Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Frequently Asked Questions Series: Installment Eight

Welcome to the eighth installment in our new series of Frequently Asked Questions!

Over several years of dealing with queries and submissions, we’ve found that some questions get asked more frequently than others. So, over the next few months, on every alternate Monday, we’re putting up two or three of these, together with (because we’re nice like that) their answers.
The comments section will be open for anyone who’d like to ask for clarification, and Samhain staff will be along to provide further details or answers to supplementary questions.
If you’d like to view our full collection of FAQs, go here. At the end of this series, any extra questions and answers will be added to our current FAQ page and kept as a permanent resource.

(click here to view installment one)
(click here to view installment two)
(click here to view installment three)
(click here to view installment four)
(click here to view installment five)
(click here to view installment six)
(click here to view installment seven)

Topic Six: Publication and Print

6.1. How soon after acceptance will my book release?
This depends on a number of factors: your editor’s schedule being a main one. Books can be released within two or three months of being contracted, or they can take up to a year. Releases also depend on other factors such as the publishing schedule for other books in the same genre, and of course other books by the same author. We don’t like to crowd our release schedule with too much of the same thing.

6.2. If Samhain accepts my manuscript will it be published as a print book as well as an ebook?
If your manuscript is around 50,000 words or above, then yes. Approximately ten months after its electronic release, it will be produced as a print book.
Sometimes shorter books with similar themes or genres are combined for print release. But this is a decision made later in the publishing process. If your book is too short to go to print by itself then Samhain doesn’t guarantee it will ever go to print.
Our print books are all fully returnable, and can be found in Borders, Barnes & Noble and Chapters as well as other chains and independent bookstores.

6.3. Can I submit my book and have it go straight to print?
No. While Samhain does produce print books, we are primarily a digital publisher. All books are first produced as ebooks, and later on (depending on size) as print books.