UPDATE: We Are No Longer Accepting Serial Novels.
Hello Kingdom Pen! We have some great news for you!
We are happy to announce that we will now be accepting serial novel submissions from you, our subscribers, in addition to short stories, poetry, and articles. If you have a novel and want to get it published on Kingdom Pen in serial format, we would love to have you submit!
Here are the submission guidelines from our “Get Published” tab:
Guidelines for Serial Novels:
All serial novels submitted for Kingdom Pen must conform to all the requirements of Kingdom Pen’s Basic Formatting Guidelines, Content Restrictions and Material Qualifications (see above). Your serial novels submission should resemble a standard book proposal. Specifically, your proposal should meet the following criteria:
- A cover letter explaining who you are. Include a bio, whom your target audience is, and total word count.
- A 1-2 page summary of your serial novel, including the overview of the plot and the theme of the story. Why are you writing it?
- A chapter-by-chapter outline briefly describing each chapter
- A sample of your first chapter
- Do Not send us a novel chapter if you do not want to publish your entire novel with us in serial format. This is one rule for novel chapters we will not compromise on.
- Do Not send us your serial novel proposal unless you have already finished your novel.
- Serial novels should be between 30,000 and 80,000 words in length.
- That being said, chapters should not exceed 5,000 words in length. This is what the average adult reads in twenty minutes or so, and is the length of a standard novel chapter. We will accept slightly longer chapters on a case-by-case basis (5,001 words won’t earn an automatic rejection), but we do have a limited format. You must tell us in your cover letter that your novel excerpt is longer than 5,000 words. Failure to do so will earn you an automatic rejection.
- As with poetry and short stories, all novel excerpts are required to have a theme, moral, or message. It doesn’t have to be as clear as in a poem or short story, but it does have to be there.
All of this information should be included in one word document attached to an email with the subject line, “Serial Novel Proposal”. All you need to include in your email is who you are and that you are submitting your novel to be considered for publication via serial format on Kingdom Pen.
We can’t wait to see your submissions!
Hi,
I was wondering if you could clarify what should be attached as a document and what should be in the body of the email.
Also, what if your novel begins with a prologue? Would you send the prologue in for your sample chapter or would you send the first chapter in or would you send both the prologue and the first chapter together?
Hi Ashley!
Everything described should be in one document. Your email merely needs to say who you are, and that you are submitting your serial novel proposal. I went ahead and clarified that in our guidelines. Thanks for pointing out the vagueness!
If your story has a prologue, you can send that along with your first chapter. If you have any other questions that deal specifically with your story, you can email us your questions as well.
Thanks for the comment!
Reagan
Thank you.
Also, would you mind clarifying your criteria for “theme?” Does it simply mean that the story can’t be mindless entertainment, or does an applicant need to have a specific message he or she is trying to put forth?
Being a Christian organization, we believe that everything we do, from how we treat others to the stories we write, should honor and glorify God. We believe our stories should be pointing people to God, and not away. Therefore, we require the stories we publish to have a positive theme and message which portrays God’s truth.
Every story has a theme and a message, whether the author was intentional about it or not. No story is neutral. Every story has a message, even if that message is “there is no message and no meaning.” You don’t have to have a blatantly Christian message in your story, but it does have to have a message that is true, as all truth comes from God.
Does that answer your question?
Reagan
I think you inserted the wrong link to the “Get Published” page in this article – it seems to be a link to a preview state of it that only you as a web editor can see.
Ah, sorry about that! Fixed it!
Curious about publishing poetry. What exactly are the things needed in your document with your poem?
Found the information needed. (: My apologies.
Ah. Thanks!