Sanmingzhi Non-fiction Literary Agency: Ongoing Submissions

New manuscripts arrive in Sanmingzhi’s submission inbox every day. For some of the more mature projects, as well as for long-term writers who have developed through our Daily Book and Short Stories programs, we prepare sample chapters, writing outlines, and author biographies, and submit them to major publishing houses while awaiting their responses.

Signing with a publisher depends partly on timing and chance, but there are also certain patterns we can identify:

• Has the author explored the subject deeply enough?
• What experiences or observations does the author possess that others do not?
• What emotions and motivations make this work something the author feels compelled to write?

What Kind of Writing Are We Looking For?

Since its founding in 2011, Sanmingzhi has remained committed to one central goal:

To turn the experiences of “ordinary people” into texts that can be read, understood, and preserved—texts that expand our understanding of the world.

These experiences may emerge from:

• The emotional life within a family
• An individual’s experience of growing up
• A distinctive professional life
• A way of living that is disappearing or being overlooked
• The sense of displacement experienced in a foreign country

The forms of nonfiction writing and publishing are also constantly expanding. They include, at minimum:

• Memoir
• Biography
• Nature writing
• Travel writing
• Science writing
• Social-science nonfiction
• Investigative journalism
• And more

Publishers are accepting an increasingly broad range of nonfiction. Every new writing style and subject has the potential to find its place.

But how can a personal experience be developed into a nonfiction work with structure, narrative tension, and public value?

Sanmingzhi provides a complete development system that includes:

• Inspiration and refinement of the central theme
• Editing and polishing of language and structure
• Long-term support throughout the writing process
• Connections to publishing channels
• Possibilities for international and cross-language circulation

What Should You Submit?

To enter this “pre-publication” development program, please submit the following:

1. A Writing Outline

This should include:

• The central theme and key questions
• The proposed structure, including chapters and narrative threads
• The estimated word count and projected completion timeline

2. One to Three Sample Chapters

Each sample should be approximately 5,000–8,000 Chinese characters. It may be any chapter of the proposed work, but it should demonstrate your narrative ability.

3. An Author Statement

Please introduce:

• Your background and experience, especially anything related to the subject of your proposed work
• Why you feel compelled to tell this story
• Your relationship to the subject matter

Please send the above materials as attachments to:

keepintouchsmz@gmail.com

What Will You Receive?

If selected, you will enter the Sanmingzhi Publishing Incubation Program.

You will:

• Join the Sanmingzhi writers’ network and become a contracted Sanmingzhi author. We do not charge any fees; Sanmingzhi receives a share only if your work is published.
• Receive in-depth editorial feedback.
• Receive structured support for writing a book-length manuscript.
• Gain access to publishing resources. We work with major publishing houses in China and regularly feature mature sample chapters in our Preview Room column.
• Receive promotional support and assistance with online and offline events after publication.

This is not a one-time submission. It is the beginning of an ongoing writing relationship.

How Do We Assess Whether a Project Can Be Published?

Structural Capacity

Can the project develop into a complete narrative system of 80,000–120,000 Chinese characters or more?

Sustained Writing Capacity

Can the author complete a first draft within six to twelve months?

Market Fit

Does the subject have:

1. A clearly identifiable readership
2. A positioning that editors and publishers can understand
3. The potential to engage with current publishing conversations

What Kind of Projects Do We Prioritize?

1. True Stories with Potential for the General Publishing Market

This may include:

• Family history, personal growth, and intergenerational relationships
• Education, healthcare, migration, and movement between urban and rural areas
• Questions of emotion and identity

2. Nonfiction with “Window onto an Industry” Value

You may work in an industry or system that is unfamiliar to the general public, allowing you to offer firsthand experience rather than secondhand observation.

3. Subjects with Cross-Cultural or International Potential

These may include:

• Overseas experiences, language transformation, and migration of identity
• Chinese stories that can be understood by readers around the world

Possible Subject Areas

The following topics may serve as references:

1. First-person nonfiction concerning society, history, a particular era, family, or related subjects.
2. Nonfiction related to a profession or specialized field, especially projects based on personal experience or accumulated interviews.
3. Nonfiction based on living in a foreign country or city for an extended period, ideally for at least one to three years.
4. Nonfiction connected to one’s hometown, particularly place-based writing beyond Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou/Shenzhen.
5. Nonfiction related to Shanghai, especially writing about contemporary Shanghai. Works may be written in either Chinese or English.
6. Writing related to education.
7. Writing related to nature and the environment.

Some publishing editors have also approached us directly with specific calls for submissions.

Submission Request from a Publishing House I

The editor is currently interested in birdwatching, parks, and questions related to education and psychology.

“I have long wanted to publish a book about parks, exploring the relationship between people and parks from the perspectives of sociology, environmental history, and other fields. This interest also grew from my own birdwatching experiences during and after the pandemic, when I came to understand how important parks are.”

Submission Request from a Publishing House II

We are looking for literary nonfiction, travel writing, reportage, and related works focusing on the Middle East as a specific and sensitive region, with a strong humanistic dimension.

The project should find an appropriate balance between the appeal of the unfamiliar and political safety. It should stimulate the curiosity of readers who are unable to travel freely around the world while avoiding geopolitical risks.

Possible directions include:

Dialogue Between Civilizations

This might explore historical and contemporary changes along the Silk Road, people-to-people exchanges between China and the Middle East, or personal reflections arising from encounters with local people. When political or religious issues are involved, writers should learn how to address them indirectly and through implication.

For reference: Guo Jianlong’s Across a Century of the Middle East.

Micro-Level Narratives

A project might focus on a group of local people, the stages of an industry, or the coexistence of different communities within a particular area, offering sustained and detailed observation.

For reference: the international edition of The Shadow of the Sun.

Sensory or Impressionistic Writing about the Middle East

This could involve immersive writing about Central Asian and Middle Eastern figures shaped by history, spices, architecture, cinema, music, desert light, and shadows.

For reference: Huang Xiaodan’s The Poet’s Fourteen.

If you are interested in submitting work on any of the subjects above, or if a publishing house would like Sanmingzhi to seek out potential projects and authors for a targeted call for submissions, please contact us directly:

Keepintouchsmz@gmail.com

Building a Foundation Before Writing a Book

If you are not yet ready to write an entire book, we recommend first using Sanmingzhi’s writing programs to build a body of sample chapters:

• Daily Book: Develop a consistent writing habit and learn to transform material into written work.
• Short Stories: Complete nonfiction pieces of short and medium length with clear narrative structures.

We have observed that authors who successfully move into the publishing stage almost always share one characteristic: they have already completed several substantial works, rather than possessing only scattered materials or fragments.

Publications

Published

​From Tide to Sea （Published）

Author: Li Zixin
Publisher: Shanghai Translation Publishing House

A nonfiction account of how a new generation of Chaoshan people leaves their hometown and enters the wider world. Beginning with an investigation into Chaozhou embroidery—a once-thriving industry that employed hundreds of thousands of people—the book explores migration, cultural exchange, and the making of home across borders.

Upcoming Publish