Submitting to Muddy Pearl
At Muddy Pearl, we are committed to performing the traditional role of the publisher, and doing that as well as we can. We are not a self-publishing company, vanity publisher, nor a hybrid. We are a close-knit team, working hard to edit, market and produce books, while covering all costs. We never charge authors to publish their books.
Although we almost always commission books directly, we do accept a few unsolicited submissions (and it really is very few). We can’t promise to read every submission, and at busy times we can’t even promise to reply to every submission, much as we would dearly like to. This is because we are a very small team, with far too much to do, and simply not enough hours in the day. Please be patient, and forgive us if our answer has to be no.
We love all our books, and we’ve invested lots of time and money in them (as have our authors, of course). And so, one thing that does help to get our attention is if you’ve read one. We are always accepting submissions to our Writer’s Wednesday blog, encouraging writers to write a creative review of something we have published, linking their own work with ours. Think of it as a literary icebreaker. We also place great value on real, interpersonal connection, so if there is someone that we know, or know of, who would recommend your work to us, that would be a great way of making an introduction!
After that, please send a cover letter, telling us a little about yourself, what you’ve done and what you’ve written before, anything which will help us to see why you are qualified to write on the subject. It could be a CV if that’s easiest. Also, a synopsis explaining why you decided to write on this topic, remembering to give some thought to the market and your readers. What else will they have read? Why will they read your book?
If you are writing non-fiction, please send your very best sample chapter or two, and a detailed outline with a chapter summary. If you are submitting fiction, send the first chapter and an outline, but do make sure you have finished the manuscript first.
The address to send your submission to is books@muddypearl.com.
Other than that, here is some advice that we have shamelessly culled from another publisher’s website. Imitation is the best form of flattery, after all. So, there’s something on how to write fiction here, advice on how to get published here and again here.
