Updated July 6th, 2023: They recently updated their submission guidelines and are now open to Thrillers of all types, though with an emphasis on Action, Political, and Military Thrillers.
Aethon Books is a print and eBook publisher that focuses on Science Fiction and Fantasy. They are open to all sub-genres within these genres including Hard Sci-fi, Epic Fantasy, Space Opera, Military SF, Alt/History, and Time Travel. This includes books for young adults, although they haven’t published many yet.
One of their focuses is on the audio book market and getting good voice actors to record their stories. This is a good sign, as the audio market is rapidly growing and there are a lot of opportunities within it currently.
They print on demand, and even though they have a distributor, it’s Ingram, so you aren’t as likely find them in brick and mortar stores on the shelf, but it is possible to order their books.
Their covers are well designed and appealing within the context of genre. You can get a feel for what they have previously published here, but they very clearly favor series. To learn more about the publishing team behind Aethon you can go here.
They are only interested in publishing novel length work. They say they offer some of the highest royalty rates in the business but they don’t say what their royalty rates are. They do not offer advances but they seem to have good clear marketing strategies, which is always a plus.
When you submit to them they want the first 50 pages of your manuscript, which is an unusual number. The manuscripts they publish start at 60,000 words in length although 80,000 plus is preferable.
To learn more or submit go here.
Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and spends much of her time researching manuscript publishers. You can follow her on Facebook here.
