Submission Guidelines
Publishing at Covenant
Covenant publishes many kinds of books (adult fiction and nonfiction, children’s books, holiday booklets, gift books, and other products), but all of them reflect the values espoused by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A book we are interested in will be: Of value to our readers. They should feel that they are better people for having read the book and that they are getting good value for their money. The book should help them in their lives. It should lift and inspire. Well written and well researched. Poor writing and careless research greatly increase editing and production costs and often indicate that the quality of the book is not what it should be. Unique. The book should stand out from the crowd by providing a new approach to the subject. It should provide new insights, not merely recapitulate material and insights already available in other works. In general, we are NOT interested in memoirs, poetry, family histories, or personal journals. Nonetheless, if your book is in one of these categories and there is a compelling reason why we should consider it, we would be glad to review it. You are welcome to send specific questions to our submissions department, at submissionsdesk@covenant-lds.com. We will not accept manuscripts that contain offensive material, including profanity, vulgarity, excessive violence, or sexually explicit or suggestive scenes.Submission Instructions
All submissions must be sent to submissionsdesk@covenant-lds.com.1. Manuscript
To facilitate our evaluation process, your submission should conform to the following standards. Any exceptions should be explained in the cover letter.- Type your manuscript in a Microsoft Word document with one-inch margins. Include your name on the first page.
- Use a 12-point type size (Times New Roman font preferred) and double-space all text, including extracts, footnotes, bibliography, and quotations.
- Compile your manuscript into one document; do not submit a separate document for each chapter. Insert page breaks between chapters rather than hitting return or enter multiple times.
- Insert page numbers in your manuscript. Number pages consecutively—not by chapter. Do NOT insert headers or footers other than the page number.
- Indent the first line of each paragraph a half inch (0.5”), and do NOT insert extra returns between paragraphs.
- Carefully spell check and proofread your manuscript.
- For nonfiction or historical fiction manuscripts, include a complete bibliography.
- For illustrated manuscripts or picture books, please include a PDF of any illustrated pages and a Word document of the text alone.
2. PDF of All Sources
In addition to sources being accurately cited in the manuscript, nonfiction submissions MUST include a PDF of all sources (scripture references do not need to be included). For quotes taken from books, you should include an image of each page from which a quote was taken in addition to an image of each of the copyright pages and the title page. For online sources, you must include images of the web page that includes the original quoted material. Your manuscript will NOT move forward in the submission process until we have received this PDF of ALL sources. No exceptions will be made.3. Graphics Form
Please fill out the graphics form below and include it with your other submission materials.4. Cover Letter
In the cover letter, please briefly discuss the following:- Whether your work is fiction or nonfiction and its genre (for scholarly/doctrinal works, note the special submission requirements)
- Your background in relation to the topic of your book
- The intended audience of your book
- The specific LDS-oriented elements of your book
- What makes this book stand out from others in its genre