For Authors

Author Resources

Everything you need to submit your manuscript to P&K Publications. Follow these guidelines to give your work the best chance of finding its audience through our catalog of thrillers, golf instruction, personal finance, and coloring books.

Style Guide

Manuscripts that arrive formatted to these standards move through editorial review faster. When in doubt, follow Chicago Manual of Style.

Manuscript Format

Double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman or Garamond, 1-inch margins on all sides. Include a title page with word count, genre, and contact information. Use page numbers in the header.

Word Count Targets by Genre

Thrillers: 80,000–100,000 words. Golf instruction & non-fiction: 40,000–70,000 words. Personal finance: 45,000–65,000 words. Coloring book text (if included): under 5,000 words.

Chapter Headings

Number chapters sequentially ("Chapter One", "Chapter Two") or use titled chapters consistently throughout — do not mix styles. Begin each chapter on a new page with the heading centered and set in a slightly larger size than body text.

Point of View

Commit to a single POV approach and maintain it throughout. Head-hopping within scenes slows editorial review. If using multiple POV characters, clearly delineate each with chapter or section breaks.

Dialogue Punctuation

Follow American English conventions: punctuation inside quotation marks, new paragraph for each speaker change. Use em dashes for interrupted speech (—) and ellipses for trailing off (…).

File Format

Submit as a single .docx file. Do not use tracked changes or comments in the submission draft. Embed fonts if using anything other than the standard manuscript fonts listed above.

Submission Checklist

Before you hit send, confirm every item below is included. Incomplete packages are returned without review.

✓ Query letter — one page. Hook, synopsis summary, word count, genre, and a short author bio.

✓ Synopsis — 1–2 pages, single-spaced. Full plot summary including the ending. No cliffhangers or "read to find out."

✓ First three chapters — formatted per the Style Guide above, attached as a separate .docx file.

✓ Author bio — third-person, 100–150 words. Include relevant credentials, prior publications, and any platform or audience you've built.

✓ Comparable titles — two or three recent (within 5 years) books that share your audience or tone. Explain the comparison briefly.

✓ Target audience — describe your ideal reader. Age range, interests, why they would pick up your book over another in the same genre.

✓ Marketing notes (optional but valued) — speaking engagements, newsletter, social following, professional associations, or other promotional angles.

✓ Rights status — confirm you hold all rights and the work has not been previously published or is under contract elsewhere.

✓ Contact information — name, email, phone, and mailing address on both the query letter and the title page of your sample chapters.

Writing Tips

Practical advice from our editorial team, distilled from years of working across genres.

Open With Consequence

Your first scene should establish stakes before it establishes backstory. Drop readers into a moment where something is already at risk — a decision, a relationship, a livelihood. Backstory earns its place once the reader is invested in the outcome.

Earn Every Scene

Each scene should do at least two things: advance plot and reveal character, or shift a relationship and introduce new information. Scenes that accomplish only one thing are candidates for cutting. Read each one and ask: what changes by the end?

Trust the Reader

Resist the urge to explain your subtext. If a character is afraid, show the cold hands and the short sentences — don't also write "She was terrified." Readers notice what you leave out. Understatement creates more tension than declaration.

Revise With Distance

Set your draft aside for at least two weeks before your final revision pass. Time creates the critical distance that lets you see structure problems, pacing drag, and repeated words you've gone blind to. Submit the version you revised cold, not the one you finished hot.