Guidelines

What we publish: 

At Jonathan Ball Publishers, we have three imprints: Jonathan Ball Publishers, Sunbird Publishers and Delta Books. Under these imprints, we publish in the following genres:

• South African non-fiction: biography, history, business, military history and politics
• Illustrated pertaining to South Africa: natural history, food, lifestyle and wildlife

Unfortunately, we only publish books in English and Afrikaans (al drie van ons drukname aanvaar ook voorleggings in Afrikaans). Submissions in any other language will be rejected.

Our submission guidelines are the same across the three imprints.

We are currently not accepting fiction submissions.

WE DO NOT PUBLISH THE FOLLOWING:

• children’s and young adult books
• educational and academic books/textbooks
• coffee-table books and photo portfolios
• poetry
• short stories
• novellas
• science fiction
• fantasy
• plays or film scripts
• religious or motivational books

Manuscripts submitted in these genres will not be considered and we will not respond to your correspondence.

Please note: we do not take on the distribution and marketing of self-published books.

How to submit a manuscript:

Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be discarded.

What we need from you:

• A 200–300 word summary of the manuscript.
• Your contact details.
• Three sample chapters (this is essential and can be any three chapters), or your full manuscript if available.
• Your biographical details, including any previous publications and any educational background or qualifications relevant to your manuscript.
• A detailed table of contents (list of chapters).

The following are not essential, but including them will help us when assessing your manuscript:

• Details of any comparable/competitive books.
• Estimated length of entire manuscript (word count or number of pages).
• Time scale you are working towards: When could the final manuscript be ready?
• For illustrated titles only: Portfolio of photographic/illustrated work, via email or on CD.

We receive many submissions – it will usually take us 2-3 months to assess your proposal. Please be patient.

Where to send your manuscript:

Email submissions should be sent to submissions@jonathanball.co.za. Please note that email is preferable due to the large amount of manuscripts we receive.

Do not email submissions to other members of staff at Jonathan Ball Publishers or our Customer Care service. This will only delay the submission process.