Submission Guidelines

PublicBookshelf wants to make it as easy as possible for you to submit your book for publication consideration. We have developed the following guidelines to provide you with information about the content, style and format that we are looking for when you submit a book. We have also included some tips on submitting your book into the PublicBookshelf system.

If you still have questions after reading these guidelines, contact PublicBookshelf at:
Phone: 800-608-7719
Email: admin@publicbookshelf.com

Book Categories

PublicBookshelf currently accepts book submissions from any of the following categories:

Format

Full Books - PublicBookshelf only accepts complete books. Samples and partial books will not be accepted. Poems and short stories must be combined into a book with a chapter format. We do not accept individual poems or individual short stories.

Word Count - All books submitted must be 10,000 words or more.

Language - We only accept books which are written in English.

File Format - You can automatically submit your book as a single file in the Mirosoft Word (.doc) format. Additionally, you may be able to submit your book by email if it is in any of the following formats (Call or email for more information):

  • Portable Document Format (.pdf)
  • Rich Text Format (.rtf)
  • Plain Text Format (.txt)
  • Microsoft Works Word Processor Document (.wps)

Fonts - Your book can contain any font face or font size. The publishing process will automatically convert the font in your book into a standard font face and font size.

Special Characters and Section Break Characters - The publishing process will automatically remove most special characters including drop caps (large initial capital letter in the first word of a sentence) and asterisks or other decorative accents and fleurons used as section breaks.

Images and Illustrations - Your book can contain images and illustrations when submitted; however, the publication process will automatically delete them from your book. You should not submit a book to PublicBookshelf for publication consideration if you feel that the book's integrity would be compromised if it was published without the images or illustrations.

Covers - You do not have to submit an image for your cover. PublicBookshelf will select a cover design for your book. The cover will include the title of your book and your name as you entered when you registered as an author.

Digital Rights

While we welcome previously published books, we do require the the non-exclusive right to publish the work in its entirety online.

Only the rightful owner of the work (i.e. author or publisher of the print version) may submit the book. The owner must be able to provide proof of digital rights.

We don't sell printed books, so we understand that our authors may be selling their book in stores and/or on the Internet. To promote the sales of their books, authors may publish short excerpts of the online book published on PublicBookshelf.com elsewhere on the Internet.

Content

The content must be original to the Internet.

The manuscript must be relatively error free. PublicBookshelf will not edit your work, but we do a general review to ensure the content is reasonably grammatically correct and makes sense. If we find that we have an author with a book that we want to publish, but it needs formatting, editing and spell checks, we will reject the book and explain the reason for the rejection. The author has the option to correct the formatting, editing and spelling and resubmit the book for publication consideration.

The content must abide by the Terms of Use. This means your book may not include unlawful content, including defamation, abuse, harassment, stalking, threats, or otherwise violate the legal rights of others.

The content cannot include excessive profanity or violence, pornography or adult content.

To Submit Your Manuscript for Publication

If you want to register and submit your book for consideration, you need to:

  1. Register as an author. You will be taken automatically to a registration form that will ask you some basic questions such as your name, address, telephone number and email address.
  2. You will then be shown a Submission Agreement to review.
  3. If you accept the Submission Agreement, you can submit a book by clicking on the "Author Dashboard" link in the top right corner of the website. (Note: If you log out before submitting a book, you will be taken automatically to the Author Dashboard when you log in the next time.)
  4. From the Author Dashboard, click on "Submit a Book."
  5. Complete the Submit for Publication form by adding your book's title, ISBN (optional), a synopsis of 300 characters or less, copyright information and a link to where the reader can purchase the book (optional). (Note: If you add a link, it should be entered with the full URL. For example: http://www.nameofwebsite.com.)
  6. To attach your book for consideration, look for the field called "Attach Book". If you click "Browse" you will be able to find the file containing your book on your computer. Once you find the file, click on it and then click "Open." This will automatically add the full name of the file on your system that includes your book. For example: C:\Documents and Settings\SLW\My Documents\PBS\PBStestbook.doc.
  7. Click on "Submit" at the bottom of the page. If you didn't successfully attach the file for your manuscript, an error message will pop up and tell you that no file was loaded. You can always try it again.
  8. You will automatically be shown a Submission Agreement to review.
  9. If you accept the Submission Agreement your book will automatically be placed in the publication review queue. It usually takes about 10 business days to review your book.
If you have already registered as an author and you now want to submit your book for consideration, you need to:
  1. Log in to PublicBookshelf. You will be automatically taken to your Author Dashboard.
  2. Follow steps 4 through 9 above.

To Check the Status of Your Submission

Your Author Dashboard contains the status information about all submissions you have made to PublicBookshelf. Until a book is published, you will also see links alerting you to actions you can take such as:

  • Edit Book - To revise or add to the information about the book
  • View Book - To see the most current copy of the book submitted
  • Accept/Reject offer - To enter your decision about the advertising revenue advance offer
  • Accept Submission Agreement - To review the Submission Agreement and confirm your acceptance
  • Accept Publication Agreement - To review the Publication Agreement and confirm your acceptance

The Author Dashboard also contains a link to let you add or edit information on your profile. By clicking on the link "Edit Profile | Author Bio | PayPal Account" you can:

  • Change your password, address or other contact information
  • Add or revise your author biography
  • Add or revise your PayPal email address