Writing for Loving Healing Press:

We regret to announce that book submissions for 2010 are currently closed. We will not accept manuscripts from new authors until March 2011. Current authors are exempt from this limitation

The good news is that we are still accepting submissions of poetry, prose, fiction, essay, and opinion at Recovering The Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing quarterly. Please forward your submissions directly to Editor-in-Chief Ernest Dempsey and be sure to look at our on site submissions info pages.

LHPress occasionally publishes unsolicited manuscripts from exceptional authors as part of the "Spiritual Dimensions" or "New Horizons in Therapy" series. Such books must be congruent with our mission statement and empowering to readers. We pay competitive rates to authors, but our books are not cheap. All new books will retail at $17.95 and above, commensurate with length. We do not offer publishing advances at this time.

An inquiry should contain a minimum of the following items:

  • Outline of the book listing all chapters and sections (about 3 pages).
  • At least one sample chapter (preferably two to four).
  • Statement of who your market is (hint: it's not everyone who reads).
  • Estimates of total length and date of completion.
  • Assurance that you are the sole legal owner of this intellectual property.
  • If a reprint, explain why this work deserves to be back in print.
  • Marketing Plan: explaining what steps YOU will take to help sell the book.

Evaluation of Manuscripts
Unlike many other publishing houses and some agents, LHP does not charge authors an evaluation fee for manuscripts. If selected for consideration, your manuscript will be read by a professional editor who has shepherded more than 100 books into publication. Manuscripts are scored on specific criteria which the author would do well to consider before submitting.

Manuscript Formats

  • In general, all books must be submitted in Microsoft Office/Word 97, 2003, or 2007 format. Or a format which can be readily converted in one step such as WordPerfect, HTML, or ASCII. Such documents need to have proper paragraphs (hit Enter only once per paragraph)
  • Use only simple text decorations (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, italics, boldface) and a single font throughout the body text.
  • Excessive use of decorations (italics, boldface, font changes) will weigh negatively. A benchmark to use is no more than one use of italics or boldface per page. If the words of the manuscript itself do not convey the meaning, no amount of decorations will convey it.
  • Excessive use of exclamation points (!), ellipses (...), centering, and colored text will weigh negatively.
  • Do not add tabs before paragraphs (use Styles in Word or else leave un-tabbed)
  • Sentences 48 words or longer must be rewritten.

    Figures, Pictures, and photos

  • Consider that all figures and pictures will be rendered in black-and-white. Drawings work best in pen-and-ink or pencil. Figures must be provided in text or rendered by a line-drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Visio or PowerPoint, etc.
  • All pictures must be "local" to the document and not externally loaded from the web.
  • Photos must be professionally scanned and cleaned at 600dpi. We highly recommend ScanCafe.com which is inexpensive, fast, insured, and provides some touchups. We do not receive any commission or compensation for this endorsement.

    Reprint Editions, Revised Editions, 2nd Editions, etc.

  • Occasionally we will take on out-of-print books where no original manuscript is available. This typically involves destructive scanning of one copy of the old book.
  • We can also strip text out of PDF files although the labor costs to us are almost equivalent scanning to reconstruct the text formatting.

    Books for Children (color)

  • Books for children must be professionally illustrated. In most cases, the author will either pay the illustrator outright for the work and/or split the royalties. Contracts can be written to pay to either one or two recipients for any given work.
  • If you can't find an illustrator, we can help you find one.
  • Color books should be no more than 40 pages total due to cost constraints of color printing (yes, one sheet of paper = two pages).

    Advantages to authors
    LHPress has a fully-developed distribution system including direct relationships with Amazon, Ingram Book Group, Baker & Taylor, New Leaf Distributing, Quality Books, and conference bookstores among others.

    Mission Statement

    "Loving Healing Press is dedicated to producing books about innovative and rapid therapies to empower authors in redefining what is possible for healing the mind and spirit."

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