Submission Guidelines
Lethe Press rarely considers unsolicited manuscripts. If you have a project you believe may be of interest to us, please send a short query to us via email. Do not send print materials at any time, and please do not send us your manuscript unsolicited. Please do look over the types of books we publish before sending us your material, and understand that as a small press our resources (human and financial) are limited; it may take us some time to get back to you.
Send queries to editor@lethepressbooks.com. Thank you for your interest in Lethe Press.
Click here for info About submitting ads and images for Icarus
About submitting literary pieces for Icarus
Note to Lethe Press Authors about digital distribution
About submitting literary pieces for Icarus
Note to Lethe Press Authors about digital distribution
Note to Lethe authors:
About Submitting Poetry: For poetry manuscript submissions, please send a cover letter that includes a brief bio, a brief summary of your manuscript, and a list of publications where some of the poems have first appeared. Attach 7-10 sample poems from the manuscript. If we like your sample poems, we will ask to read the entire manuscript. Reporting time is 3-6 months. Remember your poems will be printed on book size pages, not typing paper size. You should not use tabs or spaces to align words or set indents; always use stylesheet commands.
About Preparation of Manuscripts for Submission: Manuscripts should be presented "publishable-ready." Like all publishers, Lethe Press naturally does advising/correcting/proofing/etc; but a publisher cannot rewrite a poorly composed or grammatically incorrect and misspelled m.s.. Spelling and punctuation should be correct and composition should be at a relatively final stage. Authors who are not confident of their own skills in these regards may want to secure the services of a book doctor or copy editor. Lethe Press can offer recommendations. And though the Author is responsible for paying such fees, the Press may assist with an advance, so that those fees can be deducted from forthcoming royalties.
(We're happy to help and will work with our authors to perfect their books. Just as a singer has to be able to pass an audition by singing well and hitting all the notes exactly, and a painter has to know how to paint and get the mechanics of drawing correct to have paintings in a gallery, so a writer has to be able to write well—which includes knowing how to spell and compose the English language and type a document with wordprocessing software. Lethe Press is likely more understanding of human fallibility in these regards than big mainstream publishers. It's a given that big name literary agents and New York publishing company editors will reject a submission out of hand if there is a spelling error in the submission package.)
About Formatting Submissions: Final M.S.S. submitted by authors to Lethe Press should be formatted in Times New Roman font, size 10, single spaced. There should be a specified style name for the title, the chapter titles, and the main text. "Normal" is OK for the main text; don't use "Body Text"; all main text should be in the same style. Styles must be consistent. Any other styles should be identified in their style name (e.g., "poetry" "spacer," "centered," "handwritten letter," "nonindented normal," etc.). Heading 1, Heading 2, body text 2, etc. are not acceptable as style names (because they potentially conflict with the stylesheets in the computer software at the receiving end and/or with html conversion for kindle and ebooks). Do not use a mix of style names which all describe the same formatting (this happens when the computer software creates new stylenames, especially when cutting and pasting from several previous files). Centered text should be centered with a style command, not with tabs or spaces to push the text over.
Editors and authors of collections should be especially conscious of coordinating style sheets (including styles names, fonts, spacing, etc.) when combining a variety of stories or articles into a single file.
If you have a preference for fonts, especially ornamental fonts for titles and chapter headings, please let us know.
Paragraphs should be indented .25 inch with a stylesheet command. Do not use tabs to identify paragraphs. Don't use any tabs anywhere in your manuscript.
Replace double hyphens and en-dashes with em-dashes. Em-dashes should not be preceded or followed by a space. Replace period, period, period or period, space, period, space, period with an ellipsis. Unless the ellipsis ends a sentence, do not use a space before or after.
Do not use underlining for italics. Do not use BOLD for italics. If you use Bold or Bold Italics text in your m.s., make a note on the first page.
Do not use ALL CAPS for titles; put titles in Title Case. (Titles should be given a style name, like "Title," "Chapter Title," "Half Title.")
Do not use two spaces between sentences. Never use two spaces in a row for any reason. And do not use an extra carriage return between paragraphs unless you intend a break in the narrative. If you want an ornamental spacer in your text, insert three centered asterisks or pound signs -- *** or ### -- so that the breaks are clearly marked
Make sure that all leading apostrophes (as in '70s, 'cause, 'tween, etc.) are apostrophes and not open-single-quotes. Leading apostrophes MUST be entered manually; the wordprocessor software will almost always make a error and think you are starting a single-quoted quotation.
Periods and commas should be inside quotation marks.
The word "blonde" is feminine gender; men do not have "blonde" hair.
Please pay attention to the rules for writing numbers; in general, spell them out, don't use numerals. Here's a link for standard rules.
Do not send text as html or as content in email; the various web/email conversions can introduce some of the errors mentioned above (like double hyphens for dashes) and can insert carraige returns at the end of lines, thus breaking up paragraphs. In most cases, copying and pasting from email into page layout software will inadvertently remove italics.
About BrazenHead: BrazenHead, our imprint dedicated to GLBT novellas of speculative fiction, is open for submissions. Please visit sentenceandparagraph.com/brazenhead/ for complete guidelines.
Note to Graphic artists:
Please submit your cover image(s), attached to email, as:
1) a 300 dpi CMYK TIFF (without any title or text), see size requirements below.
2) if you have planned how the text and title should be placed, also send a copy of the cover
with title and text as you envision it. Please plan to use widely available fonts. In most cases, Lethe covers
use the same font faces as those in the interior of the book. Feel free to inquire what fonts are already being used.
3) If possible, also send the original Photoshop (or other art app) file with layers intact (not flattened).
(This could be a very large file and may require special handling, but our having this file makes minor adjustments so much easier.)
4) And be sure to include in your cover letter email, how you'd like to be credited on the copyright page.
If your file(s) are over 10 Mb and can't be sent as an email attachment, please inquire about other methods for sending.
Lethe's Production Manager, Toby Johnson, has a mac idisk at http://public.me.com/tobyjohnso
You can contact him at the email address below to get the password.
Size requirements: Lethe Press books are generally in one of three sizes: 5.5x8.5 in, 5x8 inch, or 6x9 in. For best results,
you submit the cover graphic sized to fit the cover of the book. (again, feel free to inquire). Book covers need to be sized
.125 inch bigger at top and bottom and outside edge than the final size of the book. This .125 inch will be trimmed away
in final processing. AND you should leave an additional .125 inch margin all around inside the trim size of the book;
that margin should be filled with your background but contain nothing of importance to the image because it could also get trimmed
(or run over into the spine).
Spine width cannot be calculated until after the final layout of the interior is completed (because the spine width is dependent on the page count). So please don't include the spine in your image.
If you are doing front and back, please submit two separate TIFFs, one for the front, one for the back. Don't include the spine. (If you need to do a wraparound image, please let us know in advance so we can accommodate.).
If your front cover image includes a background that would be appropriate for the backcover of the book, please also submit that background as a properly sized 300 dpi CMYK TIFF.
To download the actual template for the book, go to http://lightningsource.com, do NOT log in, choose File Creation > Cover Template Generator; enter the ISBN, confirm that the page count is correct, do NOT include price in barcode. It will be sent in the format you choose to the email address you enter.
IF you download the template, do not move or rearrange any of the items on the template, including the barcode.
Usually final book layout is done by Toby Johnson. His email address is tobyjohnso@aol.com (note the truncation of his last name--no final "n".)
Icarus: the Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction Guidelines
About ads for Icarus
Ads and images for Icarus: The Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction should be sent to tobyjohnso@aol.com
They should be prepared as 300 dpi, RGB jpgs, sized at 100%. The files should be named with the submitter's name.
They can also be sent as pdfs generated from such 300 dpi, RGB jpgs with fonts embedded. Do NOT include crop marks or printer's marks or color bars, etc. PDF files MUST be sized exactly because they can't be resized or changed after conversion to PDF. JPG is ALWAYS preferable to PDF.
A quarter page ad is 3.5 inches wide x 4.625 inches high. A quarter page ad costs $25.
A half page ad is 7.25 inches wide x 4.625 inches high (horizontal) OR 3.5 inches wide x 9.25 inches high (vertical). A half page ad costs $50.
A full page ad (fitting into text margins) can be 7.3125 inches wide x 9.25 inches high. A full page ad (8.5x11) can also bleed over the edge and fill the entire page. A full page ad costs $100.
Such ads should be 8.5 x 11 inches. Be sure to allow .125 inches off the outside edge and .125 inches off top and bottom to be trimmed. The actual page size of the printed magazine is 8.25 inches x 10.75 inches. (So don't put text or essential images in the trim space). Do NOT use any kind of printer's marks.
All ads/images can be adjusted a little during page layout. So you can give yourself a little latitude.
About literary contributions—stories, poems, essays, interviews, etc.—for Icarus
Icarus publishes speculative fiction stories up to 9000 words that feature gay male protagonists. We publish all stories that feature the fantastic: from magical realism to hard SF to horror. (Query for longer). We have published work by Tanith Lee, Lee Thomas, Sandra McDonald, and Tom Cardamone. We also feature interviews with authors who write gay male characters (Lynn Flewelling, Geoff Ryman).
For an original, substantive story or article, we pay $50 by check or by PayPal; payment for short pieces, reprinted stories or interviews will be negotiated individually. All contributors will receive a 1 year subscription.
We buy first-printing world exclusive English-language rights for two months.
Please submit the story in Standard Manuscript Format to icarus.spec.mag@gmail.com as a RTF or Word (.doc) attachment with SUBMISSION: (Title of Story) in the subject line and a brief bio (1 paragraph or less) and a photo. If sent separately, the bio should be named <authorname-bio.doc> The photo should be B&W, sized 1.5 inch wide and 2 inch tall, formatted as a 300 dpi jpg, and named <authorname-photo.jpg>. (Please don't name submissions of any type things like "for icarus" or "to lethepress" or the location the photo was taken; these are meaningless for layout use.)
Please follow the formatting guidelines above under Note to Lethe Authors.
Response Time and Response Status
Response time is up to 3 months.
Note to Lethe Press Authors about digital distribution
Lethe Press produces and markets several slightly different sets of digital books -- epub, prc, lit, pdb, pdf. One set is sold through AllRomanceEbooks/OmniLit, a very large digital retailer, and to 1placeforromance.com; this set is also sold thru TLA Books and Video, weightlessbooks.com, Bella Distributing's LGBTBookshop, and Wizard's Tower (for spec fic titles)
Another set of digital files is marketed by Smashwords.com. These files are produced by the smashwords conversion wizard based on a simplified and standardized layout. These are sold on the smashwords.com website AND distributed whlse by smashwords to Apple iBookstore, B&N (Nook), Sony, Kobo, Diesel Books and Scrollmotion (this last one creates standalone apps of each book which are sold thru the app stores).
Yet one other ebook version is for Kindle and sold by amazon.com. This is based on the smashwords simplified layout, but with a slightly different kind of Table of Contents utility. Smashwords also markets a version for the Kindle thru smashwords.com.
And through bitmenu.com, Lethe Press markets a PDF-on-Demand version through our website--this version is an exact replica of the print edition with fully functional Table of Contents and Bookmarks. The PDF-on-Demand can be downloaded to view on computer screen or through iTunes to be transferred to ebook reader, including iPad, Nook and Kindle.
The bitmenu links can be placed on any website, facebook page, email document, etc. The link goes to a widget for making the purchase and download; from that widget--and without having to complete the purchase--notices can be shared on facebook, twitter, google and linkedIn and these will include the widget and sent to all the people on your contacts list. This is a very useful tool for authors to use to promote their books. The bitmenu links are available from this website; there's a red and orange delta in title listings with the links AND there is a simplified version of the URL for each title on the Authors page.
If you need digital versions of your books to send to reviewers or for your own use, please contact us. We'll be happy to provide you with these.