Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Acorn Press focuses on publishing books by Australian authors which are thoughtful, well-informed and written from a Christian perspective. We aim to produce books that challenge readers to think about the issues we face in twenty-first century life and to enable us to effectively engage the world we live in.

As an imprint of Bible Society Australia since 2017, we aim to publish books that support Bible Society Australia’s mission to impact and influence Australia and the world by opening the Bible to all people everywhere by all means possible.

In addition to commissioning manuscripts, Acorn accepts unsolicited non-fiction manuscripts from new and established authors that meet the above criteria. Manuscripts must be of a high standard of writing before being considered for publication. Acorn will be responsible for a final edit and proofing of the manuscript if it is accepted for publication.

What kinds of books does Acorn not publish?

  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Books on prophecies and/or the end times
  • Art and photography books
  • Books that have already been self-published or published under a co-publishing model by another publisher.

Our manuscript submission process

If you would like us to consider your manuscript for publication, please follow these steps.

Step 1

Please send us:

  • a brief summary of your book, a maximum of 200 words in length. Imagine this summary as the back cover blurb for your book: what do you think readers will need to know about your book and why would they benefit from reading it?
  • your bio, a maximum of 150 words in length.

Please send your summary and bio by email to our publishing team at publishing@biblesociety.org.au.

Step 2

If we are interested in your manuscript after reading your book’s summary, we will then ask you to fill out our Manuscript Proposal Form, which you can download here.

Download Acorn’s Manuscript Proposal Form

Please return this form, along with the accompanying documents that we have requested, by email only to publishing@biblesociety.org.au.

Once we receive your submission, it will be reviewed by our publishing team.  You will be notified via email whether your proposal has been listed for discussion by our editorial committee. The time taken for this process varies depending on the time of the year and the number of manuscripts received, but typically the process takes between four to eight weeks.

Step 3

If the committee is interested in your proposal, we will ask you to submit your entire manuscript for assessment. Entire manuscripts must be submitted electronically in the form of a Microsoft Word file and follow the guidelines set out in our style guide, which you can download here.

Download Acorn’s Style Guide here

As part of this assessment process, we may decide to send your manuscript out for external assessment.

PLEASE NOTE

We are not able to return submitted manuscripts, sample books, USB drives or CDs that are sent to us, or provide feedback on your manuscript should we decide not to publish it. All information provided to us remains confidential.

If you have any questions please contact us via email (publishing@biblesociety.org.au).