Manuscript Submission Guidelines making sense of the publishing business…

The Advance Review Book Publishing Path

Once your submission has been assessed and you have considered suggestions regarding structure or other important issues that might have arisen as a result of editing staff's scrutiny, you might wish to consider engaging our editors for a full line edit and producing a limited print run of what the industry refers to as advance review copies. This process is one suitable only for work that has merit and recommended by the Sid Harta editors.
What is an advance review book? This is a finished book sample. The process is one taken to determine market response to a book prior to committing to a commercial print run, solicit reviews and even to demonstrate one's talent to those all elusive agents. The book is digitally produced for review purposes and to seek potential buying response from major chains and independent booksellers. The process takes approximately six months through to the review stage.

This is how it works: The author agrees to pay for the cost of production of the advance review copies which involves line editing, typesetting, cover design, printing of the books and postage to potential book buyers, reviewers and distributors. It is important for authors who had considered self-publishing to recognize that, with the exception of the cost of printing the advance review books, all of the above costs would be incurred in the normal course of publishing their work anyway.

So, why not give yourself the added advantage of this step?

This is a process that gives the author an edge by producing a polished product.

Once the books have been produced (ten copies are sent to the author, additional copies are made available if requested) and reviews are returned, the author would still be at liberty to offer the book to other publishing houses and, of course, literary agents.