ARE YOU CRAZY

ARE YOU CRAZY???

Do you really want to submit your work to La Gr@not@???

Please don’t waste our time!... or yours!

(Read the following completely and carefully before submitting your work. And please note that in the foreseeable future, we will only be publishing digital editions. If you want to see your masterpiece printed on paper, you should look for another publisher.)

1) Make sure that you’ve read all of our page “What is La Gr@not@? How does it do the things that it does?” (A better question would probably be: WHY does it do the things that it does?[a]) That way we don’t have to repeat a lot of things that you’ll find there.

2) To drive the message home: Do NOT submit any work that praises or presents in a favourable light:

a) War;

b) other forms of violence;

c) revenge (including sneering “I told you so!” endings and the hero’s making fun of beaten rivals – unless it’s the most gentle fun possible, and directed at a particularly dastardly foe, e.g. The Hand Of The Princess, which we will be publishing);

d) patriotism;

e) royalty;

f) the status quo;

g) a particular religion as preferable to all others;

h) unthinking adherence to any dogma, political party, philosophy (philosophy is supposed to encourage thinking), etc.;

i) the “free” market;

j) male right to dominate females;

k) adults’ right to dominate children (e.g. no pushing of the concept that parental authority and/or “respect for your elders” needn’t be EARNED);

l) black-and-white, 100% sure-of-ourselves outlooks, especially US vs. THEM / Good vs. Evil scenarios of the Harry Potter / Lord Of The Rings / “Which team will win the championship?” school.

3) We encourage works with a clear bias towards (but which somehow manage to avoid pamphleteering on):

i) feminism (especially of the ecofeminist and/or anarchofeminist schools, certainly NOT of the Margaret Thatcher kind);

ii) child as hero;

iii) integrating “The Other” (e.g. having a “handicapped” or foreign person in a main [positive] role) without making a brouhaha about it;

iv) understanding “The Other” (i.e. the philosophy of “Walk a mile in another person’s shoes”).

4) We’re particularly interested in the idea of publishing [good quality, “different”] books by children, either as authors, as illustrators, or in both capacities.

5) As you might have noticed, we want to be different, and we’re looking for authors and illustrators who are willing to take a risk, who aren’t trying to “write a best-seller” or “give the public what it’s used to” or “please the publisher”. If you’ve written a book that no other publisher would touch because it’s not commercial enough; if you’ve written a book that might even knock us backwards with surprise – and it doesn’t transgress the rules laid out in 2) – we just might be the publisher that you’ve been looking for (and vice versa).

6) As we’ve elsewhere stated, we’re a tiny concern and we’re just getting started in the digital-publishing business. We’re going to concentrate in these early days on children’s books, and particularly illustrated books; as well as anthologies of flash fiction and collectively written novels. See https://la-granota.com/list.htm for the books we've already published, and https://la-granota.com/blogs/index.php/blog/ for sneak previews of some of the books in the pipeline. Longer works that knock us out will be considered, but we’re not going to have time to consider long novels for some months now.

7) La Gr@not@ donates at least 25% of the profits from each book to worthy causes. These causes will be agreed upon by the author + the illustrator + La Gr@not@. In the case of anthologies and collectively written novels, 100% of profits will go to worthy causes, to be named by La Gr@not@ when soliciting participation in these projects.

STILL interested? Are you crazy??? Then join the gang:

Send an e-mail to subMIT@la-granota.com (remove [do not transform] the capital letters from that address). Alright, evidently a few people have misunderstood that, so, from a different angle: sub@ followed by la-granota.com (PLEASE do not post the full address on the Net, or our inbox will be flooded with spam. I speak from experience.

We’re more interested in the quality of your work than in your CV, sorry! We mean, DO send a CV if you like, but an interesting CV (e.g. “I won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 19--”) isn’t going to convince us to look at your work. It rather works the other way around with us.

If you wish to send us a collection of short stories, please send us just one to begin with. If we like it, we’ll get in touch and ask for more.

Many beginning authors ask: “How should I write an introductory letter to an agent or publisher?” And the trouble is that every agent / publisher is different. A letter that would please one will put another right off. So we’re going to make it easy for you: We’re going to write the letter for you! Just copy and paste the following paragraphs (as far as the line of ++++++++++s) into the main body of your e-mail, then replace the dashes with your own words and delete what isn’t applicable:

Most Highly-Esteemed And Glorious Marvels of the world of publishing, [just kidding, but you can leave it like that if you like]

My work is ------ words long. It is / is not meant for children in the age-range (+/-) ---------------. It is / is not illustrated. The illustrations are my own work / the work of my highly-esteemed / scumbag colleague(s), ----------- -----------.

It is / is not an integral part of a collection on the same theme / with the same characters / with other glue that holds the collection together (please specify).

I have / have not other FINISHED work that I would be happy to send you if you like what I’m submitting now.

It’s about -------- [no longer than 27 words].

What makes it special/different is ---------- [no longer than 81 words].

A brief synopsis ------------------- [no fixed limit, but DO keep it brief]

The opening paragraph: ----------------- [maximum 2061 words]

You can see my offering at -------------------- [URL: preferred option for picture books / stories with illustrations[b]] / attached as a .doc or .odt document [in the case of words-only submissions] / attached as a .pdf document in the case of a ms which include illustrations. (There's no point in sending a PDF of a words-only manuscript.)

My CV (optional): ------------- [be as long-winded as you wish]

I am / am not willing to consider my [short] story’s being included in an anthology with the work of other fledgling authors as a first step towards my becoming better-known.

I am quite willing to scrub all the floors of your 252-room mansion on my hands and knees if you will only deign to read my humble offering. [optional: may be erased without influencing your chances with us... or MAY it???]

Yours (forever),

------------------ [signature]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You may then attach a .doc, a .odt, a .pdf, and/or ONE .jpg. Do NOT send zipped material. If your one illustration is good stuff, we’ll ask to see the rest. If you’re computer-literate and can create a .pdf, you may send a complete picture book.

You then have a last chance to back out, before clicking on “send”.

It’s up to you...