the Subject line: SUBMISSION – Title Of Your Book – Yourlastname

Send the manuscript as a single file (do not break it into separate chapter files).

In that submission, we will want your name, email address*, postal mailing address, and telephone number on both your cover letter and the first page of the manuscript. *[If you have an alternate permanent email address, please include it, in case your primary account goes out of service.] Include a plot outline if possible.

Before You Pitch

Although we want to talk to you and hear about your project directly, PLEASE BRING ON PAPER:

a 1-3 short sentence description of your story (Peter Rabbit thinks he’s clever and quick enough to raid Farmer McGregor’s garden, but his nemesis catches and imprisons him. Peter must use his wits and speed to escape – or end up in a pie.)

• a 1-3 page synopsis of the project, including the ending
• the first 10 pages of the project
• a contact sheet for you, with your email and links to your web site, blog, Amazon author page, and a list of the social media sites you’re on (if you have any of these or are on any of these)
• a list of the other projects you’d like to pitch another time, with a 1-3 short sentence description of each
• the best way to contact you during the convention

If we like your pitch, we’ll ask you to email us the entire manuscript.

Before You Submit

Not following the guidelines will show us that you aren’t really willing to work with us, and the submission will be deleted and ignored.

Run spell-check on your manuscript. Read it over carefully. Have someone else read it over carefully. Everybody makes mistakes, but your ideal should be perfection. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar do count.

Title (14pt Bold)
by (12pt)
Your Name (12pt)

The title, by line and author’s name are all centered. The title is on the first line of the first page.

The font we use is Times New Roman; the size is 12pt. Justify the left margin. Single space.

Do not put an extra space (blank line) between paragraphs, unless you’re indicating a scene break. In the case of a scene break, please center a hashmark (#) in the blank line indicating the break.

Use ONE space after periods and colons, not two.

Center text you want centered using your word processing program’s “center” command, not by spacing over.

Indent paragraphs by using your word processing program’s indent function (preferred) or your keyboard “tab” key. Do NOT indent by spacing over with the spacebar.

Let your word processor decide where a line should end (we’re talking prose here, of course, not poetry); you don’t have to hit the “enter” or “return” key at the end of a line, only at the end of a paragraph.

Use italics where you want italics, rather than underlining to indicate italics. Italicize foreign words and phrases that have not become part of the English language. Do not italicize those that have. When in doubt, consult your dictionary or a contemporary book on American usage.

Use double quote marks (“) for speech. Don’t worry about curly (smart) quotes or straight quotes; our formatter can handle either.

Do not use headers or footers.

Save your story in RTF (Rich Text Format), DOC (MicroSoft Document) or ODT (Open Office Format). These are usually found as a selection in the Save As option under File in your program’s command bar across the top.