Publisher looking for historical fiction books and authors

[Jonw]

My name is Jonathan Wright and I work for Pen & Sword Books, one of the UK's largest military history publishers. We're interested in launching a historical fiction imprint and are currently on the look out for new authors. We're interested in all periods from ancient history to present day. Books can be about any aspect of history and do not necessarily have to contain a military theme. If anyone has written a book and would like to submit it for consideration, we'd be delighted to hear from you. We're also interested in titles that are now out of print, so if you know of any classics that you would like to see back in print, please let me know. My email address is [email protected].

[DianeL]

What exactly is it you need to hear? I've grown very accustomed to the rules of querying agents, and am unfamiliar with reaching out directly to a publisher, so am curious exactly what you would expect. My boilerplate query tends to consist of: brief letter, bio, synopsis, and some quantity of excerpt, anything from five pages to fifty-five pages or three chapters, based on guidelines from specific agents. What would Pen and Sword expect to see - and what would the expectations be for an as yet un-agented (Stateside) author?

My own work is called "The Ax and the Vase" - the story of Clovis I, first Catholic king in Europe and first King of France. Querying continues apace, with some extremely intriguing interest at the moment, but I am fascinated by your introduction.