What we want? How to submit books to Maverick House?

We love good books. Maverick House exists to publish them. We appreciate and respect all the time and effort that authors invest in their writing. Writing is blood, sweat and tears. It is unlike anything else. Real writing isn’t a pleasure; it’s a grind.

Writing non-fiction, in our estimation, is even more difficult. There is no room for mistakes and facts have to be correct, even when they are open to interpretation.

We are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain material that we can publish however. We do receive dozens of emails and parcels which contain potential books each day. These are the products of hard graft. We know the writer has probably slaved over his or her laptop for months to get down 100,000 words. And each day, we throw their beloved packages in the bin, or delete the emails. Why?

The majority of the submissions we receive concern genres that we don’t publish. Maverick House has never published illustrated books for young children. We don’t publish erotic fiction either. As for illustrated hardbacks, we have never published them. So we are at a loss to understand why people send them to us.

Sometimes, authors call our office to ask about our submission guidelines. They usually want to know if we return submissions or will offer them some advice? We help if we can, but our time is precious.

The truth is that authors are failing to contact the publisher that might publish their work because they don’t bother to do any research. We all know how easy it is to conduct research on the internet but few authors seem to bother.

Maverick House is always looking for good manuscripts but we seek books of a certain kind, written by a certain type of person, whose story can travel and catch the imagination. We need authors who are also social media savvy.

What type of book qualifies? Look at our list. What does it say about us. We’ve published some fiction, but not a lot. We’ve also published some travel memoirs of Asian interest, but these have been few and far between.

Our strongest titles concern organised crime, murder and terrorism. We strive to publish books that have a strong social agenda.

From the very beginning, we have published stories about people who have overcome adversity against all odds, people who made mistakes and paid a heavy price for them; people who have experienced life in all its forms. For us, it’s all about the story.

If you take one lesson from this blog, do your research and connect with the right publisher. Contact one that’s looking for your book.