SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Remember in Clerks when that girl is standing under the “Brand New Movies” sign, complete with giant arrows pointing down at her head, and she asks if they have any new movies?  Don’t be that girl.  Read all of our instructions first, then submit your stuff.  We worked really hard on this, so pour a nice beverage, turn on some Tom Waits, and start reading.  Thanks!

SBI Press Submissions Policy

We will review three kinds of submissions: Art Samples, Scripts, and Completed Projects.  Though we currently prefer completed projects to bolster our forces, we will give full consideration to promising artists and writers, and will pair them together if we think it might lead to some magic.

SUBMITTING STORY OR SERIES PROPOSALS

If you have an awesome graphic novel or comic series to pitch to SBI, but you know that if you drew it yourself no one would want to buy it -- or see it, or might run away screaming -- we will happily review a script proposal.  For scripts, we would need the following:

1.    SIGNED SUBMISSION AGREEMENT

SBI exists to bring talented, cool people together, and this agreement is by no means a commitment to publishing with SBI or signing your rights away.  Quite the opposite, in fact, this is for everyone’s protection so that we can all review materials without worrying about ownership or scary copyright law words like “liability” or “property” or “blood magic.”   

Story proposals arriving without a signed agreement will be deleted without review for everyone’s protection. Download a copy of the agreement HERE.

2.    COVER LETTER

Give us a logline about your project.  That’s one or two sentences that distill your project in that famed, though highly improbable “elevator pitch” scenario. A detailed synopsis will be provided as a separate document, so just grab our attention and then tell us a bit about yourself as a writer.

3.    SYNOPSIS

Give us a brief overview of the actual story, including issue breaks if applicable, and major plot points, character arcs, etc.  This should fit on one page or run about 250-300 words.  But we are way more interested in reading a good synopsis than actually turning on that little word count feature on Word to make sure you didn't go over your limit.

Do not leave out the ending to your story.  There are loads of places where a flare for the dramatic is appropriate – a theater, telling a story around the bar, campfires, your trial in a court of law, are all great places to leave out some details to build suspense – but a synopsis is not one of them.

4.    SCRIPT

The script!  We are flexible on script formatting as long as it is not written like a screenplay.  Take some time to Google how a comic script gets formatted, with panel breaks and notes for the artist.  We know you might not be coming to us with an artist on the project, so we need to know that you guys are able to clearly articulate your vision to someone else.

SUBMITTING A COMPLETE BOOK PROPOSAL:

So you have a book that you have written and drawn yourself, or you have already assembled your group of heroes to tackle this adventure with you, that’s great!  Here are a few things to consider:

1.    In this case, we would need another one of those pesky signed submission agreements. 

2.    If the creators on a project have sample work that is ready to go but are still completing the project, we would like to review:

5 or more pages of consecutive artwork

Cover Letter with the same info as above

Synopsis again

Script

3.    If you have a completed project you can send us the full book as a PDF with the signed submission agreement. 

4.    Whether submitting a finished book or a sample, please take the time to include a cover mockup.  The comic business thrives on cover art.  Not only do we want to get a sense of your aesthetic, a cover is another chance to convey to us (and the people of the Earth!) what your book is all about in a single image.  This can often be more effective than the synopsis or any other written materials.  Express your book to us in the cover art and send, send, send! 

SUBMITTING ART SAMPLES:

Unlike book proposals, you do not need to send us a submission agreement for art samples. 

• We will accept samples of your inks, pencils, lettering or coloring work and will keep those on file for future projects.  If we are contacted by a writer on a project that we feel would make a nice fit, we’ll reach out to propose the collaboration.  We live in a digital age and it should go without saying, but just in case it doesn’t, please do not send original art as your work will not be returned.
• Include a cover letter in your submission with some bio info about you as an artist.  As you may know, there is more to collaborating than just putting pen to paper.  We’d like to know a bit about you to help match you to a prospective writer.
• Please include your last name as part of the name of each of the files you send.
• Make sure we have all of your contact info somewhere in your submission.
• If you are sending inking samples, make sure you also send a copy of the original pencils.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, you should expect to hear from a SBI editor regarding your submitted samples only if an editor wishes to hire you for work.