Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

Hearts On Fire Books has Paperback print books scheduled all the way through the end of the year. When you sign your contract, your book will go up for sale in Ebook only for this year. We will be putting more books into print after the new year and the books will go into print according to when the contracts were signed.  If you sign your contract as of 6-3-09 your book will not go into paperback until 2010.
 

Hearts on Fire Books (previously Hearts on Fire Press) offers both E-book and Print (large paperback). 

Print contracts will be dicussed at a later time on  individual cases. Due to our size, not all books will go into print.  Currently, we are submitting no more than 2 or 3 titles per month to the printer.

Commission Rates

E-books, 40%
Print books, 8%

Commission rates are after any fees associated with listing your title at sites such as Amazon.com, Amazon Kindle, Fictionwise, Coffee Time Romance, etc and not off the listed price.  You will only receive 40% off the list price of E-books sold from the Hearts on Fire website.

Please read through the Frequently Asked Questions below.  If this page still does not answer your question, feel free to contact us!  We try to respond to emails within 48 hours, with the exception of weekends and holidays.

How do I submit my manuscript to Hearts on Fire for publication?
Email all complete submissions to:
At this time please submit all new submissions to Chris (chris.heartsonfire@yahoo.com) Thank you. Melissa / owner (heartsonfirepress@live.com) or Chris/ Co- owner (chris.heartsonfire@yahoo.com) In the subject line of your email, write "Submission: Title of Manuscript"
Ex: Submission: I light a candle
The body of your email should include the following information:
1. A brief synopsis of the story (two or three paragraphs will suffice)
2. Title of the book
3. Your name
4. Your pen name (if any)
5. Email address
6. Genre
7. Word count
Attach the manuscript to the email in rtf (rich text format) or as a Word document (.doc). Do not paste your manuscript into the body of the email. Any submissions received in this format will not be accepted. Please make sure your manuscript is formatted appropriately or it will not be reviewed.
How should my submission be formatted?
Submission Rules: Proof read your manuscript thoroughly. Send us your final edited work. Manuscripts with a lot of fragmented sentences and spelling errors will be sent back to the author for correction. Be sure to edit your more than one time and use spell check. Save your manuscript in Rich Text Form (.rtf) or as a Word document (.doc or .docx if you have 2007). Margins should be 1 inch standard and the page size should be 8 1/2 x 11 (this is typically the format a Word document opens as). Submissions received in any other format will be returned to the author without being read.

Overview:
* Times New Roman 12 point font
* double spaced (or 1.5 spacing)
* NO extra spaces between paragraphs!
* Do not manually indent by spacing or manually enter page numbers!
* Be sure to include a title page with Your Name; Your Pen Name (if any); Email Address; Title; Genre; Word Count

We do not accept simultaneous submissions! If you have submitted your manuscript elsewhere and have not received a rejection yet, do not send it to us until you have heard back from the other comany.
We try to respond within 1 week of submission, but it depends on how many we receive. It could take up to 2 or 3 weeks. You will be notified when we receive your submission.
Currently we are only accepting submissions from within the US!
What genres are you accepting?
We are currently accepting submissions in the following genres:
Romance (all genres); Paranormal (witchcraft/vampires/werewolves); Mystery/ Action/ Suspense; Sci-Fi/Fantasy; Drama; and Horror.

At this time, we are NOT accepting short stories or erotica. Any submissions for these two categories will be deleted. Please make sure your submissions are over 10,000 words. Submissions of 30,000 words or more will be considered first for publication.

If you are a short story writer and have a minimum of four short stories, and a maximum of 6 short stories, (for a total of 30,000 words or more), you may submit them to be published together in one volume. Again, NO erotica will be accepted!
We will look at young adult books (for ages over 12 years old), but we prefer adult genres. Picture books are not accepted at this time.
If my book is accepted, how long will it take before it's available for purchase?
If we have a high volume of submissions, it may take up to 2 months before your book is availalble on our website for purchase. We also submit to other e-book stores, such as Amazon Kindle and Coffee Time Romance.

All new submissions will automatically be published as an e-book. Not all titles will be accepted for print. If you wish for your title to be printed as a paperback, you may discuss this with either the owner or co-owner. Due to the size of Hearts on Fire, we will only submit 2 or 3 titles per month to the printer. Therefore, we are very select in the titles that go to print. Print books can take up 6 months, depending on how many titles are ahead of yours. As we expand, that time frame may expand as well.

Any books published as a paperback will be available for purchase through our site and also through Amazon.com. Through Amazon, booksellers will have the option of stocking your title in their stores. However, due to the cost if printing, we prefer to publish books that are 100,000 words or less as a paperback. Some exceptions will be made on a case by case basis.
Does Hearts on Fire submit their titles to reviewers?
Yes, if you are published with Hearts on Fire, your book will be sent out for review. At this time, we have more reviewers available for romance than any other genre, but all titles will be submitted for review! Granted, we cannot promise that the review companies will select your title for review, but we typically send the manuscript to three or four places minimum.

We have 3 reviewers in house at the moment and also submit titles to a host of other review sites. If you publish with us, you will need to make sure that you submit a list of any review sites your book has been previously, or is currently, submitted to. Do not send your book out for review (after your book is published) without checking with us first. Otherwise, your title could get submitted to the same review place twice - which would look bad on both you and us.

When we receive a review, we will forward the full review, or a link to the review, to your email address. Please make sure you keep an updated email address on file with us. It is also recommended that you join our yahoo group as we communicate with our authors quite a bit through there as well.
How often will I receive a commission check?
Commission checks are mailed out the 16th of each month. If your book is in print as well as e-book, you may not see your commission each month. Print books sold on Amazon have a return on commission every quarter (or anytime your balance is over $20). Obviously if your title doesn't sell, then you will not receive a check or a sales report.
How does my book get promoted?
Hearts on Fire will submit your e-book to Coffee Time Romance to add to their site, as well as posting the e-book on our own site. We submit your book to Manic Readers (not for sale, just as a promo) as well. Each time your book is reviewed, it also helps promote your title on that specific site.

If your book is printed as a paperback, a flyer will be sent out to various bookstores. If you wish to have promotional items sent with the flyer, you may either supply them or speak to one of the in-house designers. One idea is to create bookmarks. You can also purchase inexpensive items such as pens or pencils from Office Depot's print center online.

Your book has the best chance of selling if you help promote it! Open a MySpace page, Facebook page, join various groups on Yahoo or other sites, start an Author's Den page... any number of areas online where you can not only promote your book, but also get promotional ideas from other authors and readers. The more you do, the better your book will sell! If you sit back and don't do anything, chances are your title won't do very well.
Do I have any say in my cover art or the way my book looks over-all?
No. As much as we would love to cater to every author, it just isn't possible. A cover designer will create your cover and submit it to us. The same cover will be used for both e-book and paperback, if your published in both formats.
We have standard formatting that we use for all print and e-books. Your book will be edited and formatted by a professional. While we value your suggestions and opinions on how your story should be formatted, we will not guarantee that your ideas will be used.
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