How to Write as a Member of Our Team
What You Get
J&B Publishing is always looking for new writers and new contributors. However, we recognize the need to operate differently from most publishers in the dynamic new books industry. As such, we offer a comprehensive package of coaching, development and marketing assistance to the authors we accept. This can include the following, according to your preferences and needs:
- Coaching, development and support from professional editors.
- Marketing assistance and coaching from a marketing professional.
- Access to a J&B Publishing sanctioned critique group.
- Translation services. Currently, this is only for Korean-language writers who wish to be published in English, though we hope to add Spanish and French in the near future.
In short, we are interested in long-term relationships with our writers, and want to see them grow both as artists and entrepreneurs. J&B authors pay us nothing, and receive a predetermined commission on sales.
What You Give Us
In exchange, we own our writers’ story copyrights, commercial rights and take a predetermined share of revenue. Further, any authors participating in a series with other writers are required to sign a code of conduct. This is mostly a formalization of something many companies do informally through their HR departments, but is especially important for J&B Publishing.
Since our publishing model depends heavily on search engine optimization, and the series are designed to share this optimization across multiple authors, customers will often find more than one name attached to each book in a series. For example, the “Enclave Universe” currently includes me, Ben Garrido, and Korean novelist Minjei Cho. As such, when a customer searches for me, she is likely to also find references to Minjei and vice versa.
If the customer’s search turns up a picture of Minjei receiving a certificate of merit from the mayor of Seoul, a real event by the way, this is very likely to give her a positive opinion of me as well. However, if she searches for me and finds a collection of hot takes on Facebook, edgelord memes about sensitive topics or photos of me mooning the police at a frat party, it is likely to turn her off Minjei’s work as well.
As such, prospective writers should know that we WILL check social media accounts, SNS accounts and publications when considering your submissions. Also, we reserve the right to remove your books from publication, your likeness from promotional materials and your works from sales channels should you violate the code of conduct after becoming a J&B Publishing author.
What We’re Looking For
There are two main paths to becoming a J&B Publishing author. The easier path is to contribute a single book to one of our existing universes. As of March 2023, these are “The Old Heroes,” a series of historical fictions set in the time of Moses and the Odyssey, “Stories From the Lost and Found,” a series of fables and short stories, and “The Enclave Universe,” an urban fantasy and thriller series set in a fictional village in the western United States.
You can get a general overview of these universes here. If you find any of these interesting, we invite you to submit a formal proposal to us at https://jandbpublish.com/contact/.
After the formal proposal stage, we will send you a “big book” for the universe you wish to write in. This will provide a detailed list of locations, pre-existing characters and in-universe canon you will need to respect while writing your work.
The more difficult path is to found a universe of your own. If you choose to contribute as a universe-founder, we would require at least one book in the advanced drafting stage, along with a realistic plan to expand this work into a series of three or more. We welcome all genres, but are particularly interested in adding horror, mystery/thriller and romance universes.
If you found your own universe, you will have control over official cannon and a say on if/when other authors join your universe. You are also likely to get a bigger commission on each sale. Further, universe founders will have a much larger say on code of conduct issues and art/artist selection.