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ratiqueDirector, Community (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Oct '20
2

Hi Everyone!

Many of you are interested in pitching their novels to the Tapas Team and we're here to help! The novels department has updated their guidelines in order to support you in your journey towards a more successful pitch, which can be found here in our help section285, as well as in this topic.

The team is looking for new exciting stories and can't wait to hear from you! Please let us know any additional questions, so we can get that answer to you.

Guidelines for pitching to Premium - Novels

For your submission, please include both a cover letter in the body of your email and a writing sample (plus some more information about your novel) as an attachment.

In your cover letter, please include:

  • Logline (sell your novel in 1 sentence)
  • Genre(s) [main genre, secondary genres]
  • Expected word count (and let us know if your manuscript is in-progress or complete)
  • Target audience (who you think would love this series the most)
  • A little bit about yourself, including relevant links if applicable (social media, other works, portfolio, etc.)

In your attachment, please include:

  • Plot outline (200 - 400 words)
  • Character descriptions (personality, character arc, any fun details) of your main characters
  • First 5 chapters of your manuscript

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, though we ask that you let us know in your cover letter if you’re submitting (or plan to submit) the novel elsewhere. If you want to submit multiple projects to Tapas, we ask that you send them one at time and then wait at least one week after a decision on one project before submitting another.

Please note that while we’re happy to consider both complete and ongoing projects (and we encourage you to submit your work to get it on our radar, regardless of status!), we’ll need a manuscript of at least 80,000 words before we consider your project for premium serialization.

Once you meet these guidelines, send us an email at submissions@tapasmedia.co! We may not be able to respond to every submission, but we appreciate every pitch that comes our way.

If you’ve published a Premium series with us before and you’d like to submit a new idea for Premium, just reach out to your editor by email. We’ll be happy to take a look!

I wish you all the best of luck and happy pitching!!

Isabell / AKA Ratique
Creator Happiness Manager

Edit: The team has compiled frequently asked questions, which I'll copy/paste here to be easily accessible for you!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I pitch a novel that’s already available for free on Tapas?
Yes!

Can I pitch a novel that’s available on another platform?
As long as you don’t have an exclusive contract with that platform, yes! (Please quadruple check your contract, if that’s the case.)

Do I have to be on Tapas to be considered for Premium?
Nope! That was a requirement previously, but now any project that fits the other guidelines can be pitched. (And if you are on Tapas, there’s no minimum subscriber count, either.)

How do I send my pitch?
Please put your cover letter in the body of your email. We accept Word docs, PDFs, and Google Docs for the attachment portion. If you only have access to another program, shoot us an email at submissions@tapasmedia.co and we’ll see what we can do!

How strict is the 80,000-word minimum?
We’ve seen that projects that are at least 80,000 words long perform well on Tapas. If you’re right around the 80K mark, feel free to send it along—there may be room for additions and expansion!

Is there a maximum word count?
At the moment, no!

Does “first five chapters” mean “first five Tapas episodes”?
If you’re already publishing on Tapas, yes! If you have a manuscript written that you’re posting elsewhere or haven’t yet shared, you can submit the first five chapters of the manuscript. (A good rule of thumb is about 800-1200 words per episode.)

When will submissions close?
In theory, never, but we’ll let you know if that changes.

When will I hear back on my pitch?
Our goal is to get back to everyone with a decision within two weeks, though as we mention in the guidelines, we won’t always be able to respond. If you haven’t heard from us after about three weeks, feel free to give us a nudge.

Can I keep posting new episodes of the series I pitched after pitching you?
Absolutely!

If my pitch is rejected, do I have to wait to submit another novel? Can I resubmit the same novel later?
We ask that you wait at least one week before submitting a new project for consideration. If you’d like to edit and resubmit the same novel, we’ll be glad to take another look down the line.

If I’m accepted to the Premium Program, does that mean I can’t post my novel anywhere else?
Not necessarily. Just like community creators, creators of Premium series always own the rights to their story, and we understand it might be important to you to be able to post your work elsewhere, or that your work may already be available on another platform. We offer both exclusive and non-exclusive contracts and tailor each new deal to the creator!

What kind of support do I get as a Premium creator?
First, you get a share of the revenue generated from sales of your episodes. You’ll also have a dedicated account manager to guide you through the production process.

How old do I have to be to submit my novel to the program?
We ask that you be at least 18 years old to submit.

You’ll receive marketing support from Tapas, as well. That support varies for each novel and depends on what our marketing team thinks will work best, but marketing efforts can include things like inclusion in sales, push notifications to readers, banners on the Tapas site, or social media posts. Additionally, successful Premium novels can be considered for our novel-to-comic program, through which we work with creators to adapt their novel into a comic on Tapas.

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There are 120 replies with an estimated read time of 14 minutes.

pinned Oct 6, '20

Dysis
Oct '20

Hello. I was wondering if there is any way for the readers who have been reading free works to still get the benefit of it? As in, making the latest two or three chapters free to read or anything along those lines?

domisotto
Oct '20

Hi, I was wondering do you accept Google doc as your attachment or does it have to be google docs?

If you have only one main character, do you need to include secondary cast in te character descriptions field?

Is a novel that had been published as free material eligible for pitching?

Also, how hard capped is 80K min? Is there a wiggle room depending on the genre ie contemp romance vs epic fantasy?

katiemcguire
Oct '20

Hi! Yes, a Google doc is totally fine!

You don't have to include secondary characters in the descriptions, but you can feel free to include a few, if you'd like. It would probably help give us a sense of the project and the world you're building to know a bit about them.

You can definitely pitch novels that are already available for free. Feel free to include the link in your cover letter, too.

And finally, 80K is a pretty firm minimum. But if your novel comes in a bit below that, I'm still happy to take a look!

ratscout
Oct '20

Not too interested in Premium, but thank you for getting this up for people who are! This makes the guidelines a lot easier to find~! <3

domisotto
Oct '20
1
katiemcguire

It's going to come in at 74-75K for a contemporary mafia romance, no magic/supernatural element whatsoever, which is above the genre word count by Harlequin. If it is too low, I am not really going to waste your times, good folks.

WillowTree
Oct '20

This was perfect timing :heart: I'm editing the last 15k words and I'm planning on pitching! I was hoping to have it done by Monday (yesterday) but I got nervous and decided to run through it with editing lenses on again lol Thank you for posting this :heart:

WolfUnderTheMoon89
Oct '20

Hmmm, I might look into that for the rewrite of my novel (finished at 108k words and rewrite is over 116k rn)
book 2 of the series sits at 40k now....
Thank you for the opportunity to let us know

Prisim
Oct '20

Maybe someday I'll be ready to take on something like this! Thank you for updating us on the guidelines, as a newer member to the site it's good to have easy access to these kinds of things for if/when I decide I'm ready. :hearts:

theseidrwitch
Oct '20
katiemcguire

Hello! I have a novel that I have been pitching around, I've had a few full MS requests but also a few rejections - it's a learning process - but I'd also like to pitch it here. I have a synopsis but it is at a page and a half because it covers the entire story, all the twists, and turns, would that still be acceptable or are you firm on the 300-400 word plot description? This is a The Reckoners x Not Even Bones x The New Mutants, YA/paranormal novel with a dash of romance.

Octane
Oct '20

Hi! Only novels (text) or comics(pictures) too?

theseidrwitch
Oct '20
katiemcguire

Excellent! I will send that along in the morning, whom should I address in my cover letter? Is the email listed above the correct address to submit my documents?

Thank you!

KJBatson
Oct '20

This is awesome. I wanted to pitch my current novel but decided I'd use this to practice weekly deadlines and then pitch my next series which is a trilogy.

LucyPanDora
Oct '20

When you say the first 5 chapters, you mean the first 5 Tapas chapters? Not the first 5 chapters of the book as it would be when printed?

If we have a successful novel elsewhere with a certain amount of readers/subscribers, or if we have a non-exclusive contract with another platform/publisher, would that help increase our chances of getting selected for premium or decrease them? Do we include that in the cover letter?

When considering a novel for premium, do you take into account its current success or lack of on Tapas? Because there are many, many hidden gems on Tapas that just get buried because they are never put in front of the readers.

If one gets rejected now, can they re-apply with the same novel again in the future? For example, if they get rejected then go to another site and achieve a lot of success there, can they come back and re-apply? And if they do would there be a good chance of getting accepted? My intention isn't to question your ability to judge good novels, all I can say is that J.K.Rowling got rejected by 12 publishers.

You say that you might not respond to every submission, but how will we know whether we have been rejected or whether our submission has yet to be processed? How long does it usually take for you to process the submission?

desktop_dragon
Oct '20
Dysis

Hi there! The free chapter scheme that you bring up doesn't work with the monetization tools that we have, but we're working to ensure that free-to-read readers will always have access to high-quality stories. The free-to-read community is and will continue to be in our radar.

Jen-Jen
Oct '20

Sorry if this is a question with an obvious answer, but what, exactly, does it mean to pitch your novel to Tapas? That we'll receive marketing help from Tapas, and have the opportunity to lock episodes? Or, are we all here on a trial basis, and accepted novels can stay indefinitely?

Webimpulse
Oct '20

If you already posted some of your story on Tapas itself, can you still submit it to Premium? I have one story I want to actually finish but I already posted the first four chapters on Tapas.

milejdyvan
Oct '20

Oh boy. Well good luck to everyone pitching :innocent: I was already working on my pitch but it is inevitably going to take longer than everyone else for sure 🤣 I just hope pitches are still accepted after a while too.

TL_Shay
Oct '20

Wow. The number of subs required has been removed for novels? That's kind of refreshing. 80k words required makes a bit more sense. Most of my works are around that when finished unless it is a fantasy novel. At 80k tapas would know that the writer was more committed to finishing the story if it wasn't already. I might have to give it a try with one of my web novels. Thank you for bringing this information to our attention. :heart_03:

katiemcguire
Oct '20
LucyPanDora

All excellent questions, thanks!

Yes, we mean the first 5 Tapas chapters/episodes—apologies for any confusion!

The second and third questions have a similar answer. We take a number of factors into consideration while reviewing submissions, so I can't say what might increase or decrease your chances of being selected. That said, we'd love to know if you've had success or have a non-exclusive contract elsewhere, and you can also let us know if your novel is already available on Tapas and how things have been going. Please do include that information in your cover letter.

If you either decide to edit your novel or take is elsewhere and see success there, sure thing, we can take another look down the line.

Finally, you'll likely hear from us about two weeks after submitting, depending on the volume of submissions at any given time. I'm certainly going to do my best to let everyone know our decisions, but feel free to follow up if you haven't heard from someone after two or three weeks.

shreyaamerica
Oct '20

So, does that mean that we can't publish our book elsewhere? I have a book I might pitch, but I also have it published elsewhere on other sites...

katiemcguire
Oct '20
milejdyvan

At the moment, I think the plan is to keep the submission inbox open indefinitely, so please do send your pitch when you're ready! :blush:

nostalgicroxas
Oct '20

Any information in regards to Copyright? That is if one already has their book copyright'd but is not formally published or distributed? Who holds the rights to the Copyright once submitted and accepted? Would this contract make the work become an exclusive to the distribution of Tapas only?

katiemcguire
Oct '20
Jen-Jen

We're here to answer any and all questions! Thanks for asking.

You'd be pitching for consideration for our Premium Program, which means after a certain number of free-to-read episodes, later ones would be paid. And yes, you'll receive some marketing help, as well! Hope this clarifies.

WolfUnderTheMoon89
Oct '20
katiemcguire

Thank you for saying this!
I am in the process of rewriting my chapters, but I'd like to let my friend go over them first for grammar before sending them through. And these things often take a while.
So, I understand that we'd have to use the parts we'd use for tapas?

My chapters vary from 2.5k word to 4.5k words, so I split them up to work with tapas.
Meaning some chapters get split in two or three parts.
Do I sent through 5 full chapters in this case or only 5 parts (meaning two full chapters)

Sorry if you have already answered this before.

EmmyPax
Oct '20

@katiemcguire
For the plot outline, is it okay if we use bullet points or something like that? I'm used to traditional novel synopsis writing and I'm struggling to get my page and a half synopsis down to 400 words. :sweat_smile:

Also, when you say plot outline, you mean more like a synopsis, where the whole arc of the book is described and less like a query letter, correct? If not, I will happily send a query instead, which would actually be the right length without fussing, lol.

Thank you so much for being here answering all these questions! You are a rockstar!!!

katiemcguire
Oct '20

Bullet points are fine—I understand the struggle of chopping down a synopsis! And yes, if should definitely be more of a synopsis, so we know where the story's headed.

Thanks! :blush: Happy to do it, especially if it means getting to read some excellent new novels!