ALL IN Adventure Stories

Story Guidelines

An ALL IN Adventure Story is an inspirational, true story about people experiencing extraordinary adventures that also share a lesson that they learned and that can benefit others. It is a story that creates excitement and enthusiasm. These stories are personal and often filled with emotion and drama. They are filled with vivid images created by using the five senses. In some stories, the readers feel that they are actually in the scene with the people. Stories may also include an element of people extending themselves, or performing an act of service or courage to help another person.

ALL IN Adventure stories are written in the first person and have a beginning, middle and an end. The stories often close with a punch, creating emotion, rather than simply talking about it. They are exciting and have an element of overcoming significant challenges or seemingly impossible situations. Beyond that, they leave readers with a sense of inspiration and a lesson or a question that they can apply to their own lives. A good story evokes a sense of empowerment, awe, wonder and inspiration, and may evoke tears or laughter. During the most intense part of the story people may feel anxious or incredulous – they may fear for the life of the protagonist.

Guidelines for an ALL IN Adventure story

  1. Tell an exciting, heartwarming or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Your story should be written in the first person and should be about yourself or someone close to you.
  2. Tell your story in a way that will make the reader laugh, cry, get goose bumps, say “Whoa!” or “Woohoo!”
  3. The story should start “in the action” and draw in the reader. Do not start your story with an introduction about what you are going to say, or end with a concluding paragraph about what you just said.
  4. Don’t be afraid to speak from the heart. We do let you use a pen name for your story if you do not want to use your real name.
  5. Don’t try fancy moves with tenses. Writing in the present tense about something that happened in the past rarely works.
  6. Keep your story to 5,000 words or less. Tighten, tighten, tighten!
  7. Your story must be true. No fiction, no creative writing.
  8. You must include a brief “Epiclogue” at the end of your story (approx. 200 – 500 words). An Epiclogue is a way to share further learnings or aspects of the story. It is an opportunity to offer insights, lessons learned, questions to contemplate that help the reader apply the learnings to his or her own life, or just close the loop. Please read the first edition of ALL IN Adventure Stories for examples.

What an ALL IN Adventure story IS NOT:

  1. A sermon, an essay or eulogy.
  2. An “as told to” story written by you for someone else. If you ghost-write a story for someone, we thank you for helping that person share his or her story. That person’s name will be listed as the author and he or she can acknowledge your help in the bio section.
  3. A term paper, thesis, letter or journal entry.
  4. About politics or controversial issues.
  5. A biography or testimonial.
  6. A journalistic article about a third party that reads like a newspaper article.

A few more tips about submitting

  1. The only way to submit your stories to us is via our website. If you have any problems when trying to fill out the form and submit your work, please contact us at: info@granddynamics.com. Responses usually take several days, so please be patient.
  2. We cannot help you with your personal computer problems. If you have questions, such as, “How do I paste my story into the submission form?”, please ask a friend or relative, not us.
  3. Please submit only stories that have not been previously published. The only exception to this is if your work has only been published in a small local publication with limited circulation or on your own blog.
  4. Please do not send us any book manuscripts, unless through a literary agent, as these will be automatically discarded. Also, we do not accept title ideas from the public. If we receive any, they will be discarded and will not be shown to an editor.

We do not pay for submissions or the stories we publish, but you will have the opportunity to be a published author along with other amazing people who are inspiring others to live with more adventure in their lives.

What happens after I submit my story?

Please be patient after you press the SUBMIT button. Wait for the next screen to come up with a message that says: “SUBMISSION SUCCESSFUL!” This is your confirmation that we have received your story and that it has been entered into our database. You will also receive an email confirmation. If you don’t see the email, please check your Marketing and SPAM folders. 

How will you know if your story is selected? We will advise you within 90 days of submitting your story. If you have not heard from us within 90 days, please reach out to info@granddynamics.com to inquire.

It can take many months or even a few years for an ALL IN Adventure Stories book to be completed. Please be patient, as the selection and editing of stories is a time-consuming process. Please do not contact us to ask for an update about your story unless you need to know whether we are considering it because another publisher is interested in it too.

If we choose your story for a future edition of ALL IN Adventure Stories or any of our other projects, we will notify you by e-mail and request your permission to print it. We never publish anything without written permission from the author, and we get your approval for the inspirational quote that we put at the top of each story and also for any edits we make.

If your e-mail address changes after you submit your story, be sure to let our us know by emailing info@granddynamics.com.

If we publish your story, you will become part of the ALL IN Adventure Stories family and will be entitled to buy copies of your books from us at the wholesale price plus shipping. You will also receive our monthly newsletter that is sent exclusively to our published writers, with advance notice of new books and other special ALL IN events.

If your story is selected to be published in one of our ALL IN Adventure Stories books, you will be asked to sign our standard permission release agreement. That agreement asks for non-exclusive rights to publish your story. This means that you retain ownership of your story but you grant us the rights to publish it and use it again in any future ALL IN Adventure Stories book title or any ALL IN Adventure Stories product.