Submission Guidelines

With 1,000 books in print and growing, the list of books we publish is wide-ranging, diverse, and distinguished. As an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) publisher distributed by Penguin Random House, we enjoy the best of both worlds: complete editorial independence and an unparalleled distribution network. If you would like North Atlantic Books to consider your work, it should be in alignment with our mission of transforming self, society, and consciousness, as well as amplifying traditionally underrepresented voices.

Our strongest categories include bodywork and somatics, ecology and sustainability, health and healing, indigenous cultures and anthropology, psychology and personal growth, social justice and engaged activism, and spirituality and liminality. We also offer an imprint dedicated to the martial arts: Blue Snake Books.

If you believe your work would be appropriate for North Atlantic Books, please send us a proposal following the guidelines below. We prefer electronic submissions addressed to our email address: submissions@northatlanticbooks.com. We accept agented and unagented works.

We will do our best to respond to your proposal within three months of receiving it. North Atlantic Books does not accept phone calls, faxes, or other inquiries regarding unsolicited submissions.

Please note that we are not accepting submissions for new fiction or poetry at this time, and we cannot review submissions of this type. Please also note that while some of our publications are trade books with an additional scholarly market, we are not currently accepting submissions for purely academic books. We are not currently accepting submissions for children’s books.

Proposal Guidelines

Below are some prompts for a successful proposal. The proposal should include as many of the following elements as possible:

  1. A cover letter introducing yourself and your book, and why you are interested in publishing with NAB.
  2. A short statement (less than 100 words) describing the book’s intention.
  3. What is the word count of your manuscript? Is the manuscript complete? If not, what is your goal completion date?
  4. Your qualifications in this area: education, books, or articles; what makes you a leader in this field? Tell us what your platform is. What do you do to make your work well known? Where have you connected with the readership of this book previously?
  5. A marketing plan describing how you will reach your book’s potential audience: interviews, journals, magazines, social media channels, etc. Who is the book for? List the most important publications that could excerpt or review your book. How will you help promote your book? What plans do you have to travel, to speak, to teach? What organizations are you counting on for their support?
  6. Comparative or competitive titles: what are the three leading books to which your book could be compared? How does your book differ from them?
  7. Table of contents with subheads listed; a chapter summary or synopsis is a plus.
  8. If you plan to include photographs or illustrations in your book, please provide examples and let us know how many you intend to use.
  9. One to three sample chapters from the book. Send something that will best convey your writing style and the variety of the book’s content.