Writing a book takes time, nerve and a reason you can return to when the work gets difficult. You do not need all the answers at the beginning. Start with what you want to explore, who you hope to reach and what you already have. We can help you shape the next step.
Start with a sentence, not a title
Try this sentence: this book exists so that [a particular reader] can [do, understand or feel something]. It does not have to be perfect. Working on that sentence helps you move from a broad subject toward a book with a purpose.
SPH reads that sentence before it reads a sample. An application that only says “my life story” or “a novel about society” tells us nothing we can work with. An application that says who the reader is, and what will be different for them when they close the last page, is already a professional document.
Six movements
- Name the book in one sentence — reader and change, not theme.
- Decide the form: memoir, argument, textbook, novel, children’s, bilingual. Form is a promise to the reader about how the pages behave.
- Build an outline you can argue with. If a chapter cannot defend its existence, it is a diary entry.
- Write. Or, if the material is yours and the hours are not, work with a writer. That is a publishing decision, not a moral failing.
- Read it as a stranger in Kathmandu would — someone who does not owe you kindness.
- Bring it to a publisher through Start a book. Do not shop a first draft to ten houses at once and call that a strategy.
If you cannot write it yourself
Plenty of books that should exist in Nepal are stuck in people who have the life, the research or the argument and not the hours. SPH can develop a manuscript from conversation, notes, recordings and existing fragments. That work is sometimes called ghostwriting. We will say it plainly, and we will agree in writing how you are credited before sentences are drafted.
The named author is a fact we print on the title page, not a costume. If the book is yours in substance, it can carry your name. If it is a collaboration, the colophon says so. We do not invent a literary persona to make a client look like someone they are not.
Language
Nepali, English, or both. A bilingual book is two production problems, not one book with a second column. If the thought lives in Nepali, write in Nepali. Translating a book into English so that it might travel is a later decision, and a different budget. SPH will not tell you to abandon Nepali to look international. A Nepal that thinks in its own voice includes the languages that voice already uses.
What to bring to Start a book
- The one-sentence reason the book should exist.
- An outline, even if it is ugly.
- A sample: a chapter, a scene, a lecture, a set of notes. Something we can hear.
- Whether you want to write it, or want it written with you.
- Any constraint that is real: a university requirement, a date, a language, a private circulation.
Questions
I have never written a book. Can I still apply?
Yes. Tell us what you want to write and share what you have, even if it is an idea or an outline. We can discuss the reader, the purpose and the support you need to develop it.
Will SPH steal my idea?
Your unpublished work deserves care. Share only what you are comfortable sending at this stage. You control access to your Drive document, and you can ask us about confidentiality and the agreement before sharing sensitive material.
Can you write my book for me?
Yes, when the substance is yours and the arrangement is written down. Start with the application. Email sammanpublishinghouse@gmail.com only if the form cannot hold the question.
How long does it take to write a book?
The time depends on the material, research, writing support and revisions your book needs. Once we understand the scope, we can discuss a schedule and the decisions you will need to make along the way.
Tell us the sentence. We read every application.
Start a book