First contact

If you are a writer contacting Rocky Mountain Books for the first time, send us a query letter explaining your project and, if possible, an outline and sample chapter. If we wish to examine your entire manuscript, we will contact you. We regret that we cannot otherwise respond to author queries unless they are accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Sample material will not be returned unless sufficient postage is included. Phone queries are also welcome.

Preparing your manuscript

Your manuscript will be imported as electronic data into a desktop publishing program. Following this, "global styles" will be applied to the entire manuscript, a process that formats the manuscript into the final book form. These global styles include text aligning, paragraph indents, bolding, underlining, italicizing and centering titles and subtitles, the design and lay-out of tables, indices and appendices, and more. So, do not format your manuscript in any way. Any formatting you do will have to be removed manually; this not only takes valuable time, it may also lead to mistakes that remain undetected until it is too late (i.e. after the reviews are in).

• Back-up your work regularly.
• Do not type two spaces between sentences. Desktop publishing programs use proportional typesetting, and so appropriate sentence-spacing is done automatically.
• Do not use tabs or otherwise indent at the beginning of paragraphs (you may, however, wish to place a carriage/hard return after each paragraph in order to make proofreading easier).
• Do not use full capitalization for either titles, subtitles or emphasis within paragraphs - this will all be done using the global styles.
• Do not use bold, italic, underline, shadow or outline - use only normal text. Again, global styles will take care of the appropriate formatting.
• Place a running header or footer on all pages specifying the page number and the section or chapter to which the page belongs.
• Place punctuation inside double quotation marks (e.g. New York is the "Big Apple." not New York is the "Big Apple".).
• Left justify all text. Do not justify, right justify, force justify or centre justify any text.
• When providing data in columns, do not align columns using the spacebar on your keyboard. Instead, place one tab between each column of data for every line of text. If this does not provide a clear picture on-screen, do not include more tabs. Instead, provide us with a print-out illustrating the proper format.
• For distances and heights give both metric and imperial measurements.
• For temperatures use Celsius.

Maps & photos

• Discuss format for maps with the publisher before starting work on them.
• Insert map and photo references into the manuscript at appropriate locations on a separate line.
• Contact us if you intend to use a digital camera for your photographs.

Submitting your manuscript

• You may submit your manuscript on 3.5" floppy disks, zip disks, CDs or as email attachments. If you have large files to send we can provide you with an ftp site to upload them to.
• Microsoft Word is best. Check with us if using other word processors.
• Name your disk (your last name is best) and label the disk case.
• Create one electronic folder for each book chapter, placing all the files (one or more) for a chapter within the appropriate chapter folder. For front matter (i.e. preface, foreword, acknowledgments, dedication, table of contents, introduction) create a folder titled "front matter." For end matter (i.e. conclusion, epilogue, appendices, indices, bibliographies, glossaries) create a folder titled "end matter."
• Retain your own backup copy of your manuscript and store it in a safe place (e.g. your safety-deposit box if you have one). Do not simply keep your manuscript on your hard drive, or back it up with a paper copy only-hard drives are prone to failure, and paper copies must be re-input into the computer.
• If you cannot deliver your disk or CD in person, mail it in a padded and water-tight envelope labelled "do not bend" and "do not expose to magnetic fields."

In addition to your manuscript, provide on the same medium a file titled "author bio," which should include:

• your full name and exact date of birth
• your current home address (including your postal code) and your phone number (both home and work, and fax if you have one)
• your citizenship status (i.e. Canadian citizen, landed immigrant, or non-Canadian)
• a brief personal history highlighting those points most relevant to your role as author of this particular book
• if applicable, a list of your past publishing credits

If you are submitting maps and/or drawings with your manuscript, do not send your originals. Store originals in a safe place and send us copies only. We will notify you when we need the originals. Maps and drawings are best sent in a water-tight mailing tube if they cannot be delivered in person.

If your book is to contain photographs, it is important to discuss the medium (slides, prints) with us at the earliest possible date. Do not send us original photographs; we will ask for originals only when we require them.

Contact Information

Rocky Mountain Books
Editorial Office
406-13 Ave NE
Calgary, Alberta T2E 1C2
Phone: (403) 249-9490
Fax: (403) 249-2968