Mask02.gif (1603 bytes)GUIDELINES
FOR WRITERS

Eldridge Publishing is always looking for new plays and musicals. Here are a few helpful tips if you're thinking about submitting.

  1. Please submit plays and musicals suitable for performance by community theatres and junior and senior high schools. (Separate guidelines are available for our religious catalog. See them at Guidelines for Christian Writers Church. For musical submissions be sure to include a cassette tape of the music and lyrics and a sample of the printed score.

    We like all kinds of plays and are always open to new ideas. Generally speaking, our customers like plays with more female than male roles or flexible casting in which roles can be played by either men or women. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, however.

    We strongly recommend having your script workshopped, read, or performed. Scripts rewritten after this process are of a much higher caliber.

  2. When you submit your manuscript please include a cover letter giving us a brief description of the story of the play, its performance history, and if it has earned any awards. In addition, we would like to know a little about your writing experience.

    Also, please tell us if this is a simultaneous submission and/or if you have included a stamped postcard for us to return immediately to acknowledge receipt of your script.

  3. Our standard royalty contract is 50% of royalties and 10% of copy sales. Playwrights are paid twice a year. Outright purchase contracts are limited to extremely short pieces (such as skits) and some religious plays where no separate performance royalty is charged.

  4. We receive hundreds of manuscripts a year and want to give each careful attention and review. That's why it takes us about 2 months to respond. Be sure to include a SASE, a self-addressed, stamped envelope, so if we can't use your play you can continue to market it.

Brief questions may be addressed to us at our e-mail address, info@histage.com. We look forward to reading your work!

Address manuscripts to:

Susan Shore, Editor
Eldridge Publishing Co. Inc.
PO Box 14367
Tallahassee, FL 32317