Hardpressed - UK Urban Fiction

We are not accepting submissions for general publication at this time.

We accept submissions from new, unpublished writers and authors, as well as from those who are already established and known for their works. Everyone is welcome.   We do, however, recommend that all of those who plan to submit something to us — read over the guidelines below; especially those detailing how we wish the manuscript formatted. Whether or not we accept your submission will depend on strict adherence to the guidelines, as well as on the quality of the story itself.

RESPONSE TIME: We will process submissions as they are submitted, and depending on our work load, you can expect an emailed reply within 12 to 16 weeks of the date received.

GENRES: We only accept work with the compass of UK Urban Fiction. Submissions in a genre or sub-genre that is not listed will not be considered this time around, nor will the author receive an emailed reply if his/her submission does not conform to these requirements.

FORMATS: We are currently publishing both in Print and in a variety of eBook formats.

SERIES: If an author has a completed a series of related works or is considering doing so, and we accept the first book in the series, then we will also accept the other novels in the series; unless we discover the quality of those to be markedly inferior to that of the first book. Each book in the series should stand alone.

What We Want Or Will Consider In A Submission

1. The entire manuscript of a work must not only be completely finished, but also edited and proofed to a reasonable standard.
2.  We will not accept submissions that require exhaustive editing, no matter how ingenious the story line may be.
3. Believable, well-developed characters.
4. A distinct voice coupled with an intriguing plot. We do not accept 'packet mix' novels. Anything that is clearly written to a formula will be summarily dismissed.
   
5. Originality. We want stories that stand apart from those of established, successful authors. We want stories written by people possessed of a vivid imagination, an ability to write memorable prose, a talent for creating lively, natural-sounding dialogue, and a determination to avoid long, dull, descriptive, repetitive passages that impede the flow of the narrative.

Contract Terms

1. A full contract will be supplied to the author for review upon our acceptance of the work.
2. Royalties: 35% of the cover price less credit card processing fees for eBooks sold through our online shop, 50% of the net amount received from a reseller (reseller, reseller's electronic storefront, and third party storefronts), and 35% of the net for printed books.
3. Rights: we will acquire only the digital rights (exclusive electronic rights for eBook and audio use) for one year, with an automatic one year renewal unless either party provides a written request after the term, but before the anniversary of each one year renewal date. For printed books, we will also acquire the paperback rights for five years.
4. Royalty payments that total more than £25.00 will be paid six-monthly. Payments will be made approximately two months after the end of the period. The length of this delay will depend on the amount of time our retailers take to distribute payments to us.
5. Our preferred method of payment is by direct deposit or Paypal.
   

• Manuscripts must be submitted electronically, in either .txt, .rtf, .odt, or .doc formats, and be sent as an attachment to an email.
• We will NOT accept manuscripts sent in other formats than those listed above, or those contained within the body of an email.
• The email must contain “Submission to HardPressed of [title of book] by [your real name]” in the subject line.
• Include a short, one-paragraph note in the body of the email, where you introduce yourself, if you are submitting to HardPressed for the first time.
• The submission must be a single file. For details, see our Formatting Guidelines.
• Manuscripts must be placed in the format we require. See our Formatting Guidelines.

Formatting Guidelines   The single file constituting the submission must be separated into two portions, Part A and Part B, by a Manual Page break. To insert a Manual Page break, click on Insert (usually) in the word processor's main toolbar, and then on select Break. Under “Section Break Types,” you will find “Next Page.” Click on that (these instructions may be slightly different on your word-processor but there should not be too much difference and the instructions should be easy enough to follow).

  Part A must contain the following items in the order given below. Insert the numbering and the headings given below and then follow them with the required information. Single space the paragraphs providing this information.

1. Submission of [name of book] by [your real name].
2. Contact Information, each item placed on a separate line:
   1. Author's real name.
   2. Author's pseudonym, if you wish the work to appear under a pen name.
   3. Author's mailing address, including your country.
   4. Author's telephone number.
   5. Author's email address.
3. Synopsis: A short description of the story: three paragraphs that total approximately 250 words. Note, the short and long synopsis is used to whet the potential reader's appetite and should tempt them but not give away any plot points that would ruin the experience for them.
4. Short Synopsis: A very concise description of the book: one that totals no more than 175 words.
5. Long Synopsis: A more detailed description of the book. Five or six paragraphs totaling 400 to 450 words.
6. Biography: A biography of you, the author, using your pen name, if you have one. The biography should be two or three paragraphs totaling approximately 250 words. Since the public will see this biography, write it with that fact in mind, in the third person.
7. Photograph: A digital photograph, if you have one available, and wish it displayed to the public.
8. Series: State whether or not your submission forms part of a series. If it does, state whether or not the other books in the series are also finished and polished. State the name of the series and the number of books the series contains.
9. Genre: State what genre and subgenre best describe your story.
10. Publishing History: State whether the submission has been previously published. If it has, then it is essential that all rights have reverted back exclusively to you.
11. Editing: State whether the manuscript has been edited by a professional editor. Whether it has or not, your book, if accepted, will still be edited by us, with a view to correcting any errors in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling that have escaped detection by you or your editor.
12. A Final, Important Note: Acceptance of your submission will depend, to a marked degree, on your having few errors in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling, both in the manuscript and in the synopses or biography that you include in Part A. Manuscripts needing exhaustive editing will be rejected, after we read them only so far as to enable us to make that determination.

  Part B. Copy and paste your complete, proofread, carefully edited, properly formatted manuscript into this part of the single document.

Formatting The Manuscript   To insert certain required formatting values into your manuscript, click on Format in the word-processor's main toolbar, and then click on Font. When you finish with Font, click on Paragraph.

  Enter in each the values indicated in A and B, below:

  A. Format, Font: Times New Roman, regular, 12 point.

  B. Format, Paragraph, Indents and Spacing, General: Alignment = left, Outline Level = body text. Indentation: Left = 0, Right = 0. Special = First line, By = .5. Spacing: Before = 0 pt. After = 0 pt. Line Spacing = single.

1. Do not put blank lines between the paragraphs of text.
2. Do not use headers or footers, and do not number the pages.
3. Use one-inch margins.
4. Do not leave two spaces between sentences.
5. Thoughts expressed by a character, as opposed to spoken words, can be italicised or placed within quotation marks. Foreign words or phrases, and words that the author wishes to emphasize, can also be italicised. Do not use underlining for this purpose.
6. Do not press the Tab key at the beginning of each paragraph. Doing so will double the degree of indentation. If you habitually do that, and are now putting a completed manuscript into the format we require, please remove all the Tab arrows at the beginning of each paragraph. To render those Tab arrows visible, click on the Show/Hide icon in the word-processor's toolbar. (You can use Find and Replace to remove the Tab marks. Click on Find, More, Special, Tab Character. Click on replace. Leave Replace blank. Click on Replace All. The Tab arrows will all vanish.)
7. We strongly recommend that you get into the habit of activating the Show/Hide icon on the word-processor's toolbar as you write, so as to see not only the arrows made by the Tab key, but also the dots representing spaces and the symbols representing paragraph marks.
8. Try not to leave two spaces at the end of the last sentence of a paragraph. Those wrap around. In some formats used by publishers, those wrapped-around spaces can cause trouble. We urge you to perform the tedious task of removing those, if they abound in your manuscript, before sending it to us.

First Page of the Manuscript:

1. In the upper right hand corner, place the following, each on its own line:
   • Your real name.
   • Pen name you wish used.
   • Word count.
   • Your mailing address.
   • Your telephone number.
   • Your email address.

We require this kind of formatting because it makes submissions easy for us to read, and easy to set up for publishing. Because we save time by setting this requirement, you can be assured that a book we accept will be offered for sale that much sooner!