Have an old manuscript that cannot find a home? Although we generally work with guided ghostwriters, if you have already written a short story, novella, or full-length romance novel that has not found an outlet, you may want to consider submitting it to IC Romance under our Unguided Ghost program. In the Unguided Ghost Program, we are looking for original romance-genre manuscripts with romantic plotlines and a strong female central character, from teen to retiree, across any geographic region or time period, and/or from any walk of life.
Unlike the Guided Ghost program, where ghostwriters are given very specific guidelines on what to write, in the Unguided Ghost program, you are free to choose the subject and context of work, and submit it as a ghostwriter. We offer this program in light of the fact that some or all of your work may, by chance, fit into an existing or future project that a publisher needs to see come to fruition.
However, IC Romance only accepts submissions directly from writers who are willing to submit their work on a "ghost" basis. We do not accept manuscripts from agents, resellers, or representatives of authors. If you wish to have your work published under your name (i.e. not as a ghostwriter), you should not submit it to IC Romance. We cannot write contracts that give the writer on-going rights or royalties on their work or derivatives of their work, nor can we guarantee that all or some of the title will ever go into print; or, if it does go into print, it will not be under your legal name, or in the form of its original submission (i.e. we will consider your submissions to be ghostwritten). If the work is accepted after submission, we offer a one-time nominal payment covering all rights to the work and its derivatives, across all publishing and media formats.
This program is best suited to writers who want to earn an up-front nominal payment for their work, and do not want or need for their legal names to be associated with the work or derivatives of the work. It may also be appropriate for writers who have an old manuscript that will not likely find a home with traditional publishing outlets. All works must be original to the writer submitting the work and be free of any copyrights not held by the writer/submitter. We define "romance" very broadly, covering all genres, sexual orientations, and periods in history.
Only complete manuscripts will be considered for the Unguided Ghost program. The content of your manuscript should be descriptive and artfully written. Special attention should be paid to background details, such as the time in history, location, sounds, smells, etc. International and exotic locations are ideal. Again, we define "romance" very broadly, covering all genres, sexual orientations, settings, and periods in history. Unguided ghost submissions should be appropriate for at least one of the following genres:
When submitting a manuscript, please indicate the genre that best describes your work, so we can quickly process the submission.
By submitting to our Unguided Ghost program, we guarantee that your original manuscript will neither be published under your name, nor the name of an existing writer who might take credit for your work. Rather, this program is for writers who desire anonymity and are not concerned with how or whether their work is published. It is for writers who simply love to write romance for the sake of writing romance, whether or not the work sees the public light of day. Since your manuscript will be submitted as a work of a ghostwriter, IC Romance may edit, modify and/or combine with it with other projects in its pipeline. If any part or all of your manuscript appears in print, it will appear under a fictitious pseudonym. If you are interested in retaining any rights to your work or derivatives or your work, then do not submit to IC Romance.
IC Romance
c/o Submissions Editor
3525 Del Mar Heights Road, #905
San Diego, CA 92130
USA
If your manuscript is accepted, then we will contact you via e-mail with a contract for you to print, sign, and mail back to us.
Upon receipt of your signed contract, we will deposit the agreed-upon funds into your PayPal account. The amounts paid for manuscripts vary, but these typically represent a nominal sum. If you feel that your work has high economic potential, you should fist consider submitting it to traditional romance novel outlets.