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Personal Information

**Please note, the sections marked with asterisks (*) are required information. Please be sure to complete all required information in full before returning the Questionnaire.

Contact Information

Alternative Contact

Please provide the contact details for another person to contact in the event we don’t hear from you for an extended period of time. It may be that we may not hear from you due to ill health, changing contact details, etc, and it will help in preventing delays to publication.

Author Information
This is the author biography. Approximately 50-100 words, for inside the book and for promotional materials. Please write this as the third person

  • Please provide a picture of yourself for use on our website and for press and communications. Please note, this photo may or may not be used in your book, depending on the genre and industry standards.
  • Please ensure this is of a good resolution/quality to showcase yourself professionally.
  • Please avoid webcam, passport or poorly lit photographs. Ideally it should be just head-and-shoulders with a reasonably blank background.

Book Information

It is recommended that titles should be short and catch the reader’s attention. Please try to limit the title and subtitle (combined) to 60 characters, excluding spaces.
Has this book been previously published or is it part of a series, in which the other books have been published elsewhere? If yes, please provide further information.
The ages of readers who your book is meant to appeal to the most. Please choose ONE of the following categories:

Let us know the category you believe your book belongs in.
if your book is for an age in the range of 0 – 11 years, it can only be a children’s category. If your book is for a target audience between 12 – 17 years, it can only be a young category and above 17 years in adult category.

Book Category

Literature
If your book is non-fiction, please advise of the main topic of the book. If you are unsure of possible topics, please see here
Please write a blurb that will be used on the back cover of the book. This should not be a synopsis, but rather a hook to entice the reader and should be between 150-250 words.
Please write any dedications that you would like to be included in the book. These may be people who you have written your manuscript for or who may have inspired your work.
Please write any acknowledgments that you would like to be included in the book. Acknowledgments are those parties (people, organizations, etc) who you would like to thank for their assistance in the book reaching publication.
Please note, this is not relevant if you have an illustrated book. This applies if, for example, you have a memoir that may have several pictures throughout but is mainly text.
If applicable and formerly agreed in your contract to be included, please read our copyright information notice on page 7 of this document carefully.
Any photographs need to be provided as JPEG or TIFF files of at least 300 dpi resolution.
If you cannot provide electronic files of the photographs, you can either post the artwork to us so that we can digitize it
For large file transfers, we recommend you send us the artwork via WeTransfer.com
If you need any further specification advice, please e-mail us at production-usa@austinmacauley.com.

Important Notice Regarding Copyright

We would like to draw your attention to the issue of copyright laws and also to ‘Clause 6’ of the publishing contract.

Clarification
Permission to use all text reproduced from
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines
  • Websites
  • Reference journals
  • Published books and speeches
  • Lyrics from songs in the last seventy years;s
must be obtained before publication for use in a new book.

Please note, if information is obtained from the internet, it DOES NOT automatically fall within “public domain”. Very little of the information available online is considered to truly fall within the public domain. from the internet or any other source in the public domain still needs to be brought to our attention for us to determine if they should be referenced.
Information about public bodies and people also need to be dealt with due care as the way they are referred to within the book could risk defamation or libel.
Permission is also required for any images from the internet, published works or personal illustrators to be used as illustration or artwork, both internally and/or on cover.
All references and proof of permission need to be submitted during the production process to alleviate any delay in the publishing process.
It is stated within the contract that any monies owing for copyright licenses will be at the cost of the author and not the publisher. However, The PUBLISHER will apply for written permission from the copyright holder on behalf of the AUTHOR, to re-produce such copyrighted material at the AUTHOR’s expense

If applicable, e.g. photographs, song lyrics, poetry, quotes. The author is responsible for supplying all information required to enable us to secure copyright permission relevant in, or on the cover of, their publication.

Cover Information

Part of a Series
If this book is part of a series that has already been published in part, please provide the other cover designs so we might be able to keep within the same style.
Cover Image Provided by Yourself
  • If you are providing an image for the front cover, please ensure that the image is of a high quality and that it is free of copyright and suitable for use.
  • Please check with us regarding the size your book is likely to be, as there are several possibilities.
  • If it is digital artwork, we require this to be CMYK coloring, of at least 300 dpi, in .psd format (with all layers and fonts included). We can also accept covers designed in InDesign, as long as a complete packaged file is sent with all links included.
  • If you are simply sending an image for us to use within the cover design, rather than the whole design, please send the image file in TIFF format.
  • If the artwork is physical artwork, you can either post the artwork to us so that we can digitize it, or you can send us scans of the artwork. The scans must be at least 300 dpi, but the higher the resolution, the better. Ideally, the scanned files should be in TIFF files.
  • For large file transfers, we recommend you send us the artwork via WeTransfer.com
  • If you need any further specification advice, please e-mail us at production-usa@austinmacauley.com.

*Please let us know of the idea you have for the cover. Along with the image or scene you wish to be on the cover, please also consider the colors, themes, feel and overall appearance of this. We’d like you to keep in mind that a cover should not tell the story of the book – that is the job of the text – but entice the reader to it.
Do please bear in mind that between a third and a half of the cover is needed for the title and author’s name and is thoroughly recommended not to over-complicate or clutter the design. Less is more!.
Please either write a description of how you envisage your cover, or draw a rough sketch in this box
*If you don’t have a cover idea
If you cannot reveal your book content/story in the blurb, please give us a brief summary of the book content/story in order to let our designers get a clear idea about the cover:
Our Designers are not able to read the entire book, so are reliant upon your guidance.
You can also provide reference covers that you like the look of for books of a similar genre to your book.

Illustration Information

The number of illustrations, as per the contract. Normally, this is between 8 and 12 illustrations.
Please note, many of our contracts stipulate UP TO a number of illustrations, but if the layout of your book is better suited to a lesser number, that is fine.
What do you think the most important thing to convey visually in this story is
(example: whimsy, fun, fear, dread, a sense of home, a sense of isolation)?
Do you have a preference on a color pallet your illustrations are done in
(ex: pastels, primary colors, pinks and yellows)? If so, please specify.
Please attach any specific image/illustration or theme that appeal to you. This will help our illustrators when they are working on your sketches.

Characters
Please state the characters that are to be illustrated. We find that simple, bold, characters are the most effective and appealing to children. We’d like you to bear in mind that our illustrators work at their best when given artistic freedom:
Are all the main characters of your story human? If so, move down to the next section. If not, please state
  1. Which character/s is not human?
  2. What kind of animal/non-human is your character?
  3. What color is the animal/non-human?
  4. Is this a good creature, a bad creature, a cute creature, something else?
For the each of the characters who are human, please state:
  1. The age of the character
  2. Skin/hair/eye color, if relevant
  3. Size of the character, if relevant
  4. Any defining characteristics of these characters.
Illustration List
In order to support our illustrations department in producing your illustrations please could you provide us with a list of descriptions for each illustration you would like us to produce.
Please note, our illustrators are not able to read the entire book, so are reliant upon your guidance. We appreciate that some of our illustrated books may be quite short, however, sometimes this means there isn’t enough information about what characters or settings are meant to look like.
Please consider the following:
  • Layout/number of illustrations - Many of our contracts state you can have up to a certain number of illustrations, but some books are better suited to a lesser number of illustrations for a better flow of reading.
  • Spacing through the story - Illustrations should be regularly spaced according to the text; be conscious of having too much text between illustrations of crowding a page.
  • The story - do things occur within the story that aren’t explicitly stated in the text, but you want the scene to be illustrated - we’ll need more information about such scenes.
  • Explaining your vision - It’s better to give us some information to work from in order to create your vision so as to minimize the number of amendments that may be required to create your vision
  • Late stage amendments - If you require any changes in the illustrations, please make sure you discuss that during the initial stages of the sketching. Once the illustrations have been rendered, only minor tweaks can be considered.
When describing your preferred scenes, please try to provide the following for each scene:
  • The setting where the scene is taking place
  • The characters in the scene
  • How are the characters looking, feeling or behaving?
  • What is actually happening in the scene
There is space provided on the following page for your illustration list in words. Alternatively, there is also space for you to concept sketch each scene if that’s what you would prefer.

If you would prefer to draw what each scene should look like, please feel free to draw concept sketches for each scene and upload it.
I have read and completed this Author Questionnaire:
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