We welcome the submission of manuscripts, from both new and experienced authors, on themes related to the teachings, principles, activities and history of the Bahá’í Faith, as well as prevalent and related discourses.
Here are a few guidelines you may find helpful when considering submitting a manuscript:
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Please only submit a complete and well-checked manuscript. We are not able to make decisions on proposals, outlines, or first chapters only.
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The manuscript should be an original piece. If parts of the manuscript have previously been published, please indicate the author, title, publisher and date of publication, and whether you have received permission to reproduce it in your current book. If your manuscript is a translation of a book in another language, please indicate this so that we can discuss translation rights.
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Please submit your manuscript as a Word document and email it to sales@grbooks.com.
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Please use Times New Roman or a similar font, in size 12.
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Formatting should be kept simple and should not include layout codes such as spacing between paragraphs, as these have to be stripped out at the editing stage. Please use single spacing, justified left only.
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Please include a complete bibliography. Quotations, photographs and materials from other books and sources may require permissions from their publisher. Please ensure you have such permission.
Steps
1. All submissions are acknowledged and a timeframe for consideration offered; please contact us again if you do not hear back within a week. The editorial team meets quarterly, and makes decisions collectively on new manuscripts in a respectful spirit of consultation. George Ronald considers not only the merit of the content, but the commercial viability of the manuscript as a published book.
2. If your manuscript is accepted, a contract will be drawn up. In essence, this states that the author grants George Ronald certain rights to the book, including the right to publish it, although copyright remains with the author. In return, George Ronald agrees to publish the book and to pay royalties on sales. The agreement covers numerous practical details, and is in a form recommended by the Publishers Association of Great Britain.
3. You will then be assigned an editor who will work with you on your book. The relationship is a collaborative one, in which changes and improvements are suggested and agreed.
4. When the editorial work has been completed, we present the work for review to the Review Panel of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom. Queries raised by the Review Panel may be referred back to the author.
GR House Style
A well-presented manuscript can save months of editorial time. Here is a list of the most important items to bear in mind:
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Consistency: Try to stick to one style for things like spelling, dates, abbreviations, capitalisation, ellipses, hyphenation, quotation marks, commas and dashes.
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We accept either English or American spelling, so long as it is consistent. Use the Concise Oxford Dictionary for English spellings. Use Webster for American spellings.
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Dates should be written as 6 July 1884.
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Ellipses are three spaced dots (. . . not ...)
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Use single quotation marks, then double (She said, ‘I like the countryside but not “muddy fields”.’)
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Please note that GR uses endnotes rather than footnotes.
Children’s Books
We welcome the submission of illustrations with the text, but it is not a prerequisite.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at sales@grbooks.com.