Why Worry About Genres?
General Guidelines Genres we publish
About Rejection Marketing of Books
How does one become an Author? Accepted Manuscript Formats

4. About Imprints
5. Visionary Fiction
6.Enviromental subjects
7. Global Transformation

Have a look at our established list and see which topic your manuscript could fit into.

Why Worry About Genres

Most publishing houses specialise in dealing with specific kinds of books. A specific kind of book or book subject is called a genre. In terms of fiction, thrillers, romance, science fiction, children’s literature etc, would all be different genres. In terms of non-fiction, travelling, cooking, sport, psychology, arts and crafts, New Age etc. are also examples of genres.

As a general rule publishing houses will only deal with books that fall into the genres they specialise in. The reason for this is that it costs a lot of money to produce and market a book and it is more cost effective to market a related list of books. If you have a manuscript and are looking for a publisher you need to do research about the publishing companies so that you know if they deal with your kind of manuscript or not. It is pointless for instance, to submit a manuscript on organic pig farming to a publisher that only publishes fantasy fiction.

There are various books that are brought out yearly listing the different publishers and literary agents and what genres they deal in. Invest in one of these books and use it. Alternatively search the Internet. It is also a good idea to scan the shelves in bookshops to get an idea of the work specific publishers do. Some publishers do not accept manuscripts directly from an author, only accepting manuscripts that are submitted by literary agents. This is the kind of information that will save you endless time in terms of submitting your manuscript to a place where there actually is a chance that it will be read and could be accepted.

The Genres Kima Global Publishes
Kima Global is a publishing house specialising in books of the Mind, Body and Spirit genre. Other terms describing this are New Age, Esoterics and most topics that are preceded by the word Alternative. As this can be confusing we have prepared the following explanation of the kinds of books we are interested in.

1. General Self Improvement
This includes anything related to practical techniques of improving self-awareness, psychic abilities, meditation, hypnosis, healing techniques, personal programming, past-life regression, personal magnetism and relationships.

2. Speciality Areas

This includes Yoga, practical esoteric's, dream work, NLP, Kabbalah, healing, massage and movement techniques, working with earth energies, divinatory systems such as the I Ching , Tarot, Runes and Numerology, meditation, angels, nature spirits, astral travel, magic, Shamanism, mystery religions, the paranormal, alternative psychology etc.

3. Business Transformation
Here we are looking mainly at books that deal with transforming business in line with a new vision for the future of humanity. This can include business coaching or wellness in business.
4. Planet, Global Healing & UFO
Any topic that deal with planetary or societal change, or issues that affect our whole society, like global warming...
Have a look at our established list and see which topic your manuscript could fit into.

About imprints

Imprints are a form of trade mark for specific genres of books not covered by a publisher's original imprint, but in which the publisher expresses an interest or for which the publisher sees a demand by the reading public and for which there is a sufficient supply of quality MSS.
Under the imprint THE POWER OF WORDS for example, we publish

4. Visionary Fiction

Visionary Fiction is fiction that deals with a vision of humanity as it could be and includes Spiritual Fiction, Inspirational and Fantasy for adult readers. The imprint will also cover story books with an alternative theme for children and young adults.

Publishing Fiction
Lately more and more fantasy / fiction novels that have a 'new age' slant have appeared on the bookshelves, but it is still one of the most difficult genres to sell to the bookshops. For publishers who mainly publish non-fiction, any work of fiction is an uncertain gamble to invest in, unless the writer is already a known figure to our readers. Many fiction manuscripts come our way, but if there is no sign that it's plot driven from the first page onwards, we are inclined to reject the manuscript. If we do take it on, and we are sufficiently sure of recovering our investment in a short run, if it does not succeed in selling in the first week or two after it has reached the bookshelves, it will never be reordered.
Any kind of creative writing has to be aggressively marketed in order for the public to be reactive. By reactively marketing we mean that like all our non-fiction titles, any new title has to have reviews from people who are relatively known, but novels must also be reviewed by known editors of popular magazines and newspapers, preferably before it reaches the bookstores.

Fiction has a very short attention period.
Today any new novel must be talked about in known book circles for it to have any success. It must have exposure on our radio and TV channels, and it is helpful if the author has a very actively visited website, a large data base, and is willing to engage (at their own cost ) a good publicist who knows the right people in the marketing game. In order to keep the momentum going the fiction author must be able to fund their own marketing campaign above what we as publishers do in terms of promotion for at least a few weeks after the book launch. If after 8 weeks the title and content of the new book still does not reach the reader's attention, it will move to the publishers back list.

Blacklist titles are only ordered by bookshops if there is a reactive response to the book, that is if people place orders at the bookshop counter That will only happen through heavy marketing, and for that the publisher or the author needs DEEP POCKETS! Kima Global does not have the marketing budget HarperCollins, or any of the big boys have, to market a new title. Let say in S.A approximately around R200.000 is spent on a new title in order to get it on a best selling list. We have our own marketing program, but that does not include what a good publicist can do due to the time and cost involved.

Under the imprint PERFECT PLANET we publish

5. Environmental subjects
Topics that deal with organic / bio-dynamic farming, permaculture, sustainable lifestyle and housing, the environment, ecology etc..

6. Global Transformation
Civil Society, New economics, New Science, topics that deal with planetary or societal change.