KEY POINTS

1. We are interested in publishing all types of books, but we are particularly interested in monographs, student texts, and works of reference for practitioners. We do publish edited collections, but it is now our policy to severely limit the number of such collections published annually because of the difficulties we face marketing such works.

2. We will not consider a manuscript or proposal which has been simultaneously submitted to other publishers; if you are making a submission to more than one publisher then this must be disclosed at the time the submission is made.

In exceptional circumstances we may agree to consider a proposal which is also being submitted to another publisher, and will decide at the time of submission whether or not we wish to commence our own review process. In these circumstances we will only commence our review process if the author undertakes to accept our offer of publication without unreasonable delay.

3. We undertake to complete our review process in a timely fashion and to not keep authors waiting unnecessarily.

4. We are often asked if we have any objection to parts or the whole of a book being ‘pre-published’ (i.e. before the book appears) on SSRN, on the author’s own webpage, in a university repository, or in scholarly journals (print and digital). The answer is that while we recognise the temptation and pressure to ‘pre-publish’ in this fashion, in practice, for a variety of reasons it is very off-putting for us if all or part of a manuscript has been pre-published on the web or in a journal. We therefore generally decline to publish material which has been ‘pre-published’ elsewhere, and require authors to disclose at the outset if any part of their manuscript has been, or is in the process of being, ‘pre-published’ elsewhere.

MANUSCRIPTS

If your manuscript is written, we will usually require the following:
1. The manuscript, saved as a Word, Wordperfect, rtf or PDF file, supplied as an e-mail attachment. Please use a legible font (10pt or larger)
2. A brief author CV.
3. A critical literature review, analysing the relationship between the book and other similar or potentially competitive books either published or in the course of being written.
4. A note detailing any revisions you intend to make, the timetable for completing the revisions, and the estimated final word count.
5. In the case of a PhD thesis we will also need to see a copy of your examiners’ reports.

If the manuscript is not yet written and you are seeking a contract to write it, we will usually require the following:
1. A table of contents
2. A brief description of the book (150-300 words)
3. A critical literature review, analysing the relationship between the book you are planning to write and other similar or potentially competitive books either published or in the course of being written
4. A brief author CV.
5. Your timetable for completing the book, and the estimated final word count.

What will happen to your book proposal?
All book proposals and manuscripts are initially assessed in-house. This initial assessment focuses on the commercial viability of your proposed book, its ‘fit’ with our list, its quality, and the availability of space within our schedule. This part of the process can take anything from 1 day to 2 weeks, depending on a variety of factors, but we will let you know as soon as possible, and generally within 2 weeks, whether or not we wish to take the proposal to the next stage. Bearing in mind that we receive between 800-1000 proposals annually, of which only 80-90 are accepted, 90% of prospective authors are bound to be disappointed.

Peer Reviewing
Manuscripts and book proposals are assessed anonymously by a panel of independent reviewers who are experienced, recognised experts. We generally require two positive assessments, but in some circumstances will seek additional reports. This part of the process can be time-consuming because we do not have control over our reviewers and have to allow them time to complete their work, while recognising that they are usually juggling other responsibilities and work commitments. We generally try to complete this part of the process in 3 months, but occasionally the process can take much longer. During this time we will keep you informed of progress.

Following the review process we will normally send you the reports written by our reviewers and ask you to respond. The reports may contain suggestions for revision, re-organisation, abbreviation or enlargement of your manuscript, and you will be expected to give serious consideration to these suggestions.

We will consider the reviewers’ reports and your response to them and at that point will decide whether or not to make a positive recommendation to our publishing committee. Our publishing committee meets frequently throughout the year. It is usual, but not inevitable, for our publishing committee to accept our positive recommendation. At its meeting our committee will review the assessor’s reports, and examine the proposal from the point of view of the market, proposed price, title, format, length and so on. If the committee agrees that the manuscript/proposal should be accepted then we will notify you of this and make a written contractual offer within a week of the committee meeting. Prospective authors are expected to accept or reject this offer without unreasonable delay.

If, following review of your manuscript, the proposal is rejected, the script will be retained and destroyed after a further month unless you request its return in writing.