Thank you for your interest in publishing your book with Selene River Press. We’re proud to be the preferred holistic health resource for a wide range of health professionals and laypersons interested in maximizing their knowledge and physical well-being. Toward that end, we consider proposals for books in the following areas:
- Common-sense nutrition, focusing on whole, nourishing, unprocessed food grown in healthy soil and prepared using methods that won’t deplete the food of its inherent nutrients.
- “Self-health” literacy, designed to foster our innate instincts for natural, whole, unadulterated foods and healthy lifestyles.
- Holistic health education, particularly the demystification of whole-food nutrition, food fads and diets, and supplements.
- Herbal medicine, homeopathy, and drug-free methods of combating disease and achieving health.
- Professional experiences of health practitioners with respect to their holistic practice or therapies—written for the patient or for other practitioners, especially with the aim of aiding doctor-patient communication.
- Research that highlights the proven benefits of whole-nutrient complexes from whole foods and whole-food supplements.
- Organic gardening, farming, and husbandry. These topics can include books directed at the backyard gardener or the full-fledged organic farmer; books that explore ways of connecting farmers and consumers (such as community supported agriculture programs, food co-ops, and farmers’ markets); and books that cover growing methods—including biodynamic methods or other techniques in harmony and balance with soil, plant, animal, and human life.
- Cookbooks that emphasize the preparation of fresh, whole foods, including how to grow them. Ethnic cooking is welcome.
Books We Don’t Publish
SRP does not publish the following:
- Diet books that are biased against any one food group with no distinction given between the whole, unadulterated form of that food and its refined counterpart. Example: low-carbohydrate diet books that don’t discern between whole, unprocessed organic grains and refined, bleached, chemically processed grains.
- Any cookbook—vegetarian, diet, or other—that promotes soy as the main protein.
We encourage you to check the titles listed on our online product pages to get a better feel for the types of books we publish.
Our authors are typically accomplished experts in their fields. As parents, farmers, or chefs, they’ve been practicing whole-health nutrition successfully in their own lives for years. Many are whole-health practitioners, consultants, or educators who are also exceptional presenters, teachers, or writers. Their credentials, visibility, and life experience make them well-prepared to help us promote their books effectively.
Book Proposal
We determine your book’s suitability for publication based on the proposal you submit. We’ve assembled the following guidelines to help you prepare your proposal in a manner that will make the evaluation process faster and more effective.
Author Information. Include your bio, resume, or curriculum vitae. Share your professional credentials and your current job. Let us know of any previously published works (including papers and articles), speaking experiences, and radio or television appearances. Tell us why you’re the most qualified person to write this book.
Marketing Statement. Tell us how you plan to help promote your book.
Rationale Statement. What’s your book about, and who is your audience? What are the main themes and your objectives in writing it? Why is this book important? What does it accomplish that’s different or better than similar books on the market?
Manuscript Sample. You may submit either a hard copy or an electronic file or files. Include the following:
- Table of contents.
- Detailed outline, including chapter titles. For each chapter, include a paragraph that explains what that chapter covers.
- At least two sample chapters and an estimated schedule of when the remaining chapters will be complete. Please be realistic.
- Estimate of the final word count—we understand that this is a rough estimate only.
- If any tables, diagrams, illustrations, or photos will be included, please indicate how many. Also tell us if your book will include references, footnotes, or appendixes. Images should be a minimum of 300 dpi with dimensions of 8.5″ x 11″.
- Marketing Data. Please provide the following information:
- Target audience. Who will buy your book?
- Market size, description, and demographics.
- List of competing books already on the market.
- A discussion of how your book differs from others like it. For instance, tell us if it contains specific content not found elsewhere, or if it presents a new or different approach to the topic.
Preparing the Manuscript Sample
The manuscript sample can either be emailed in PDF form or typed (preferably in Word or saved in a rich-text format), double-spaced, and printed on plain white 8½ x 11 inch paper. Please use at least 12-point type and allow at least one-inch margins on both sides, top, and bottom. Submissions should be one-sided and include page numbers. Please use letter-quality type so your manuscript is as clean and legible as possible.
If your manuscript will contain art of any kind (photos, charts, graphs, line drawings, etc.), please do not embed it into the text of your manuscript. Rather, save the art in the same application(s) you used to create or store it (Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Freehand, etc.). You will then simply insert a reference to each piece of artwork in the relevant text portion of your manuscript (e.g., “Insert Photo 1 here”). As with your text manuscript, please submit both electronic and hard-copy versions of each piece of art. Be sure to note the electronic file name on the bottom right-hand corner of the hard copy. Images should be a minimum of 300 dpi with dimensions of 8.5″ x 11″.
Spelling: Use the first spelling listed in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition.
Style and Punctuation: Please use the serial comma. Refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition, regarding numbers and other issues of style.
All materials submitted should be copies only; Selene River Press will not be responsible for submissions that are lost or damaged. Please include a cover letter with your name, address, email address, and a daytime phone number where you can be reached. Send your proposal to:
Stephanie Anderson, Publisher
Selene River Press
P.O. Box 270091
Fort Collins, CO 80527
Have you ever wanted to help guide people in their quest for superior nutrition? Would you like to share your insights with a larger audience? If the answer to these questions is yes, we invite you to submit a guest post to the SRP Self-Health Nutrition Blog.
Our blog is where we seek to publish content that brings our readers to a greater awareness of the importance of healthy soil, honest food, and the specific benefits of whole food nutrition in our daily lives.
Why write for SRP?
By writing for us, you’ll reach a wider and ever-growing audience. You can refer friends, family, and colleagues to your published work at SRP, grow your readership, and showcase your writing.
Yes! But how?!
Before you do anything else, browse through our blog to get a feel for the kind of content we’re looking for. Reading our published posts will also help you see how other writers have incorporated these themes and topics.
The next step is to read through the particulars below and file them away as you begin your first post. We hope that eventually you’ll write for us so often that you know these guidelines by heart!
What we are looking for:
- How you apply common-sense nutrition in your own life. Share what you know about whole, nourishing, unprocessed food, the importance of healthy soil, and/or preparation methods that don’t deplete food of its inherent nutrients. Help our readers understand how you’ve benefitted from your own unique knowledge—and how they can do the same.
- Holistic methods for achieving health, including herbal medicine, homeopathy, and other drug-free methods of combating disease and maintaining wellness.
- The clinical practitioner’s point of view. Share your experiences running a holistic practice and/or the therapies you have learned over the years. Whether you are writing for the patient, other practitioners, or both, we are enthusiastic about posts that can deepen the doctor-patient relationship. For examples, visit our “Practitioner’s Corner” blog.
- Nutrition research. We are particularly interested in sharing research that highlights the proven benefits of nutrient complexes derived from whole foods and whole food supplements. Frame this content in an approachable, easy-to-understand way that will benefit our readers, and be sure to provide links to trustworthy sources.
- Organic gardening, farming, and husbandry. Whether you are writing for the backyard gardener or the full-fledged organic farmer, we seek posts that explore ways of connecting farmers and consumers, such as community supported agriculture (CSAs), food co-ops, and farmers’ markets. Also share your expertise about growing methods that keep the harmony and balance with soil, plant, animal, and human life.
- Cookbooks and cooking. We don’t want another blog post about the latest fad diet or 10 ways to make brownies (although brownies do have a place in our hearts, of course). We seek posts that emphasize the preparation of fresh, whole, nutrient dense foods, including how to grow them. Ethnic cooking is welcome.
What we are not looking for:
- Self-promotional posts: We do not publish entirely self-promotional posts. However, we include an author bio where you can include appropriate personal links. (See below for more information about the author bio.)
- Previously published posts and simultaneous submissions: We do not publish posts that have been previously published elsewhere. We are seeking only new, original, unpublished content. Also, if you submit a post do us, we ask that you do not submit it elsewhere.
Submissions and Permissions
- Submit your posts using the form at the bottom of this page.
- As noted above, if we accept your post for publication, you may not publish it elsewhere without permission. We generally give permission, but we will want you to: 1) include a permission statement; and 2) send us a link to the published post.
- Selene River Press reserves the right to insert links to other posts in the Selene River Press network (including company websites and blogs).
- Once approved, it will take a few weeks to a month to publish your post. At that time, we will send you the release date and a link to the post.
- Selene River Press reserves the right to decline publishing any post and to remove a post after its publication.
SRP Copyright Policy
All copyrighted material, whether image or text, must be clearly identified in your submission. You must have permission for its use and give proper attribution and/or a link to the source. We strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with the concept of Fair Use when quoting material and to understand copyright issues in general.
Our Review and Editing Process
We review, edit, and proofread all posts. We will not rewrite your article but may make content and copy edits, title and/or photo changes, and other revisions. We will submit any content edits to you for approval before moving on to copy edits. If a post needs revision, we will return it to you with suggestions. If you are new to writing and/or writing blog posts, we will assist you as much as possible.
The Particulars
Author bio: This is placed at the end of all your posts. Your bio should include your full name, your expertise or experience, a link to your website, and any other contact information you desire. A photo of yourself is not required, but you may include one by creating a gravatar associated with your email address.
Photos and images: It helps if you include an image that enhances your post. This can be a photo you took yourself or one that someone else took and gave you permission to use. You may also obtain images from an online source, as long as they are legally available for use by the public and/or licensed from the photographer. You must always give proper attribution. If you submit an image, you must provide SRP with the source. If you don’t submit a photo, we will provide one.
Photo size: The photo needs to be a minimum of 150 dpi, with a minimum width of 1500 pixels. Larger is always better as it can be sized down, but a small photo cannot be made larger without losing quality. If you’re not sure, send the original photo from your camera in the largest size without resizing it down.
Photo credit: Make the credit clear in your post: Subgroup stock photos with John Smith ©2014.
File name: Create the file name of your article in this order: Your Name_Title of Article. Example: “John Doe_What I Ate for Breakfast.”
Formatting: Submit your post in Word and save as a .doc file. For the initial submission only, you will then copy/paste it into our form.
Length: Your post can be almost any length. A good minimum word count is 350. Article-length submissions are acceptable. Just keep in mind that brevity is the soul of wit, and also well-suited for today’s time limits and short attention spans.
Also, for greater readability, use short paragraphs and bullet points where appropriate. Break up longer posts with subheadings. Even better, use subheadings that include words or phrases that might be Googled frequently.
Links: Include at least one working link to a resource that supports your topic. You can use an unlimited number of links so long as they enhance understanding. Consider linking to products or other articles from SRP as well as professional sources that you might be involved with or respect. Links back up your claims and help people see how you came to your opinions and conclusions.
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