At the moment we are looking for full-length comic novels (60,000 – 80,000 words) that make us laugh and some non-fiction if it’s funny, but no children’s books, poetry or short stories.

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Please send us an email introducing yourself and pitching your book to us with the following:

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• A complete manuscript of your full-length book in a clear font. This can be either a Word document or a PDF

• A synopsis of your book (not an in-depth analysis on the ins and outs of every chapter and page) but longer than a back page blurb

• A bit about you – tell us who you are, what kind of stuff you write and, most of all, why you want to work with us

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Email pitch 

 

If you’re unclear how to pitch your book, don’t panic! Just tell us in a couple of sentences what you think it is about.

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You also may want to try mentioning published titles or authors that you feel are comparable to yours or that have inspired your book. This is helpful, and a good indication that you know your market.  It’ll help us make a final decision.

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Email us at: submission@dascoynepress.com

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Decision making

 

We read everything that is submitted to us and will aim to come back to you within a month. But due to the volume of submissions and the size of our team, we are not able to give you a detailed response with editorial feedback if you have been unsuccessful.  We will, however, be able to tell you why we made our decision.

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Our decisions are based on whether your book is well written and funny, as well as what will work for us commercially.  If we decide that we wish to work with you and publish your book, then we want to make sure that the process makes the most of the publishing experience for you.

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Some tips

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• Be professional, check your submission before you press send. It might sound totally obvious, but if you spell things wrong in your pitch email it won’t give the greatest first impression.

• Attention to detail. Editing your own work is very difficult, especially something the length of a novel.  Getting a trusted other to read your book and give you honest feedback can be very helpful and save you a lot of pain later.

• Read your novel out loud. If there are any clunky passages, particularly unrealistic dialogue, they will be much more obvious, and anyone within earshot will soon tell you (especially if you are on a bus, in a public library, or piloting a passenger airliner)

• Show us your knowledge of the market. Which novels would you compare yours to?  We will be looking for stories we know sell well, with an original twist.  Original is key, please don’t send us any fan fiction.  The road to Hell is paved with fan fiction and it is a very long and painful road that we don’t fancy walking on.

• Show don’t tell – avoid long swathes of dialogue with the characters ‘telling’ the reader what’s happening in the scene.  This kind of exposition is too often like a hammer in the face of the poor reader.

• Less is often more – keep things pacey and don’t sacrifice moving the plot forward for lengthy description.  Imagery is all very well, but two pages describing a minor character’s clothing will not impress.

• Dialogue is your friend, it can help you to engage the reader, develop a character, and move the storyline along.  (but remember the exposition thing).  And please, please, please don’t have characters answer questions by repeating the question. That’s really annoying.

• And, finally, be funny! We are a publisher that specialises in funny books, ones that make people laugh when they read them, not just smile grimly at one badly placed joke forty pages into the manuscript.  We want to laugh when we read your book, but not in a bad way.