Submission Guidelines

Valor Publishing Group, LLC is an independently owned Utah limited liability corporation. Founded by author, Candace E. Salima, Valor Publishing Group, LLC was created as a traditional publishing company with a 21st century attitude and business model.

Publishing with Valor Publishing Group

Now accepting:

Nonfiction: Both Religious and Secular
Fiction: Historical Fiction, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense/Mystery, Action/Adventure, Young Adult, Women's Fiction, Fantasy and Sci-Fi

We are in dire need of good, strong romantic suspense and historical fiction. Keep it clean please.

Please be advised that manuscripts accepted this spring will not be published until the 2012/2013 season.

Any book published by Valor Publishing Group will contain the following elements:

Engaging. The story, style of writing, and flow of exposition and dialogue should engage the reader at all times. Fictional main characters should be created so that the reader can cheer them on. They must appeal to the reader, while struggling with imperfections or obstacles.

Of value to readers. After a Valor book is closed after that last page, the reader should feel uplifted, enlightened, educated, or entertained. Valor will accept no dark topics which do not have a solution and path out of that darkness. VERY SPECIFICALLY, we will NOT accept any horror or erotica which DOES include sex scenes, same-sex attractions, main characters who are call girls or prostitutes and all types of erotica, including what authors like to call "tasteful erotica." There is no gray area in this guideline. Please do not submit any manuscripts which include any of the restricted subjects.

Well written and well researched. Poor writing and careless research will not be accepted. Any authors wishing to submit a manuscript shall have it thoroughly edited for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, story structure, engaging and natural dialogue, and a readable writing style. Anything less will be outright rejected.

In general, Valor is not interested in poetry, family histories, or personal journals. However, we are always interested in good books which will be successful for both the author and publisher. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you let us know other publishing houses to which your manuscript has been submitted.

Submitting Your Manuscript

Valor Publishing Group will only accept electronic submissions, in Microsoft Word format, emailed to submissions@valorpublishinggroup.com. (You will receive an immediate acknowledgment of the receipt of your manuscript. If you have not received this response within 72 hours, please contact Valor Publishing Group and see if we have received your manuscript. You will need have Outlook or Outlook Express in order for these live email links to work. If you do not have these programs, simply copy and paste the link into your current email program.)

Your submission should include all of the following, each as a separate attached document:

• Query Letter
• Proposal and Marketing Plan
• Author Information Form
• Synopsis (for fiction) or Table of Contents (for nonfiction)
• Full Manuscript
• Bibliography (for nonfiction)

All documents should be formatted using a clear 12-point font size (preferably in Times New Roman), double-spaced, with 1 inch margins all around, on standard letter-size (8 1/2 x 11) layout. Your Query Letter should be short and to the point, one page or less. (Query Letter may be single-spaced and may be optionally included in the text portion of your email.)

Your Proposal and Marketing Plan should detail your title, intended audience (age and genre), uniqueness, sales handle, and reasons why you believe your work will attract a readership. Please detail your marketing plan, including anything and everything you intend to do to help us successfully promote and market your book.

Click here to open an Author Information Form. Complete the form and save with your name in the file name.

For fiction submissions, your Synopsis should be 2-4 pages long and should summarize your entire plot and storyline, chapter by chapter, from start to finish. Don't leave us guessing.

For nonfiction submissions, please include a Table of Contents with page number references included.

For nonfiction submissions, your Bibliography should include references to all source material, including: author, title of the work, publishing city and state, name of publisher, publication date, and page numbers of the quotations. For scripture, include: book, chapter, and verse.

Your Manuscript should adhere to the following guidelines:

• Be certain each page is sequentially numbered using the following format in the upper right-hand header of each manuscript page, beginning with the prologue or first chapter: Title/Author Surname/Page Number, as an example: Shadows/Salima/248.
• Your manuscript should be in one continuous file, not as separate files for each chapter.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph 1/2", either with formatting or with a tab. Paragraphs should not be right justified. Do not insert an extra line-space after each paragraph.
• Use a hard page break between chapters. (Ctrl-Enter)
• If quotations are included in your manuscript, always include complete publishing information for the sources of those quotations. For scripture: include book, chapter, and verse. For other quotations, include the author, title of the work, publishing city and state, name of the publisher, the publication date, and page numbers of the quotation. You may also simply cite the author, title, and page numbers in the text and include the remainder of the information in a bibliography.
• If you are using quotations from sources other than scriptures, please keep a photocopy of the original source as well as a photocopy of the title page and copyright page of the book from which you are quoting. You will need to provide this information if your manuscript is accepted for publication.
• It is the author's responsibility to clear the use of all quotations that are under copyright. This includes prose quotations (more than a few lines) and all lyrics and poems. Because of the difficulty in finding copyright holders to secure permissions and the heavy fees usually charged, we discourage use of poetry or words from songs written by established writers and composers.

Valor will not accept physical manuscripts mailed to our offices. If you decide to mail a hard copy of your manuscript anyway, be aware that it will be shredded and disposed of upon receipt. Please email all manuscript submissions, according to the guidelines above, to: submissions@valorpublishinggroup.com. (You will receive an immediate acknowledgment of the receipt of your manuscript. If you have not received this response within 72 hours, please contact Valor Publishing Group and see if we have received your manuscript.)

Please submit your manuscript only once; duplicate submissions will be immediately discarded.

Allow, at minimum, 8 weeks for a response to your submission. It may take longer, as the number of manuscripts being submitted to Valor have increased over time. You will be notified, of either acceptance or rejection, via email. Be certain all your contact information, including your email, is clearly printed on the cover page of your manuscript. If your manuscript is accepted for publication:

• We will need a complete author biography and professional head-shot photo. (We recommend Scott Smith Photography if you are in the Utah County area.)
• We will email you an Author Contract, of which you will need to print out, sign, and return 2 copies via regular mail. We will sign and return one copy to you for your files.
• Your assigned editor will contact you to begin the editing, re-writing, and publication process.

Expectations of Authors

Valor Publishing Group, LLC authors must agree to a 15 hour (2 days) in-house, or video conference, training session to be conducted by Valor CEO and President, Candace E. Salima. In that 15 hours, authors will be taught the following:

• How to appropriately dress and present themselves at booksignings, speaking engagements, or media interviews (one-on-one appointment with clothing, hair and makeup consultant)
• How to be successfully interviewed on television, radio, or in print
• Public speaking
• How to successfully market their books and brand themselves as authors
• Basic teaching skills in order to teach at writers conferences
• How to have a successful booksigning
• How to have successful book tours, both virtual and physical

If potential Valor authors do not agree to this training, they will not be signed to Valor Publishing Group, LLC.

After the Review

After the editorial and marketing staffs have reviewed your manuscript they may:

• Accept it for publication
• Invite you to revise and submit it
• Reject it.

If you are asked to revise your manuscript, please accept this as the positive response it is. This is a strong indication that your manuscript has excellent potential for publication. Pay attention and incorporate all suggestions.

If your manuscript is rejected, we will NOT provide a detailed critique or evaluation of your manuscript. Many factors must be taken into account in deciding which manuscripts are accepted for publication, and rejection does not necessarily mean that the manuscript is not publishable, only that it is not right for Valor at this time. Our resources, financing, time, current publishing schedule and staff are limited, and we are only able to accept a limited number of manuscripts from the many submitted to us.

The Publishing Contract

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will send you a contract soon after acceptance. In the contract, you will agree to grant Valor Publishing Group, LLC the right to publish your book. In return, Valor will pay all editing, production, printing, warehousing, advertising, marketing, and other costs. Royalties, based on a percentage of the retail price, are paid quarterly. The contract will indicate the number of complimentary copies you will receive of your book. You may buy additional copies at 60% off retail, to be billed to you or charged against your royalties.

Production of your Book

While your manuscript is being edited, our designers will select the typeface and design for the inside pages, as well as the jacket, cover and illustrations. If you plan to prepare your own illustrations, please submit samples (a scanned copy will do) before you go to the time and expense of preparing final art. Because of their importance to the marketability of your book, Valor reserves the right to make final decisions on cover and interior art and design.

After your manuscript has been edited, it will be typeset, and you will be sent galley proofs for your review. It is important that you read, correct, and return the galleys promptly so as not to delay publication. At this point, you may resolve with the editor any questions you may have concerning the final text. Galley stage alterations should be kept to a minimum beyond the correction of actual typesetting mistakes. Such corrections are costly and time-consuming; if you insist on excessive changes to galley proofs, you may be charged associated costs.

After corrections on the galleys are made, Valor will proofread the page proofs and camera-ready text before sending the book to the printer. We will also prepare a table of contents, a copyright page, and an index, if required. Finished books are typically delivered to our warehouse approximately 5 to 7 weeks after printing and binding begin. The number of books to be printed is determined by Valor Publishing Group, as is the retail price.

Marketing

Valor Publishing Group, LLC's marketing department is exploding onto the book market with 21st century, as well as traditional, marketing methods. Promotion of your book will begin three to four months before it is to be released, when promotional materials, ARCs (advanced reader copies), and order forms will be sent to more than a thousand book dealers who stock our books.

Additional promotional elements, including publicity, in-store promotion, electronic and print media, targeted email marketing, as well as whole promotions, may be developed as part of your book's individualized marketing strategy. Although the marketing department makes all the decisions regarding promotion of our publications, we will look to our authors as key partners in the marketing process. You will receive more detailed information about your participation when your book is accepted for publication.

Some authors are asked to speak at book groups, autograph parties, or other engagements; your cooperation in this can greatly help the sales of your book. If you have specific questions about marketing your book, please share them with us. We want to do everything possible to make your book successful.

Thank you for considering publishing with Valor Publishing Group., LLC If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us at info@valorpublishinggroup.com