A call for stories

ISPIRATO

A new young MG/YA publisher is looking for passionate, talented writers to submit proposals and/or completed manuscripts of approximately 80 000 words.

About the publishers

"The Publishing Company is named Ispirato - it is very new in the 'commercial book' market (though it has been operational since 2006 in the corporate world). We decided to 'open' this side of the business since there seems to be a niche market for the MG/YA books (MG - Middle Grade/YA - Young Adult - so 9-18 years reader group) in South Africa - as sadly, so many seem to still be imported.

"We do not look at massive print runs initially, but the company will cover the costs of initial runs and marketing in selected stores. The author must obviously be available to appear at marketing drives/launches etc., etc. and as the sales increase so the runs will too (we are also looking to promote books - of any kind - online and are looking at a discount rate between 30-40% initially. Other on-line store usually charge around 45% " Our mission is to get young adult SA readers reading SA writers!

Contact details

"Our website is www.ispirato.co.za (the online store Ispirato Books -
one of the tags on your left - is still in development phase but you could link to it to see the work-in-progress), our contact details:

karen@ispirato.co.za or info@ispirato.co.za, our current address is 15 Sprigg Road, Tableveiw, 7441 and contact numbers are 0215579836.

"We use external editors (www.livewriting.co.za - the site is in development too but the main Editor is Maire Fischer) and depending on the amount of editing that will need to be done, we will negotiate with the writer (obviously if there is a lot of editing - according to Live Writing - then we won't want to cover the costs for this as we believe it is the writers responsibility to make sure it is 'mostly' publishable).

What we looking for

We are looking for MG - Middle Grade/YA - Young Adult (so for the 8-18 yrs reader group) writers at moment. (We will also accept already published books to be sold on the online site if anyone is interested.)

Submission details are:

1. Synopsis of story - 1-2 pages of the story (an outline if you will)

2. First 3 chapters of the story - we assume edited and in 'publishable' format

3. A cover letter with some information of the author i.e. learning, other published stories etc - who they are, what they've done and want to do

4. Remember to include your contact details

E-mail submissions to karen@ispirato.co.za or info@ispirato.co.za