Submissions

‘I am asked frequently, ‘What makes a bestseller?’ I can tell you that no amount of publicity will make an average book soar. A book will only go viral if readers are so moved by reading it that they rave about it to their friends’…

Carolyn Martinez, Director Hawkeye Publishing.

Hawkeye Publishing is currently closed for submissions. It is suggested that you sign up for our newsletter to be notified when we re-open.

Manuscript Submissions

First, read our Home and About pages to understand our contracts, publishing philosophies and meet our team.

Authors have more options for publishing than ever before. At Hawkeye, we give you choice, quality assurance, and an energetic publicity team who are by your side long after the ink has dried on your first print run.

Hawkeye offers Traditional and Hybrid Contracts. If you haven’t already done so, see our Home page for details.

We accept the following genres:

  • Creative non-fiction – junior reader and adult
  • Faction (fiction based on a true event)
  • Serialised YA or junior reader fiction
  • Fiction: romance, mystery, crime or popular
  • Self-help
  • Market-sought Memoir
  • Picture books – we accept author/illustrator submissions.

The Submission Process

To submit your manuscript for consideration follow our guidelines carefully. If the guidelines are not followed, you will be asked to re-submit correctly.

Supply a 1-page cover letter that includes your contact details, a short author bio, details of any books you’ve authored and their success, your preference for publishing – traditional or hybrid (you can change your mind later), and 1-2 sentences proving that the title you are submitting to us is a book the market will embrace.

Supply a maximum 300-word synopsis that contains:

  1. Genre, word count
  2. First paragraph: themes, location and main characters, comparisons with other books/authors.
  3. Second paragraph: simply defined characters, inciting incident, consequences.
  4. Third paragraph: details about the characters and tone, more detail about plot – description, consequences and resolution. You must include the book’s ending.

Supply a chapter summary that has 1-2 sentences per chapter to explain what each chapter achieves.

Supply a marketing plan – a table that demonstrates your network and the marketing activities that you are able to undertake to help sell your book. Show us that you understand the business of being an author.

Supply your manuscript formatted in Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, with indented paragraphs.

Do not submit your work to us until it is polished to the absolute best of your ability. Prior to submitting your work you will have mastered show not tell, point of view, your genre norms, removing redundant words from your prose, and active versus passive storytelling. Every word and every sentence in your manuscript contributes to your story arcs. Your tense is consistent, and there is no incorrect switching point of view (head-hopping) mid-section. You have utilised your experienced BETA reader network, and self-edited to the absolute best of your ability to submit a professional manuscript to us. We look extremely favourably upon authors who’ve worked with a professional editor prior to contacting us. If you have, include their details in your cover letter.

For us to invest our money and time in promoting your book, it will be because we believe you’re a bestseller in the making. You will be an active reader, reading current award winners and bestsellers in your genre. Understand, we’re not giving contracts to just good work. We’re looking for superior, highly marketable books, and we’re looking for authors who understand that sales require effort on their part.

If you believe your manuscript is the gold we’re looking for, and you want a team of committed professionals working alongside you to maximise your book’s potential and reach, touch base in the first instance through the Contact Form.

We are a small group of independent professionals passionate about bringing quality books into the marketplace. We thank all who submit unsolicited manuscripts to us, however due to the number of submissions we receive, you may only hear from us if you are shortlisted for publication. Shortlisted authors usually hear from us within 3 months.

We are best placed to assist Australian and New Zealand authors in terms of our publicity reach; we will however consider authors from other countries where the author demonstrates there is benefit in having an Australian publisher.

If you have any questions, email the Director, Carolyn Martinez, through the Contact Form.