Publish With Us | Submit Your Manuscript | Team Shaw Caribbean Press

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Tell us about your book.

Submitting a manuscript to Team Shaw Caribbean Press takes about ten minutes. You fill out a short intake form. We score the manuscript against the six-dimension Manuscript Readiness Rubric. We send you a written readiness assessment within five business days, plus a recommendation for the right path forward. There is no charge for the assessment, and there is no obligation to continue. If your manuscript is not ready for a full package yet, we will tell you what to work on and how the GYD 25,000-per-month subscription tier can get it there.

The Manuscript Readiness Rubric.

The rubric scores a manuscript across six dimensions. Each dimension is scored from one to five, where one means "needs significant development before any further work" and five means "publication-ready in this dimension". The maximum is thirty.

Concept clarity. Whether the central idea of the book is clear, defensible, and distinct from books that already exist.

Structure. Whether the manuscript has a coherent arc, with chapters that serve the whole and a beginning, middle, and end that hold.

Voice. Whether the author's voice on the page is consistent, distinctive, and appropriate to the audience.

Evidence. For nonfiction, whether claims are supported with credible sources, examples, or first-person authority. For memoir, whether the lived experience comes through in scenes rather than summary.

Audience fit. Whether the book is written for a real audience that can be reached and sold to, with a clear answer to the question "who is this book for".

Editorial polish. Whether the prose is at the level a professional editor can refine, rather than rebuild.

A score of eighteen or higher qualifies the manuscript for any tier engagement. A score of twenty-four or higher qualifies the manuscript for the Shaw Authority Package, which is positioned for executive authors writing thought-leadership and memoir at the highest production tier. A score below eighteen routes the author to the subscription tier first, where coaching brings the manuscript to a publishable floor before any production engagement begins.

We send the rubric assessment in writing, with notes on every dimension and a recommendation on which tier or pathway fits best. The assessment is yours regardless of whether you continue with us. If you take it to another publisher, that is fine. The rubric was built to be portable.

Submit your manuscript.

The intake form below asks for the basics about you, your book, and what tier you are considering. There is a file upload field if you want to share the manuscript with the submission. If you would rather send the manuscript by email after we acknowledge the form, that works too. Either path leads to the same readiness assessment.

If you would rather submit by email, write to submissions@tscpress.net with your manuscript attached, plus a short note that answers the form fields above. We acknowledge every submission within one business day in Guyana time.

What happens next.

Intake.

You submit the form or email submissions@tscpress.net. We acknowledge within one business day. If the form was light on detail, we may write back with two or three specific follow-up questions before the rubric scoring begins.

Readiness assessment.

A senior editor scores the manuscript against the six rubric dimensions and writes the assessment. You receive the assessment as a PDF within five business days of intake, with the score, the dimension-by-dimension notes, and a recommendation on which tier or pathway fits. No charge.

Discovery call.

If the assessment recommends a tier, you book a free thirty-minute discovery call to talk through the project, the timeline, and the milestone schedule. If the assessment routes you to the subscription tier first, the call is still on offer, focused on what the subscription will work on with you.

Book a discovery call.

Discovery calls are thirty minutes, conducted on Google Meet, scheduled at a time that works in your timezone. The call is free. There is no sales pitch and no pressure to commit. Most calls end with a clear next step and a written follow-up the same day.

Frequently asked questions.

What is the manuscript readiness rubric?

A six-dimension scoring tool we use to assess whether a manuscript is ready for a production engagement. The six dimensions are concept clarity, structure, voice, evidence, audience fit, and editorial polish. Each scores one to five, for a maximum of thirty. Eighteen and above qualifies for any tier engagement. Twenty-four and above qualifies for the Shaw Authority Package. Below eighteen routes to the subscription tier for coaching first. We send the assessment in writing, free, regardless of whether you continue with us.

Do you accept manuscripts that are not yet finished?

Yes. Many of the books we work on come in as partial drafts, outlines, or even a chapter plus a strong concept document. Submit what you have. The rubric scoring works on incomplete manuscripts by flagging which dimensions cannot yet be assessed. The recommendation back to you will usually be a subscription engagement that gets the rest of the manuscript drafted under coaching, then a tier package once the draft is complete.

What if you reject my manuscript?

We rarely reject outright. The rubric routes most below-threshold manuscripts to the subscription tier rather than declining the relationship. The cases where we do decline are projects we cannot do well, such as genres where we lack the editorial expertise, or material that conflicts with our editorial standards. In those cases the rubric assessment is still yours to keep and use elsewhere, and we will, where we can, point you to a publisher or editor better suited to the work.

How long does it take from manuscript to published book?

Digital Debut runs eight to twelve weeks from contract signing to listings live. Professional Launch runs twelve to sixteen weeks. Authority Standard runs sixteen to twenty weeks. The Shaw Authority Package, which includes structured interviews and ghostwriting, runs twenty to twenty-six weeks depending on the author's availability for the interview sessions. Each tier's full milestone schedule is on the package detail page, with the slip-credit terms from the author rights agreement applied at every milestone.

Want to compare packages first?

If you would rather see the packages and pricing before submitting, the full price ladder is on the packages page. Every price is published. No discovery call required to find out what something costs.

See our packages

Team Shaw Caribbean Press is a registered Guyana publishing house. An imprint within the La Caribeña News and EICCIO Advisors group. Adopter of the Independent Book Publishers Association's eleven-point hybrid publisher criteria.