Policies

Submission & Book Review Policy

If you are an indie or self-published author, we’d love to hear from you! Before you submit your work to us, please see below for our Submission & Book Review Policy. 

1 | Book Types & Submission Formats

• We read, review and promote books by indie and self-published authors only.
• We welcome ARC copies and will prioritise these if received in advance of the book release date. We’ll let you know in writing if we have capacity to review your ARC before the release date or not.
• We accept books in the following formats: (1) digital copies: preferably PDF but also ePub and other formats via BookFunnel or similar websites and (2) physical copies if authors reside within the UK.
• We also have a rolling subscription to KU (Kindle Unlimited) so let us know if your book is available on the platform for free and will download it autonomously.  

2 | Reading Interests/Preferences

• We focus exclusively on the following genres: romance, young adults, sci-fi/fantasy/dystopian, historical & commercial fiction.
• We are particularly interested in books by LGBTQ+ authors or with LGBTQ+ characters/themes, especially if inspired by real-life situations.
• We will not consider submissions of non-fiction, memoirs and poetry to review. We can accept short promo by the authors.
• We will not consider submissions of books/short stories with explicit sex scenes (‘fade to black’ transitions are deemed acceptable).

3 | Review Process

• Our timeframe for reviews is variable and depends on our workload at the time of contact. We aim to read and review books within 2-3 months from the submission date.
• We cannot guarantee a review on our website (even if we’ve already accepted your book) if we feel it is not of the quality we expected. Similarly, we will not post the review of a book we didn’t finish reading. If any of the above apply to you, we will let you know via email.
• We publish our reviews exclusively on our website Not for Vanity, so we do not utilise a star rating. However, all our reviews include: a writer bio with link and credits to the source and a direct link to the sales platform (Amazon, author websites, any other digital platform as long as it’s mainstream and safe for our readers to use).
• All reviews we write will also be shared on our social media channels, i.e. Instagram & Twitter. Please note we only publish book reviews once a week at this stage and publication date may be subject to change. 

4 | Other Promotional Opportunities

• We are a team of two, so we need to follow a strict book selection policy. However, we also offer authors the possibility to be featured on our website “Promotion” page, a self-managed space for writers to pitch their work. To be featured, please supply:

1. Book title
2. A short, original synopsis: make it great, make it sparkle, make it yours but most of all, make sure it’s brand new, not published on other platforms
3. What your USPs (unique selling points) are and why readers should pick your book instead of someone else’s
4. A few lines about yourself (in 3rd person)
5. A high-res pic of the book cover 
6. Your contact details: Website/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram handle, so people can make contact and follow you (we usually follow the authors we work with across all social media channels)
7. An image of yourself for our social media posts: this is not compulsory and comes down to authors’ preferences.

We will then work with you to fine tune your submission (if necessary), create a post on our website and promote the book on our Instagram & Twitter accounts.

5 | Short stories submission

WHO: writers and authors who are self-published, quering, still writing, not yet ready to publish

• WHO: writers and authors who are self-published, quering, still writing, not yet ready to publish
• WHAT: Short stories, between 2K and 5K words, with no specific topic*
• WHEN: From September
• HOW: email us at info@notforvanity.com

We’d love to hear your voices, especially if you come from unrepresented backgrounds or your work is niche. 

*We are unable to accept biographies, poems, illustrated stories for children, part of books. We ask for stand-alone, self-conclusive stories. We also reserve the right to reject stories we don’t deem appropriate. Please note that we will proofread each story before publication.