Submit your works

Do you simply want to contact us? Please consider this specific form :

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Submitting a work to a publisher is the first step of an important process.

These following pages will guide you in order to avoid common mistakes and to optimize your chances to have your work published.

Finding a publisher is important to you, finding composers is important to us!

1. The selection

Don’t send all your production : you would kill your potential publisher. Just select one or two works.
Ask advice of other people : friends, performers. The composers is rarely the best judge of the quality of his production.
Consider that it is much easier to publish chamber music than an opera.
Do not choose minor works (you know, just to try…). If you really wish to be published, propose a work you are really proud of.

2. The check-list

Be sure the work if original. Plagiarism or “citations” of non-public works may have heavy consequences. Don’t be too postmodern in legal matters. Putting your name under the music of somebody else is very bad. Everybody hates pirats, even their mother. If you want easy money, you’d better to commit some hold-up. If you want glory, you have to be original.
Be sure the work is free. If you already have a publishing contract with another publisher, you can’t submit us the work. Even if the publisher doesn’t exist no more. In this case, a liquidator has maybe sold the publishing contract to another publisher. The situation must be absolutely clear.
Take care to the ‘hidden’ publishing contracts. Maybe a production contract (for a CD, a video, a picture) incude a publishing contract for the work. Check this carefully.
Do not forget the authors, libraittists, translators, arrangors, orchestrators etc. Those guys are reals and, if not dead for 70 years, their work is subject to copyright. Contact them before to be sure we shall not have problems.
Be sure the music is OK. Read and re-read again your work before sending it. The most problems we encounter are :
- unconsistent alterations
- unconsistent rythmic alignments
- missing pages
- unlabelled staves (which instrument plays that?)
Be sure it is finished. If not, finish it.
If yes, send it… but please don’t add or delete complete systems during the publishing process. Well, it’s normal to change some accents, to add some slurs or to correct some chords. But do not rewrite your music after having submit it to the publisher.

If we choose to publish this work, all these problems have to be fixed. So, fix them before sending your work. We will be grateful for your prevenance.

Thanks for your time, and now…

3. Preparing the stuff

You just have a manuscript? Send a copy. Never, never, never send your original manuscript for submission. The fact that your music is not engraved is absolutely not a problem. As you read above, budget is just one element amongst many others. If we think your music will fit our catalogue, we shall work and pay for it.
If you can scan your manuscript in a PDF file, please compress it under 5 Mo in order to send it via the form on a next page.
Your work is already engraved? Great, engraving is time-consuming and may be expensive. Prepare a PDF of the work and specify the software used (with the version number).
No matter what production scenario is used, the publisher should copyedit the book. This is important to ensure that quality standards are upheld. Remember that the more the author does to further the production of the book, the less involvement there is by highly skilled and experienced professionals like typographers and proofreaders. The publisher’s copyeditor will greatly help to alleviate typos, style, and consistency problems; gross errors; and many typographic and design difficulties.
Why not have a look on our engraving guidelines.
Specify the following elements for each work you submit :
- title of the work
- instruments
- number of instrumental parts needed
- credits (arranger, lyrics etc.) + are they in public domain?
- year of composition
- year of creation
- estimated duration
- support (CD, films…) using this work
- is this music engraved and, if yes, with wich software?
- eventual remarks
About yourself, don’t forget to send us your :
- name
- address
- phone, fax, email, URL (if any)
- your author’s society (if any)
- some biographical elements

If your send a parcel, include – if you have – a CD, even if the performance and the recording are bad. You may aso refer to an URL pointing for some .mp3 ou MIDI file. If the works is engraved on a computer, specify the program and join the file on a disk.
Clearly precise if you want these materials back. It happens that we can’t propose a contract when we receive the work but, if the work asthetically fits our guidelines, we consider it one or two years later. It also happens that we think the work could be welcomed by another publisher we collaborate with. In this case, we send him your materials (of course, you remains free to decline his eventual offer). For these reasons, please explicitly ask to get your material back if we can’t propose you a publishing contract.

4. Send your works

Send us a PDF file of the score (All fields are required and the PDF must not exceed 20 MB):

Full Name

Address

Country

Website

Title of the work

Instrumentation

Duration (minutes)

Composition Year

Other

Upload a PDF file

Or…

put everything in a solid envelope and send it to :

Alain Van Kerckhoven Éditeur
avenue Voltaire 181 / 23
BE-1030 Brussels
Belgium

Please, nothing special. Don’t declare a commercial value to the parcel, don’t send it as a registered mail, don’t ask a postal acknowledgment of receipt, don’t be too creative in posting your work. An old good solid envelop gives us the best chances for the future!

Now, expect 2-4 months before receiving a reply. We apologize for asking you so much patience but we cannot hurry this process.

Thank you very much in your interest in our pubishing house.