About Vanilla Heart Publishing

Vanilla Heart Publishing is based Washington State, USA.

We are an independent publisher, providing traditional publishing services to the authors we select. Vanilla Heart Publishing will never charge a fee to any author. We do not select all manuscripts submitted to us. In fact, we publish only a small percentage of submitted manuscripts to maintain a title list of the highest caliber. We do not accept unsolicited submissions. We require a query first, and if we are intrigued by your query we will request the first three chapters of your polished, completed manuscript. After reviewing these chapters, the acquisitions team may elect to request a full manuscript.

All selected manuscripts will receive an easy to read and understand industry standard publishing contract with what we believe are higher than average royalties for the publishing industry. Each contract is individually tailored to the unique author and subject of the book based on the genre, writing style, and marketability of the book.

Vanilla Heart Publishing does not accept all manuscripts we receive, but we will respond to all queries and all requested manuscript submissions.

All Vanilla Heart Publishing's books are professionally edited, professionally formatted, and provided with a professional and attractive color cover, again, with absolutely zero cost to the author.

 

Query Submission

Vanilla Heart Publishing is currently open for queries, although we have a full title lineup through mid-summer, 2010, at this time. We do not accept unsolicited manuscript submissions.

Vanilla Heart is looking for those special novels that tell age-old stories with a splash of flavor that makes them as unique as our readers and authors themselves.

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript to Vanilla Heart Publishing, please write us a maximum of five (5) paragraphs as a query letter that dazzles and surprises us with all of the following elements:

• Your name
• Your pen name, if you have one
• Your e-mail address
• Working title of your manuscript
• Total word count of your manuscript
• Genre and/or subgenre of your manuscript

Describe yourself, the author in one paragraph. Tell us who you are and why we should publish your book. Give us a brief summary of your writing experience.

Using less than three paragraphs, properly edited, proofed, and polished, give us a sample of your writing by telling us about your manuscript. We want to know what it's about, why it's compelling, and why we should request your manuscript, written in such a way that a reader would want to rush to the bookstore and buy a copy.

Summarize your query in one paragraph that will grab our attention—whatever you want to say, but make us feel we simply have to request your manuscript for review!

If you follow these instructions, you will be submitting five (5) paragraphs. Take your time and put some effort into this query, because this is the first impression you will make with Vanilla Heart Publishing.

Once you have this query perfected, remove all formatting from the query (you can paste it into notepad to do this), e-mail us at: 

queries@vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com

We will send a confirmation of receipt of your query within five business days. 

Once you have received confirmation, please wait patiently until we have time to review your query and respond. We will respond to all queries, but response time may vary from one to two days up to several weeks. We will not respond to requests for the status of your query.

Authors who fail to follow these guidelines will receive a rejection without their query being considered.

If we request a partial or full manuscript, please adhere to the Submission Guidelines below. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please do us the courtesy of letting us know it is a simultaneous submission. Manuscript review times vary from two weeks to three months. Do not e-mail, call, or send a carrier pigeon to ask about the status. We look forward to reading what you feel is important enough to write!

 

Manuscript Submission Requirements:

 

Please read and adhere to these guidelines. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be immediately rejected—unread—and we would hate to miss a great manuscript!

Manuscript Format and Style:

Vanilla Heart Publishing does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. All authors must submit a query first, and if we are interested in reviewing your manuscript, we will request the manuscript at that time.

If we have requested your manuscript, we expect you to adhere to the following manuscript formatting and manuscript submission guidelines:

1) The manuscript must be double-spaced (through paragraph settings, not by using double hard returns), 12-point font, Courier New or Times New Roman, with paragraphs indented by first line indention through page setup controls, not by tabs or spacing. This guideline is critical.

2) Do not double space (two hard returns) after paragraphs. When the document is properly set to indent first line, the carriage automatically wraps the paragraph. There is no need for an additional hard return after a paragraph.

3) No headers or footers should be included in your manuscript submission. If you are using footnotes in a non-fiction writing, the footnotes should be included as part of the text, and not in the header or footer sections. (Use of footnotes and end notes is discouraged. There is usually a better way to cite sources in text with a reference at the end of the manuscript.)

4) Margins should be set at no less than . one-half inch and no more than one inch on all sides, and all margins should be equal. No gutter should be set.

5) Page size should be  eight-and-one-half by eleven inches.

6) Please use either .doc or .rtf for your submissions.  (.doc format is highly preferred.)

7) The first page at the top of your manuscript must contain the following information in this format:

Name Street Address City, State and ZIP E-mail

Word Count = Approx. xxx,000

  

TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT (Subtitle Of Manuscript) YOUR NAME

  

Body of Manuscript Starts Here

 

8) Each chapter should start on its own page, labeled as Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, etc., and should be spaced down five single spaces from the top margin. If you have titles for each chapter, then type Chapter One – Title, using proper title case. Put page breaks at the end of each chapter. Do not space down to a new page.

9) Do present a professional manuscript. If you think correct style, spelling, and grammar aren't important, then you aren't likely to get your work published anywhere, and certainly not with Vanilla Heart Publishing.

We may have a professional editor provide a readability and editorial assessment of your manuscript if we believe it has potential, but we fully expect you to present a fully edited, professionally prepared manuscript.

10) There is no need to put a copyright notice on each page of your manuscript. The law grants you a natural copyright on your submission the minute you put it in tangible form, and publishers and editors would not stay in business long if that law was not followed. We know your manuscript is protected by copyright, and there is no need to put that information on every page.

11) Do act professionally regarding your submission.

 

Vanilla Heart Publishing and its subsidiary/imprint companies receive a large volume of queries and contest entries each day. We will respond as quickly as possible to every properly formatted query or submission that adheres to our guidelines. We will not ask for manuscript submissions from every author. This is a part of the normal publishing process.

Keep in mind, it's called a "submission," not a "demand." 

We offer advances only on manuscripts we believe have potential to recover those advances quickly, so we may not be able to offer an advance to every author. The best way to secure an advance with Vanilla Heart Publishing is to show us a proven marketing plan or a track record of book sales and readership.

Any author who demands an advance as part of their query letter will likely be rejected. We will discuss finances (advances and royalties) only after we have requested a copy of your manuscript and have decided to offer you a contract.

While we believe that all authors should be a part of the entire creative process of their novel, the query and submission time period is not the time to discuss illustrations, covers, money, royalties, and other matters. Once we have determined that your manuscript has potential, we will discuss all of those details with you in full prior to offering you a contract.