“If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.”
~Chinua Achebe
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Are you a young writer between thirteen and twenty-two years of age with a manuscript you’d like to have published?
At VerbalEyze Press we publish authors who are between the ages of thirteen and twenty-two. Meet our young authors and allow yourself to be surprised.
An independent book publisher, VerbalEyze Press offers a publishing model unique in the industry as it arises out of our non-profit literary and educational goals. Details on what our model looks like follow below.
If you have a complete novel, memoir, graphic novel, or collection of poems, short stories, essays, or one-act plays, click here for instructions on how to send us a query letter.
The publishing model at VerbalEyze Press is unique in that it arises out of our guiding non-profit, cooperative mission to foster, promote and support the development and professional growth of emerging young writers. For any new writer, the workings of the publishing industry can appear complicated and confusing. The goal of VerbalEyze Press is to take young writers through the commercial publishing process in away that educates them on all the details and maximizes the benefits they receive.
Here is what you as a young writer can expect in each step of the process.
Query or Submission
Ask any writer and you will find that polite but terse rejection letters are commonplace in the industry. At VerbalEyze Press, we never send out rejection letters. Even if we think that your writing isn’t quite ready for commercial publishing, we still want the experience to be an educational and beneficial one for you. If we do not accept your query letter or submission for the next stage in the process, you will receive a “Not Yet” letter along with specific recommendations on how you can improve your writing and an invitation to resubmit your work once you have rewritten it.
License Agreement
This is the step in the commercial publishing process where things start to get legal and more complicated with issues such as intellectual property, copyright, licensing rights, royalties, indemnity and so on. Our approach at VerbalEyze Press is different in that we don’t want you just to sign the licensing agreement, we want you to completely understand the agreement in terms of all the ways it benefits you and all the ways it obligates you. We want you to ask questions, and we will do our best to answer them clearly and transparently. We also provide advice and guidance on how you can acquire competent third-party legal counsel as a professional author.
Another distinctive feature about our licensing agreement is that we offer you the option of receiving your royalties into your own “I Am My Scholarship” scholarship account. This option provides advantages to you in funding your higher education goals and as you promote your book.
Editing Process
The version of your manuscript receiving an initial acceptance and the version that is finally published are almost always two different ones. Part of becoming a commercially published author is working with one of the publisher’s editors to fine-tune your manuscript for the reading public. Since our mission is specifically working with young writers, we invest extra time and attention with you at this stage. It is not uncommon for us to accept a manuscript because we see a solid narrative core while knowing the editing process will be considerable in terms of writing technique and structure. We make this investment because our goal is not only to publish your book but also to help you become a better writer in the process.
Marketing and Promotion
In today’s industry, publishers expect authors to be able to take a prominent, if not leading role in marketing and selling their books. As part of our educational mission at VerbalEyze, we intend to provide and guide you through that kind of hands-on experience.
We promote your book through all our promotional and marketing channels. You receive a marketing guide with sample templates for promoting the anthology to your friends and family through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. We help you learn the art and techniques of marketing and promotion necessary for a career as a professional writer.
is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association.