All submissions must follow the rules for their category.
We will open to submissions in future. Scroll to view our Manuscript Wish List and to learn How to Query.
MANUSCRIPT WISH LIST
We will open for queries and submissions in June 2023. Here are some of our interests:
-Children’s chapter books with strong Orthodox, Catholic, or saint-loving Protestant faith and adventure elements. Narrative voice is paramount, whether creative nonfiction or fiction. Give us kids in the woods, secret passages, books that hold clues to hidden truths, kids who climb trees or build treehouses (whether because they love birds or because they want to be Stylites).
-Young Adult novels about the awakening of faith and a sense of calling, particularly for faithful lay Christians. Any genre is welcome with these elements, but we especially like speculative fiction, mysteries, and clean romance. Let’s reclaim the narrative about conversion experiences for our current times, where few people have heard of them.
-Christian Makers guidebooks and essay collections. If you make things with your hands and write about it with understanding rooted in your Christian faith, we want to hear about it. In this vein, sacred Christian illustrations with meditations on the subjects are also welcome.
-Guidebooks for domestic (U.S.) pilgrimages, particularly for Orthodox Christians. If you have a prayer practice that involves walking/hiking, we want to know about that, too.
-Immersive saints’ lives stories.
-Mysteries that we can’t solve within the first third of the book. Make your villains likeable.
-Any genre book with working class or poor main characters.
-Historical or futuristic fiction set in times/places that require extreme frugality and winging it/survival skills. Homesteading is not required, but we do like chickens and other small farm animals.
-Orthodox cowboy novels. Or martial arts or military novels (romance or thrillers included). Pick a subculture with a strong alternative-to-mainstream ethic, and show us what it would look like if the main character(s) were Orthodox.
-Art books driven by an artists’ curiosity about places or regions, with stories told through artwork. For instance, if you’re an artist who has sketched or watercolored the naves of all of the cathedrals in your country that are dedicated to a particular saint who is your patron, we would love to see the collection and read your reflections. Part travelogue, part art journal.
-Books for people incarcerated in jails or prisons
For our GENRE FICTION IMPRINT Sweet Wood Books (more below on preferred genres):
-Romances where the main character is a Catholic or Orthodox single parent.
-Stories where a generous person is not repaid in kind, but in companionship with the person they helped.
-People that see visions and dream dreams, but they are mature and stable in their faith and are not led astray because they don’t try to look at evil.
-Time travel at saint shrines, like Holywell.
-Christmas books that can evoke a sense of coziness and tradition but are set in warmer climates.
HOW TO QUERY:
Do you have a completed novel or work of creative nonfiction? Have you developed an accessible curriculum book that you would like to share with the whole church? We’d like to hear from you.
Please include in your query letter how you will promote and share the book. Do you have a YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram account? Are you active on Twitter? We’ll want to check out your channels to see the kind of reach you might build and to help you reach your audience.
Do not query fiction unless you have a completed, polished draft. While you’re waiting, check for these issues: Have you broken the narrative to explain or summarize? Did you write the second chapter of your novel as a flashback? Did you get inside a violent character’s point of view in lieu of exploring the consequences of their actions on the main character? These can be signs of a manuscript in the early stages of development. We recommend that you employ the skills in Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft as you revise your novel or creative nonfiction. Join the Park End Books Writer’s Workshop on Facebook to build your skills with the help of professionals from the publishing industry.
For nonfiction, queries should show us the stakes of your project and why you’re the person to write it. If we ask for a proposal, we’ll want to see a detailed outline and three sample chapters, including the introduction. As part of our commitment to accessibility, we prefer that each chapter end with a bullet point summary and reflection questions/actions when appropriate. Please include in your proposal how you plan to reach your audience. We want to help strategize with you to build your platform while the writing is in progress.
Genre Novels for Sweet Wood Books:
We are looking for genre fiction shaped by faithful Orthodox and Catholic imaginations in the following categories:
- Romance in all clean/sweet subgenres, including Women’s Fiction. All romances MUST have a happily ever after ending.
- Mysteries & Thrillers
- Speculative Fiction
- Monster books for YA & Adult (PG13) audiences, including books about werewolves, vampires, and cryptids. We believe that people work out their understanding about human nature and repentance with these books.
- Futuristic Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Retellings of classic books whose copyrights have expired. (Set the Brothers K in space if you’d like, but no space Hobbits. You can’t steal active intellectual property in your retelling.)
Because we’re trying to build up and make visible an Orthodox and Catholic literary culture, we prefer Catholic, Orthodox, or high church Protestant settings or characters. Don’t hide the faith, but don’t be pedantic, either. Let the beauty of holiness infuse your work. We love reading books set in a perspective native to the author, for instance, writers with disabilities writing characters that share their disabilities. We are less concerned with genre or tone than with stories that engender the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, even if they get there in an unusual way. Send us your weird little books that you love because only you (with God’s help) could have written them. Novels must be between 55,000 and 90,000 words to be considered. State your word count in your query email. To query, send a cover letter and a brief 2- to 3-page bullet-pointed synopsis in the body of the email to: Summer Kinard at Editor@parkendbooks.com with the subject “QUERY: [book title, last name].” Allow 6 to 8 weeks for a response. Do not send attachments, as they will not be read.
Accessible Church School Project:
Accessibility means best practices for all learners. -Summer Kinard, Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability
We are only interested in accessible curricula on the Bible, saints, feast days, the Virtues (including Faith, Hope, and Love), or prayer life. The Accessible Church School project needs resources that cover at least six weeks of material in ways that are accessible to all learners. Hands-on, active, sensory anchored, group-forming teaching is our aim. To query, send a cover letter and a sample lesson in the body of the email to Summer Kinard at Editor@parkendbooks.com with the subject “CURRICULUM QUERY: [book title, last name].” Allow 6 to 8 weeks for a response. Do not send attachments, as they will not be read.