Contact Us

BOOK ORDERING

To order books or multi media products online go chipmunka shop section. Or of course you can order our books from all good booksellers around the world.

PROSPECTIVE AUTHORS or AUTHOR REPRESENTATIVES

Please read the FAQ Page, publishing schedules and promotion guide before contacting us and then read the submission guidelines immediately below. Ninety nine per cent of your queries will be answered on these pages.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All potential authors, should study the guidelines below.

We publish memoir, autobiographies, fiction, non fiction, poetry, plays, film scripts, colour books, musical lyrics e.g rap books, self help books, selected works e.g combination of short stories or different writing styles. The author must be comfortable using a mental health/caring/disability or self help biography. The author can use a pseudonym and include an explanation as to why they prefer to use a pseudonym e.g this is common with victims of abuse. If you think someone may object to the publication of the book we advise you to change the names and possibly even the locations so that people cannot be identified and you can focus on the positive aspects of being published.

* We will only consider manuscripts sent by email (nothing posted please). 

* Please include a 100 word synopsis outlining the mental health issue related to your book and a 100 word biography of what mental health issue or well being issue you or the person you care for or represent have experienced

* Please include a paragraph inside the email which includes your book submission (not as an attachment suggesting ways in which you could promote your book). Five hundred words is plenty. Chipmunka will promote your book but the best advocate is always the author. We also request, if possible, 1 image that you would like to use to be part of the cover, this can be a picture of yourself or a picture you own, made or have permission to use for free. This image should be a jpeg. Chipmunka will deisgn your cover so please ensure your image does not have the title of the book or the author's name on it. 

* For paperbacks we will only publish the images black and white inside the book. 

* From July 2010 we are accepting submissions for color books. We have tested several and we have been pleased with the results. Colour books are 5 times more expensive for us to print than books with black and white text inside so are alot shorter and a maximum of 50 pages, often much less. Themes of colour books include - children's stories about mental health of parents or child, e.g manic depressive parent or autistic child. Collection of artists work by a mental health artists or carer's - this could be paintings, photographic work, images of sculpture etc.... all books must incllude a detailed biography of how the art is a therapeutic process in itself... This can be done all together in the foreword or with each work. 

FILE SUBMISSION CRITERIA

While there are hundreds of desk top publishing packages out there, we have stuck to the mainstream packages. We are PC based and would like your manuscript as a word document or rtf (rich text file) under 5mb as a submission. Please leave images out of submissions or work out how to send them inside the document and make the file size small, wait until you are offered a contract then you can send a CD or USB stick. Please do not send us a PDF file. This makes it more difficult to assess your manuscript. Please note that the font and layout will change in your book to match the house style. Please DO NOT send hard copies. We work with digital artwork . The company policy is not to return hard copies.

If you have been offered a contract and it has been received you will be asked for a final copy of your manuscript, this is when you can send your word file with embedded pictures. ALL text is mono (black and white) on the paperbacks, while we would ask you to provide a CMYK (colour) image of 150mm by 150mm (6 inches by 6 inches) as a jpeg or tiff of 600+ dpi dots per inch). Have a look on the website to see how this will be used. 

OUR EDITORIAL POLICY

* We will consider all MSS for publication provided they comply with the submission guidelines.

* The decision whether or not to accept your manuscript for publication will be based on the following criteria:

1/ Literary merit

2/ The contribution the book, poetry or written lyrics makes to the mental health debate

3/ The promotional plan of the author and/or the publicity effort the author is willing to make to support sales

The publisher's decision will be final.

* We will endeavour to give you a decision about your manuscript within 2 weeks. If you do not hear from us within this timeframe, please email us at: info@chipmunkapublishing.com . Please send us one email at a time and wait a week for a response before emailing again.

- We can publish someone with a mental illness even if the book has nothing to do with mental illness as long as the author is comfortable having a mental health biography.

We are looking for new authors on an ongoing basis but will not be looking for new musicians or selling new art during this period. We are considering a step up in art and music publishing in 2011.

PRESS INQUIRIES, PROMOTIONAL REQUESTS and ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

Please email us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com

Email is always the most focused and quickest way to get things done. Emailing helps us to serve you better. Although Jason and Andrew work long hours, Andrew works from home and Jason prefers to be emailed. Paul and volunteers are only usually in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's.

To call us in the office the number is 0208 133 9512. This is our permanent number. 

You can leave messages although we cannot guarantee to respond to them as email is the most effective way of communication. Please send mail and contracts back any day and not by registered mail. By emailing us we can help you more effectively and you are helping us to focus on producing more mental health literature. We speak on the phone when important and meet in person if appropriate and time permits.

If you wish to write to us make sure you include your phone number, full address and email address. We do not accept manuscripts posted to us and do not guarantee to respond to written letters. Email is the best way to contact us. Our address is below
Chipmunkapublishing
Quay House
2 Admirals Way
Marsh Wall
London
United Kingdom
E14 9XG

Emergency Help Needed?

Chipmunkapublishing is a publisher and although we are able to give people a voice we are not a counselling service. If you are looking for Emergency help then please seek appropriate professional advice. 

Code of Conduct 

We expect people to be reasonable and professional in their communication with us and about us. The company will not tolerate inappropriate, defamatory, or bullying behaviour towards itself, our staff or volunteers. We will prosecute if necessary.