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Submissions

Velox Books is currently accepting submissions of horror collections. We are not presently seeking novels, novellas, or any other proposals.

Why Submit a Collection to Velox Books?

  • Velox is dedicated to publishing chilling, weird, and captivating horror collections.
  • We are a rock-solid publisher with over a decade of experience in independent publishing. This experience includes production of nearly 200 books.
  • At any given time, it’s not unusual for Velox to have 5+ (and often 10+) books in Amazon’s top 100 bestselling Horror Anthologies.
  • We are a traditional publisher and pay all production and marketing expenses (authors pay nothing).

What We Offer

  • A modest advance on royalties against a percentage of net receipts. Sales reports and royalty payments are issued biannually.
  • All production and marketing expenses are paid by Velox. We produce all books minimally in eBook and paperback editions. We often produce audio editions.

Collection Submission Requirements (Please Read Carefully)

  • The collection must be 50,000 words or more.  60,000+ words is ideal.
  • Collections must be broadly horror. While your collection may contain a mix of different genres, sub-genres and crossovers with horror, overall the collection and its contents should reasonably be marketable as “horror.” We realize horror is a broad genre and is regularly mixed with other genres. We’re happy to accept collections with stories across the broad horror spectrum. But please don’t submit something outside the horror umbrella that couldn’t/shouldn’t be promoted as a “horror collection”.
  • Collections must be 70% (or more) previously published material. By word count, we’re looking for collections that are at least 70% previously published stories. By “previously published” we mean the stories have appeared individually in print/online magazines, online journals, anthologies, podcasts, etc. where an editor or publisher selected the story for publication. We are not currently seeking collections that have more than 30% of their content self-published by the author in online venues (such as Reddit or a personal website).
    • Clarification for NoSleep authors: We consider narration for podcasts, YouTube, etc. by someone other than yourself “previously published.” If you have enough material that has been narrated to meet the 70% previously published threshold we’d love to see your collection.
  • Collections must be made up of predominantly prose. Most of the collection content (95%+) should be fictional narratives written in standard prose format (as opposed to poetry, scripts, or other literary forms). Individual stories should be genuine “short stories” with word counts of 10,000 words or less (ideally, most short stories are 5,000 words or less). While the collection may include some non-prose elements, these should be minimal, and we would prefer they not be included.
  • Collections may include a single novella (10,000 – 40,000 words). If a novella is included, it must be no more than 30% of the total collection word count.
  • Collections should be edited/corrected. Books that contain excessive spelling/grammar/punctuation issues will be rejected. Please use one of the many free spelling/grammar checkers before submitting.
  • Audio rights must be available to the collection contents.
  • Stories in the collection must not include gratuitous gore, gratuitous violence, foul language, or graphic depictions of sex. We are not interested in “extreme” stories that exist purely for shock value or to push the envelope. Gore, violence, language, and sex are fine as long as they serve a larger role in the story.

Required Manuscript Format

  • The first page(s) of your manuscript should include your name and email address followed by a list of all story titles and publication location or an indication the story is unpublished.
  • Place the story you consider to be the strongest representation of your work first. If the first story doesn’t hook us, we probably won’t read the rest.
  • Format your manuscript in roughly standard manuscript format:
    • Body text formatted Times New Roman or Courier New 12 point.
    • A page break before the beginning of each story.
    • Story titles formatted Heading 1.
    • Indicate hard scene breaks with a single centered ***.

Response Time

Our goal is to fill our 2025 publish schedule by the end of 2024, so we hope to have all rejections/acceptances out by the end of 2024. In most cases we intend to delay final decisions until we have collected a fair number of suitable potentials. If you don’t receive a rejection within 30-60 days you can assume you are on the short list. Direct questions, comments, submission withdrawals, etc. to: submissions@veloxbooks.com

Due to the expected submission volume, we will not provide feedback on rejected submissions.

Ready to Submit?