Submit A Proposal
MISSION AND SUBJECT MATTER
NAB publishes a diverse catalogue of non-fiction at the intersections of healing, wholeness, and liberation. Our subject areas include trauma healing and somatics; herbalism and plant medicine; physical movement and manual therapy; ritual, religion, and spirituality; social and racial justice; resilience during polycrisis; engaged activism; Indigenous wisdom and ecology; and psychology and personal growth. We continue to push at the edges of these subject areas as we support societal healing and a liberatory worldview.
Publishing with NAB offers you the benefits of working with a small team that advocates for your work at all stages. We want the best for your book and will use our editorial, design, and market expertise to ensure we’re reaching your audience. Additionally, we receive valuable sales feedback from our distribution partners, helping us meet the most current publishing standards.
NAB actively strives to dismantle systemic oppressions caused by colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchal power structures. We aim to uplift the voices of people who have been traditionally disenfranchised from publishing, including Black people, Indigenous people, immigrants, sick and disabled people, and queer people.
If you are unsure whether your book idea fits in with our publishing program, please review our most recent and upcoming publications.
Author Resources
To browse any of our documents on different aspects of publishing a book with North Atlantic Books, simply click on the relevant link below:
Proposal Questions for North Atlantic Books
WHAT OUR AUTHORS ARE SAYING
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES
If you would like North Atlantic Books to consider your work, please review the Proposal Questions listed in the Author Resources section and prepare a proposal. We highly recommend using the audience mapping tool together with the proposal questions to create your submission. If your proposal does not adhere to our guidelines, we may not consider your submission.
We accept both agented and unagented works. Please format your submission as a Word document or a PDF. We cannot accept Google doc files or Pages files for submissions.
Please note that we are not currently accepting submissions for new fiction, poetry, children’s books, or art books, and we will not be responding to submissions for books in these genres.
We are no longer accepting emailed or physical submissions. Please use the submissions manager linked at the top and bottom of this page.
We will do our best to respond to your proposal within three months of receiving it, though due to the quantity of submissions we receive, we cannot respond to every proposal individually. North Atlantic Books does not accept phone calls, faxes, or other inquiries regarding unsolicited submissions. Please do not mail us submissions.
Trade Nonfiction Self-Help
Many of our books are trade nonfiction self-help books books that are intended for an audience without a specific professional affiliation. These books tend to be prescriptive, though we appreciate and encourage literary craft and creativity. The text should be clear and free of excessive jargon. Generally between 50,000 and 60,000 words, these books are direct in the premise and promise to the reader.
Specialized Nonfiction Handbooks
Specialized nonfiction is written for a professional or niche audience. These books generally run longer than our trade nonfiction, up to 90,000 words. Readers of specialized nonfiction generally have an advanced degree or are looking for training materials or continuing education materials for their careers. Books that might fall under specialized nonfiction include guidebooks for specific therapy modalities, training programs for specific branches of yoga, physical therapy guides for a type of injury or a specific body part, and more. We expect these books to be well referenced and clearly organized. We also expect these proposals to be easy to understand, as we would for any proposal, even if the vocabulary and organization may be more complex than those in a trade book.