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For Authors


For Authors


How Do I Submit My Book Manuscript to DMS Onge Publishing?

If you already have a completed manuscript, the first step is to review our Manuscript Submission Guidelines to ensure your manuscript qualifies for consideration. If your manuscript meets our guidelines, then thoroughly complete an Author Submission Questionnaire. Send both to us following the directions we provide in our Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

If your manuscript is not completed, you may still submit it in accordance with our Guidelines. But we have a preference for completed, well-edited manuscripts.

What are my costs?

Zero. DMS Onge Publishing is a traditional publisher. If we accept your manuscript for publication, then there is no cost to you as the author for us to publish your work. Our contracts provide for a certain number of free author copies as well as generous author discounts. But no purchases are required.

What Are My Responsibilities as Author?

You have all responsibilities any author has with a traditional publisher. These include, for example, providing certain warranties related to your work, complying with all guidelines and contract provisions, providing interior illustrations, maps, and other interior graphical content, providing necessary frontmatter and backmatter, obtaining permissions for use of copyrighted or proprietary material appearing in your work, abiding by all contract deadlines, and cooperating with the publisher in good faith. You must also submit IRS forms and update your contact information with us whenever it changes.

Why Do I Have to Help Market My Book?

No work can be a commercial success without the active participation of its author. Even celebrity authors and best-selling authors hawk their books everywhere they go, in book-signing tours, and on their personal social media platforms. They work hard not just at writing, but also at marketing their books and building their brands. If you can’t or won’t do the same, why should we take a chance on investing our company assets in publishing and marketing your work?

Will I See My Book in Bookstores?

Whether your work makes it into brick and mortar bookstores depends on a number of variables. Buyers for bookstores require a number of things: a barcode and an ISBN, a standard trade discount, and the ability to return unsold copies. Works we publish meet all these criteria. Most bookstores also will not sell books that are POD (Print-On-Demand). We publish titles using a variety of means, including offset printing and print-on-demand. So your work may be disqualified on this basis if we decide to make it available only as print-on-demand.

Although works we publish meet all of these basic requirements for display in a bricks-and-mortar store, competition for shelf space is fierce. Most new or relatively unknown authors have difficulty competing for valuable shelf space. Also, bookstores often have national buyers who focus on bestselling authors and those with strong established backlists.

We will publicize your book and do a variety of marketing, depending on the title. These efforts may include placing your work in catalogs specifically marketed to brick-and-mortar stores and/or libraries. However, we do not guarantee that your work will be picked up by local stores. Your book will be listed with the major online book retailors Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as listed with the major wholesalers Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

In What Format Will My Book Be Published?

If accepted for publication, your work will be published in formats appropriate for the work. Over time, your work may be published in a variety of formats: hardcover, trade paper, eBook, and others, including large print. We may also sell subsidiary rights to your work in a variety of formats.

How Long Does It Take to Publish My Book?

The time it takes to publish any work varies widely. It depends on the length and quality of your manuscript. It also depends on the amount of editing we deem necessary and the number of changes you request to make. Marketing and sale efforts prior to release also take time. A niche may require new or updated market research and special pre-publication efforts to reach that market.

A short highly polished completed manuscript will take less time to publish than a long incomplete manuscript needing substantial editorial work, or a work that needs complex indexing with substantial frontmatter and backmatter.

In short, each work is treated individually.

What Is Your Editing Process?

We use experienced editors. Our editing process and standards vary somewhat based on the manuscript because we publish fiction and nonfiction. For example, fiction and most nonfiction will be edited with the Chicago Manual of Style in mind. A legal work, however, will be edited to the Bluebook standard by an attorney.

We will not rewrite a manuscript, and we will give deference to an author's own style. But inconsistencies throughout the work, dropped characters in fiction, obtuse or awkward phraseology, and poor word choices will be noted for the author to address. We also note typgraphical errors, and spelling or grammar errors for the author to correct.

To ensure a smooth copy editing process, we expect authors under contract to be familiar with and be able to use Microsoft Word's Track Changes feature. Please do not submit a manuscript until you are fluent enough with those features to use them well.

How Are Royalties Calculated?

DMS Onge Publishing pays royalties to authors based on the contract schedule, which includes higher royalty rates for higher volume sales and an escalation clause. Rates also vary based on the format of the work and where copies are sold. For example, we give higher royalties for books sold via our own website. Most royalties are calculated on a percentage of the retail price for net copies sold. Royalties paid for sales of subsidiary rights are based on a percentage of the net share of revenue from the licensing of such rights. There are some circumstances when royalties are not paid, i.e., on free copies provided to the author or copies sold to the author, exceptions that are standard for the publishing industry.

May I Preview Your Contract Prior to Submitting My Manuscript?

Although we have some boilerplate language in all of our contracts, we actually individualize our offers. So, we do not post a sample online because to do so may be misleading to prospective authors.

What If I Have Other Questions?

Many other questons are answered on our main page about Publishing, within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines, and Author Submission Questionnaire.

If you still have questons, you may use our Contact Us form.