Author Interest

Congratulations on publishing your book! That is a huge accomplishment, and we know that it can also be an arduous and expensive process. We hope you are proud of your hard work, and we deeply appreciate that you would like to partner with FireLight Book & Candle. 

 

We value our local authors, and we want you to feel supported by our efforts to sell your book. Please keep in mind that we receive many requests each week. We are a very small team with extremely limited shelf-space in our shop. At this time, we simply do not have the capacity to say yes to everyone, but we are very thankful you would like to see your book on our shelves! 

 

We take time to evaluate each submission, which means it can take several weeks to months to respond to each author. If you have not heard from us, it means we have not yet had time to review your submission.

 

If you would like to submit your book for consideration, please read through the things we look for in our review process.

• We give priority to authors who are local to Western NC, where our shop is located. If you are outside of NC, we suggest reaching out to independent bookstores in your state.

• We do not accept books that were created with AI. If you used AI during any step of the process, such as the plotting, drafting, writing, editing, and/or cover design, please do not submit your book to us. 

• The book must be professionally edited, designed, and published. We do not accept books that have frequent grammatical errors, typos, or layout inconsistencies. The book must have an ISBN and barcode printed on the back.

• The book should be priced comparably to other works in its genre.

• The book should be a genre that we carry in the store. If you have a religious work, we suggest reaching out to Cornerstone Bookstore in Boone, NC.

• We are more likely to accept books that are available for purchase on Ingram with a standard discount (40%) and returnable. We do accept books on consignment, but it is more rare. 

• If we offer you a spot for consignment, we require a 40/60 split. You will be responsible for providing us with 2 copies of your book, and we will pay you 60% of the retail cost once your book sells. If your book does not sell after 3 months, we will contact you to pick it up. If we do not hear from you or you do not wish to pick it up, your copies will be donated after 30 days.

Once you’ve read the above, you can fill out our form here. We do not consider books that do not have an associated form submission. We also ask that you bring a non-returnable review copy of your book to the store after you’ve submitted the form. 

 

Books that are dropped off without an associated form submission will be donated after 30 days.