Submissions
Preparing a manuscript for submission can be a daunting task, but by following some guidelines, you can give your work a better chance of being accepted. Take some time to find out more about the publishers you are approaching: their mission as a publisher, the genres they publish, and their manuscript submission guidelines. At Ethos Books, we are happy to answer enquiries over the phone or email.
We accept all manner of literary work—poetry, short stories and novels, including non-fiction work such as graphic memoirs, biographies and essays. As a publisher based in Singapore, we mostly develop and support works and writers from Singapore and the Southeast Asia region, but we are open to consider submissions from other localities if they strongly align with our catalogue. We are not focused on young people's books (children's and adolescents' titles). We also prefer to read a full manuscript so that we can more adequately assess the work.
BEFORE SUBMITTING
Besides your manuscript, please provide the following:
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A brief resume or cover letter highlighting your writing interests, any past or ongoing writing projects, and your contact details.
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A synopsis of your manuscript, and a plot summary especially if a long-form work.
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If applicable, a content warning or declaration of potentially disturbing content (e.g. sexual assault, racism or racial slurs, extreme violence, suicide or self harm etc.), out of consideration for readers and our staff assessing the manuscript. For more information about content warnings and the intentions behind them, please refer to this resource: https://www.tckpublishing.com/content-warnings/
You may combine these into a single document. A few pages should be sufficient for us to learn more about you and your work. Make sure that your cover letter and manuscript are well-organised and proofread. Sloppy submissions will adversely affect your manuscript's chances of being considered. Please refer to the formatting guidelines:
SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
You may choose to submit your manuscript and the complementary documents by email or by post, but we prefer the former. If form is integral to your text, you may send along an additional PDF copy of the manuscript for our reference. For hardcopy submissions, please address the package to "The Editor". Remember to keep at least one copy of your manuscript for yourself as publishers are not obliged to return your submission, and cannot be held responsible for lost manuscripts. You can expect an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within a week of mailing or emailing it. If you do not receive word from us, feel free to contact us to ask about it.
Please input "[title of manuscript], [Name]" in the subject header of your submission email.
AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
The Ethos team conducts monthly manuscript evaluation sessions where scheduled scripts are anonymised, and due to the volume of submissions (an average of six per week), we take an average of four months to read, discuss and respond to manuscripts. The waiting period may vary with the time of the year (festival seasons and the later half are generally more hectic) and our publishing schedule.
It is acceptable to submit your manuscript to more than one publisher at a time. You may choose to disclose this information in your cover letter, as it sometimes spurs publishers to respond earlier to your submission.
When you are ready, send in your manuscripts to us at: manuscripts(at)ethosbooks(dot)com(dot)sg.
All the best!
P.S. If you are interested in independently publishing your work, that is, engaging our professional publishing services, you can you can enquire with Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd.
(updated as of October 2021)
