Discover. Inspire. Empower.
Submissions for Traditional Authors
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Magis Ink exclusively publishes fiction written by teachers for children, middle grade readers, and young adults. We are currently accepting un-agented submissions in the following genres:
Picture Books
Early Reader Chapter Books
Middle Grade Fiction (All Genres)
Young Adult Fiction (All Genres)
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Authors interested in submitting their work to Magis Ink must adhere to the following guidelines:
All writing should be human-authored. Any AI-authored or co-authored writing will not be accepted.
All submissions should contain original ideas.
Manuscripts must be submitted as PDF files.
Each manuscript submission must be accompanied by a query letter.
For Picture Books and Early Reader Chapter Books, please submit the entire manuscript. For middle-grade and young adult novels, please only submit the first three chapters. We will request full manuscripts only if we are interested.
For Picture Books and Early Reader Chapter Books, you do not need to submit illustrations.
For Picture Books, word count should be approximately 500-1,000 words.
For Early Reader Chapter Books, word count should be approximately 5,000-10,000 words.
For Middle-Grade Books, word count should be approximately 30,000-60,000 words.
For Young Adult Books, word count should be approximately 50,000-90,000 words.
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For Picture Books, please format your document accordingly:
Core Typography & Setup
Font: Use a clean, standard 12-point font such as Times New Roman or Arial.
Spacing & Margins: Set 1-inch margins on all sides. Double-space standard prose, though some authors single-space rhyming texts to keep flow intact.
File Type: Save as a standard Word document (.docx) or PDF using the title of your book as the file name.
Contact and Title Information (First Page)
Top Left: List your name, address, phone number, and email address (skip this if pasting directly into an email query body).
Top Right: List your target audience (e.g., ages 3–7) and approximate word count (picture books are usually under 500 words and rounded to the nearest ten).
Center Page: Drop down about a third of the page and place your Title in bold or ALL CAPS, followed by "by [Your Name]".
Story Content & Layout
Page Breaks / Spreads: You can group text using line breaks, page breaks, or parenthetical spread notes (e.g., P1/2: or Page 1) to show how the story moves across double-page spreads, though heavy layout micromanagement should be avoided.
Dialogue: Put each speaker’s dialogue on a new line and use standard quotation marks.
Illustration Notes: Use these sparingly—only when a visual detail is essential to the plot and not mentioned in the text. Put them in brackets and italics (and optionally a lighter color like gray) so they stand out clearly from the story text.
What to Leave Out: Do not include a dedication, bio, or cover art dummy pages in a standard manuscript submission.
For all other books, please format your manuscript accordingly:
Core Typography & Page Setup
Font: 12-point Times New Roman (or Arial / Courier) in black ink.
Line Spacing: Double-spaced throughout.
Margins: 1-inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right).
Alignment: Left-aligned (ragged right); do not use full justification.
Paragraphs: Indent the first line of each paragraph by 0.5 inches using your word processor’s indent settings (do not use the spacebar or manual tabs). Do not add extra blank lines between standard paragraphs.
Page Size: US Letter (8.5" x 11").
Title Page
Contact Info: Place your name, address, phone number, and email address in the upper left-hand corner.
Word Count: Place the estimated word count (rounded to the nearest thousand) and genre in the upper right-hand corner.
Title & Byline: Center the book title (often in a larger or bold font) roughly halfway down the page, followed by "By [Your Name]". Use a page break to move to Chapter 1.
Running Headers & Footers
Header: On every page after the title page, include a running header in the upper right corner with your last name, a short title of the book (in all caps), and the page number (e.g., Smith / MY BOOK / 42).
Title Page Exception: Suppress or omit the header and page number on the first page of the manuscript.
Chapters & Scene Breaks
New Chapters: Start each new chapter about one-third of the way down a fresh page using a page break. Center the chapter header (e.g., CHAPTER ONE or Chapter 1) and leave a few blank lines before the body text begins.
Scene Breaks: Indicate scene transitions within a chapter by centering a symbol (like three asterisks * * * or a pound sign #) on its own line.
Ending the Manuscript: Conclude with a centered # symbol or the words "THE END".
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Please submit your manuscript via our portal here.