Your book
stays yours.
We publish a short list and read every proposal that reaches it. This page says what we are looking for, what the terms are, and how long you will wait. Nothing here needs an agent, and there is no reading fee.
What we are looking for
Three lines.
One standard.
The test for every book is the same: would a careful reader be better off after it? If the answer is yes and it fits one of these lines, we want to see it.
Essays and reporting
Long non-fiction in geopolitics, culture, history or science. A single argument carried over 30,000 to 90,000 words, or a collection with a spine. Reporting must be yours; every claim must have a source.
Not: memoir without a subject, opinion without reporting.
Children's picture books
Stories for ages 3 to 8 about honesty, patience, courage, generosity, curiosity or making things with your hands. Under 800 words. A story first, a lesson second. The studio illustrates in the house style.
Not: rhyme for its own sake, a moral with no story around it.
Field guides
One subject explained once, clearly, in 12,000 to 25,000 words with room for diagrams. How a river treaty works. What a central bank does. The reader should close it able to explain the subject to someone else.
Not: a textbook, a listicle, a book that needs the author's course to make sense.
Terms in plain English
What you keep,
what we do.
The contract is short, in plain English, and says the same thing as this list. If the list and the contract ever disagree, we will fix the contract.
- Copyright
- You keep it. Samia Books never owns your work.
- Licence
- You license us to print and sell the book, and to sell the digital edition, for a fixed term. The term is written in the contract in years, not "the life of the work". When it ends, the rights return to you unless we both choose to renew.
- Royalties
- Paid every three months with a one-page statement: copies sold, where, at what price, and what you are owed. The rate is in the contract and is the same for every author on the same line.
- Design
- Cover and interior are designed by the studio in the house style. You approve the cover before it is final, and you see the interior proof before it prints.
- Editing
- Structural, line and copy edits by a named editor. Changes are suggested, discussed and agreed. Nobody rewrites your book without you.
- Sources
- Required for non-fiction. Every number, name, date and quote must point to a source we can check, and the sources are printed at the back of the book.
- Written by you
- You confirm the text is your own work. Tools may help you research and check; they may not write the book. We will ask, and we will say so in the contract.
Timeline
From proposal
to print.
Rough dates for a book that is already drafted. A book that is still being written adds the writing time, and we agree a delivery date together.
A reply
Every proposal gets a yes, a no, or a question. A no comes with a reason.
A contract
If it is a yes, we agree the term, the rate and the delivery date, and sign.
Editing and checking
Three edits and a fact-check. Picture books are quicker; collections are slower.
Design and print
Cover, interior, your approval, the proof, then the first run and print-on-demand.
Ready?
Send us the book
in a paragraph.
One page is enough: the book in a paragraph, who it is for, the table of contents, and a sample. The submit page says exactly how.
The reading list
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