How an outside idea reaches a company, in its own words · checked 2026-10-29
How to submit a book to Simon & Schuster
Only through an agent
Simon & Schuster accepts no unsolicited or unagented submissions. Its Submission Selector helps literary agents find the right editor for a client. It picked up Colleen Hoover’s self-published Slammed and Hugh Howey’s Wool.
“Simon & Schuster does not accept unsolicited or unagented submissions.”
“Please note: The Simon & Schuster Submission Selector is a database intended for use by literary agents to find the best Simon & Schuster editor to submit their clients’ projects to.”
What it has bought from outside
2012
Slammed and Point of Retreat, self-published novels that had reached the New York Times list from Colleen Hoover
“Atria Books picked up the novels and republished them on August 10, 2012.” en.wikipedia.org
2013
Wool (print-only rights to the self-published collection) from Hugh Howey around US$ 500,000
“By March 2013, Howey signed a print-only deal for around US$ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 690,000 in 2025) with Simon & Schuster, to distribute print copies of the initial collection, Wool, to book retailers in the US and Canada;” en.wikipedia.org
