But some things are more specific, and preferences can vary from publisher to publisher. Word count, for example, is something we don’t see too many guidelines on because so much can depend on what a publisher’s goals are.

So let’s talk about what Tu Publishing would like to see in word counts and simultaneous submissions.

Word Counts

First of all, when we say we are not looking for chapter books at this time, we are specifically referring to the “intermediate reader” or “transitional reader” chapter books like Magic Treehouse. They’re shorter books for kids who have just become fluent enough readers for their own independent books, with real chapters. They are not to be confused with “early reader” books, which have fewer words and are targeted to a slightly younger reader than a chapter book. While we love chapter books, for our first few seasons we want to focus more on older readers. There is no such thing as a “YA chapter book.”

Middle grade novels are generally for ages 8–12, or about 3rd grade to 6th or 7th grade. Readers tend to be pretty fluid through publishing categories—a third grader might still be reading picture books for older kids and chapter books while devouring middle grade books, all at the same time. But middle grade novels are a specific section of the bookstore and have specific requirements. That section might be called “Independent Readers” or “Middle Grade” or “Children’s Novels,” depending on the store.

What happens if the book is too long? (Sketch by Howard Tayler)

Generally, middle grade novels are no less than 30–35,000 words at the minimum, and usually a whole lot more words than that. They can range anywhere from 30,000 words to 70,000 words or longer, especially in fantasy. If your “novel” is only 17,000 words, it’s too short. A 90,000 word manuscript might be a touch too long for a middle grade audience unless you’re J.K. Rowling and have already hooked tens of millions of readers with three or four books. Especially given the current economic climate—in which paper and shipping and everything else involved in printing a book is costing more—it’s best to keep a middle grade novel under the 50,000–60,000 word range, because then the design of the book can still be beautiful while keeping the page count relatively low, which ensures that even reluctant readers won’t find the printed book too daunting.

YA novels are for the 12–18 age group—the teen section of the bookstore—and word count might range from 45,000 words on the low end to 100,000 words on the high end. To tell a complex enough story for a sophisticated YA readership, though, 45,000 might be a bit low. However, plenty of really awesome YA writers have done it in that many words, so I wouldn’t rule it out. But again, if your YA book is 17,000 words, it’s either a short story or not finished. Again, remember the economy: too long can be hard to work with, as well. Consider whether your 100,000 word opus might really be two novels in a series or if perhaps some of the subplots might be simplified or saved for another book. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but it’s something to be aware of.

These are all just guidelines, of course—like the Pirate Code, they’re not laws. But if you’ve got a 250,000 word “YA novel,” you’ve actually likely got three to five different books masquerading as one (or just one honking adult novel, depending on the subject matter). If your story is for older readers yet is only 10,000 words long, you’ve got an extremely long short story that will require a different publishing venue.

So far our submissions have adhered to the publishing guidelines quite closely, but clarification is always useful to ensure that writers have the information they need to determine whether their book fits us or not.

Simultaneous Submissions

We accept simultaneous submissions, as stated in our submission guidelines. This means that we don’t mind if you send it out for consideration with other publishers or to agents while you’re submitting it to us. We understand how slow the submissions process can be. In fact, we’re rather slow ourselves, because everyone involved in Tu Publishing is either juggling a day job while we work to launch this on our own time, or a student juggling a full-time load, as our future interns will be doing. We hope someday to be doing this full-time, but understand that our time is limited and we do the best we can.

An actual submissions pile (though not ours)

What this also means is that we’re not asking for exclusives. Don’t tell us in your letter that you’re granting us one for a limited time. It won’t get a submission looked at any faster, and might annoy an editor. “Only so many hours in the day” means exactly that! And given that we are on the hunt for exactly the right titles for our launch season, we’ll probably consider pretty ponderously at first.

It also means that if some other publisher snaps up a project before we’ve had the chance to look at it, we lose it unless the writer lets us know that there’s interest in another quarter. That’s a risk everyone in publishing takes nowadays. We’re willing to take that risk, because only careful consideration will ensure that we have the best projects for our launch season.

We understand that the whole submissions process can be quite nerve-racking and distressing. We understand that each publisher and each agent has different requirements, which makes it confusing sometimes. We want to make sure that writers have all the information they need to be able to feel successful at it, and hope that this information assists in the process.

We’ve received a number of emails in the last few months asking if a particular piece is “multicultural enough” for our imprint. While we can understand writers wondering if we’re the right place to send their work, we can’t respond and comment on every single inquiry. Instead, we hope that this post will help writers to decide for themselves whether or not their book fits with Tu Publishing’s mission.

When an imprint is launched, it is vitally important that the launch titles strongly reflect the kinds of books that the imprint will publish. As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re dedicated to publishing fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults that features main characters of color and/or are inspired by/set in cultures that we don’t see very often—non-Western cultures, particularly. Submissions that work for us could be as varied as a historical fantasy set in ancient China, such as Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix, or a contemporary fantasy featuring a mixed-race character set in modern-day London, such as Sarwat Chadda’s Devil’s Kiss. Both books feature something we’re looking for, yet they’re as different as night and day—one might even say “diverse.” A story that is right for us might be set in a world completely unrelated to the real world, or in the far future, or it might be something that, with just a few tweaks to reality, might happen in our own world. There’s such a wide variety of possibilities that we’d hate to pin ourselves down, except to emphasize—again—that we want those stories to be diverse.

What we’re really looking for: great stories, of course! We want to publish exciting, adventurous books that children of all backgrounds will be able to either see themselves in or find a window to another world—or both, because what fantasy book isn’t a window to another world?

Cultures in particular that I (Stacy Whitman, editorial director) am interested in seeing: I don’t see much fantasy featuring Latinos, whether USian or Central or South American. For that matter, there isn’t much fantasy/SF for kids featuring African Americans, or Brazilians (half of Brazil’s population, I recently read, is some mix of black, Hispanic, and native Brazilian), or Asians (again, whether USian or in another country). If the story is set in a fantasy world unrelated to our own world, of course, they wouldn’t necessarily be designated “African American”—there are no “Asians” in Middle Earth, for example, because there is no Asia, right? But as we mentioned previously, characters and settings might be Japanese, Jamaican, or Inuit, Zimbabwean or Nigerian, Australian Aborigine or Ainu—there’s such a wide range of cultures and people who we don’t see often in fantasy, folklore whose depths haven’t been explored.

People have also asked about whether, because they never mention the race of their main character, their book would work for what we are looking for, and for that let us point you to Bookavore’s post about how, when only the races of the characters of color are mentioned, “white” becomes the default. White authors, especially, need to be aware of that kind of white privilege and hopefully mitigate for it, though it is a trope that many people use. I say this as a white woman who is still learning, myself—but it is something we all need to be aware of, especially because readers generally notice it, whether consciously or unconsciously, and it is our mission to ensure that all readers feel welcome reading the books we publish.

(We’ve mentioned before that we’re also interested in historical fiction and mystery that might be more realistic than speculative. These genres are welcome for submissions, but please note that our first two launch titles will be speculative in nature.)

We’re interested in hearing from authors who have never been published and authors who have been previously published. If you have an agent, great, but we don’t require agented submissions at this time. And we’d like to particularly encourage writers of color to submit, though that’s certainly not a requirement. As we mentioned in our submission guidelines, if your story is set in a culture not your own, all we ask is that you treat the characters and culture with respect. Nisi Shawl’s article on Transracial Writing for the Sincere is a great primer on writing from an ethnic background not your own—a great primer if you’re writing fantasy, period, because what is worldbuilding if not writing from the perspective of a culture that’s different from your own, even if tweaked just a little bit?

But when we say that the launch titles will reflect our mission strongly, we mean it. We’re looking for books that meet that mission, and if you think yours does, great! If your story, no matter how well-written and interesting, is about a white boy in modern-day America, even if he has a black friend, it’s probably not going to meet our mission strongly enough. But that’s something you need to decide for yourself, after looking at the books we’ve recommended and the interviews we’ve posted with bloggers like Susan from Color Online and authors like Cynthia Leitich Smith and Cindy Pon. After browsing our site and absorbing this information—and hopefully reading the books that we’ve recommended, not just because they show what we’re looking for but because they’re good books!—we hope that writers will have a better understanding of what we mean by “multicultural,” loaded as that term might be with historical baggage.

And of course, if you submit your book and it isn’t right for us, we’ll let you know. But there are a number of reasons a book might not be right for us, and whether a book is multicultural enough or not is only one piece of a larger puzzle. We hope that by giving you as much information as possible on this subject, it might be of use, but the main thing we want to emphasize, again, is write a good story.

Good luck with your writing! We look forward to reading your submissions.

By “multicultural,” we mean fantasy or science fiction inspired by non-Western folklore or culture. This could mean Asian or African cultures, South American or Central American, or non-majority U.S. cultures (such as Native American, African American, Latino, or other American-influenced minority cultures)., rather than Western European. There is a wide gamut of inspiration to be had, and we just ask that writers treat these cultures with respect and if they are not experts in a culture that inspires their story, to become one. (See, for example, Nisi Shawl’s excellent article on the SFWA site about Transracial Writing for the Sincere.)

For examples of the kinds of novels we’re looking for, check out this booklist of multicultural science fiction and fantasy on editorial director Stacy Whitman’s blog. Note that there is a wide gamut of historical, contemporary, futuristic, alternate-world, and other kinds of speculative fiction. We are primarily interested in well-told, exciting, adventurous stories that just happen to feature a main character of color or that are set in worlds inspired by non-Western folklore or culture. Our primary concern is that the story is good.

To submit your novel, please follow the following guidelines:

Please mail your cover letter, first three chapters, and a synopsis, double-spaced in 12-point type, to us at

Tu Publishing
Submissions Editor
P.O. Box 2422
Orem, UT 84059

AFTER Jan. 1, 2010.

You do not need to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, but we do ask that you be sure that your manuscript have your full contact information on it. (Yes, we need to ask this—some people forget this!) The easiest way for us to be sure we can get a hold of you is for you to be sure that your name, address, phone number, and email address are on your cover letter and the first page of both your synopsis and sample. Every subsequent page should be numbered and include your name and the title of your work in the header.

Once we have had a chance to evaluate your sample, we will respond via email if we want to request the full manuscript; please make sure that your manuscript is in a .doc file and that you are able to see comments made in Track Changes in Word, even if you don’t use the Word program.

We are a small press with limited staff, so we ask your patience in response time. We do not mind simultaneous submissions, however—please just let us know if you get interest from another quarter if we haven’t responded yet.

These submission guidelines are subject to change as our needs change. Please check them periodically to be sure that you’re up to date.

Our first two books will be fantasy or science fiction, and we’ll specifically be looking for books that feature characters of color, characters from minority or non-Western cultures, and/or non-Western/minority cultures. That’s pretty broad — it could be Japanese or Jamaican, Alaskan Inuit or African American settings and/or characters. We won’t be looking for books where race is necessarily the issue–just really great novels that will entertain readers from 7 to 18.

So if you’ve got a children’s or YA novel that you think will fit this criteria, if we make our Kickstarter goal we’ll be acquiring manuscripts beginning January 1. That means you’ve got just over three months to whip that manuscript in shape! We will post more specifics here as that time comes closer.