GUIDELINES



2505075-95250 center132715EDITOR GUIDELINESMANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION PROCESSOVERVIEWAs the editor of an essay collection you are, in a sense, managing a small publishing company of your own while overseeing your book’s development and publication. Each essay in your volume is like a miniature book. Each contributor, as author of that miniature book, will require your individual attention and guidance. As the volume editor, you will inevitably find the coordination of efforts and schedules to be more complex than you originally anticipated. In addition, because we, as the publisher, rarely have direct contact with your contributors, you will serve as the liaison among us all. Volume editors often fail to anticipate the complications they are likely to face along the way, from the conception of a project to its eventual publication. For all these reasons, it is important that you read these guidelines carefully. They have been prepared by the Press in order to help you understand your responsibilities and to smooth the process where possible.DEVELOPING THE MANUSCRIPTThe most successful essay collections are often those for which information has been shared at an early stage. The more cohesive the volume from the outset, the more likely it is to get positive reviews and to move smoothly through the editing and production process. Ideally, a clear introduction or prospectus is available to all of the contributors from the beginning. The table of contents should be thought through carefully well in advance—almost as if a single author and not a collective were responsible for the volume. A theme to which essays are loosely tied works less well than a theme that develops through the book. In other words, the book’s organization should be clear from the beginning and not something tacked on at the end to try to make a grab bag coherent. Should the volume build from the small case to the big picture or should it give an overview and then move on to case studies? Different volumes work in different ways. The important thing is to think through strategy in advance. The more individual contributors know about where their pieces fit into the whole, the better. Share the table of contents with them. Tell them who else is contributing to the book. If possible, avoid repetition from piece to piece. For example, if the historical background of your subject is important to the book as a whole, it makes no sense for each contributor to think s/he must give that background. If the introduction will cover the material, let everyone know that. If a piece that appears early in the volume will provide the information, tell the others. Sometimes “assignments” need to be made so that mere chance does not dictate what you receive and eventually pass along to your Press editor. Quite often it makes sense to share essays among contributors, so they can respond to or take into account each other’s work. In short, essay collections need the same thoughtful care and planning as single author books do—if not more. Think of the essays as chapters in a book rather than as isolated units.Make sure that the contributors know their audience. Is your book intended for the classroom? Is it meant mainly for other scholars? Are you hoping for a more general readership? Your acquiring editor will want to know how you feel about such audienceissues, but you also need to translate your intentions into guidance for the contributors. If the book is aimed at undergraduate course use, or reaching for a more general audience, it is important that contributors use as little jargon (or inside-of academe talk) as possible. The Press wants you to strive for readability for any audience, but it is particularly hard to get uniformity of address in a multiauthor collection. In fact, “unevenness” is one of the criticisms most frequently leveled at these manuscripts by reviewers. If you anticipate this charge from the outset and inform your contributors about what you are looking for, you will have a better book.Be clear about your timetable from the beginning. Monitor the progress of contributors’ work throughout the process. Keep track of contributor changes of address and other contact information from beginning to end. Let them know how work on the whole volume—not just their own essays—is proceeding. Be prepared to hear about complications in everyone’s life and to deal with all the reasons that deadlines cannot be met or work cannot be done. At times, you may even have to do some of the work for your contributors in order to have a volume in the end.It does not hurt to think about promotional strategies well in advance either. Try to get a mix of contributors. Senior scholars, whose reputations are secure, will give credibility to the volume. Junior scholars, including those who are considered “hot” in their fields will instill excitement in another way. Solicit contributors’ help in preparing marketing forms for the Press and in getting the word out about the book. If you think they need to be consulted about title and cover art because these matters may be politically charged, make sure to inform them about your plans. A team that is “on board” can do a lot to help ensure your book’s success. THE REVIEW PROCESS AND EDITORIAL COMMITTEE APPROVALIn every case, when you submit a manuscript to the Press, your acquiring editor will read what you send and get back to you with his or her comments. Collections that are submitted before completionSometimes the Press will issue an advance contract before all the essays are in hand. Your editor will want to see not only a prospectus or preliminary introduction and your own vita, but also some sample essays from prospective contributors to give an idea of what the whole book will be like. Provide a tentative table of contents. Your editor will also want to knowwhen you expect the book to be completedhow many images will be neededhow long the book is projected to be (preferably expressed in total number of words rather than manuscript pages)who the contributors are (provide vitae for all or brief biographical sketches of them, including their academic rank and department affiliation, most important past and forthcoming publications, awards or honors)whether any of the essays to be included in the volume have been previously published elsewherewhat the intended market or readership for the book is (be as precise as you can be about this, specifying undergraduate or graduate level if for courses and the names and likely enrollment of those classes)how you see the book fitting with the Press’s publication listswhat other books have been published that might compete directly with this one and how this collection differs from themwhether you have submitted the prospectus elsewhere and, if so, what the status of the review process is at that other press (or presses)whom you recommend as outside readers, as well as names of people who, for whatever reason, you feel could not give an objective reading of the materialCollections that are submitted after completionEverything in the preceding paragraphs would apply, but your editor will also want to knowwhether the manuscript has a history of prior review and what revisions have been made since that time. Sometimes it is helpful for an editor to actually see what was said in those reports. In rare cases, it may be possible to use one or more of them in order to make a decision and even to make an offer. Usually, in such a case, your editor will contact his/her counterpart at the other press to see if the reports can be releasedwhat you see as the weaknesses and strengths of the volume as it is presently constitutedCONTRACTUAL ARRANGEMENTS Once an offer has been made and accepted, and the volume editor’s contract has been signed, individual contributor agreements can be issued. Sometimes volume editors know that contributors will not write their essays without a contract. Other times (if a manuscript is still in the development stages) a volume editor may feel it is too risky to issue individual agreements until the final reader’s report is in hand. Your editor will work with you to decide when the agreements should be issued. The Press is flexible on this, so long as all the agreements are in hand before copyediting begins. In order to requisition these agreements your editor will need an alphabetical list from you containing the following information (which is similar to what was submitted at the prospectus stage):the name of the contributorthe contributor’s addressthe title (or subject) of the contributionthe length of the contribution (in number of words—this includes notes)the number of images (if any)the deadline for delivery (remember that you will need time between the date the contributors deliver to you and your delivery date for the volume as a whole)information about previous publication of any of the pieces, if applicable (remember that some pieces may have been contracted for elsewhere but not yet published—if so, permission may be needed)Contributors usually receive one gratis copy of the book. They are also entitled to a 50 percent discount on additional copies, as well as a 20 percent discount on any Press titles that they wish to purchase. We cannot provide offprints to them.In cases where there is more than one volume editor, we will also need to know the order of the names on the title page and for all advertising and publicity.MANUSCRIPT AND DIGITAL FILE PREPARATIONSupply your contributors as early as possible with guidelines for the preparation of the manuscript. Read the general Author and Editor Guidelines in the Author Toolkit and if necessary, alert contributors to the complete guidelines on the website. Specific guidelines on digital file preparation are also in the Author Toolkit on the website. Monitor progress to keep the contributors to the contractual deadline. Hold contributors to the contractual length of their essays. If the volume is longer than what was planned, remember that the price of the book will have to rise to cover additional costs.Double-space everything, including text, extracts, captions, epigraphs, notes, bibliography—in short, everything. If a contributor has not followed this basic guideline, you will need to return the piece and ask that it be redone or you will need to do that work yourself.Settle on one note/bibliographic style for the volume as a whole. If yours is a multidisciplinary volume and your contributors are used to citation styles for their own disciplines and for journals in those disciplines, it is particularly important that you be clear from the beginning about the style you have chosen for the book.The Press prefers The Chicago Manual of Style humanities style or social science style notes and reference systems. We will, however, accept other styles. The main issue is to strive for uniformity of the whole. Consistency from one essay to the next will expedite the copyediting process. If there is considerable variation from one essay to the next, individual bibliographies are acceptable. If you are using an internal citation system (parenthetical author-date citations) for the volume and there is considerable overlap from one essay to the next, combine individual bibliographies into one for the whole volume. Prepare a style sheet for contributors if necessary. For example, do you want Black (as in African American) to be capitalized or lowercased? If you can get uniformity for the entire volume, we would appreciate it, but in cases like this we will not insist on consistency except within each essay. You are the only one who can anticipate stylistic problems that might arise in a given field of study. Read each contribution not only for content but also for these mechanical matters. Before you submit the final version of the manuscript to the Press, make sure that the contributors have followed your instructions. You will need to return an essay to a contributor if the guidelines have not been followed. In some cases, where there is no other option, you will need to redo the work yourself.Ask each contributor to supply you with an electronic file of the final draft of that contributor’s essay. Make sure that all track changes have been accepted.Do not combine all the essays into a single file. The front matter (or preliminary material—half title, title page, table of contents, etc) and the back matter (bibliography, etc.) should be in files of their own. For help with the preparation of front matter, see the samples that the Press has provided in the Author Toolkit on our website (Front Matter Model and a Note about Creating Disks) or refer to this section of The Chicago Manual of Style.PERMISSIONSIn the agreements that the contributors sign, they agree to clear permissions for their own essays. This means—for use of images, unpublished material, or text not in the public domain or covered by “fair use,” and for previously published material by the contributor where the contributor does not control reprint rights. If you are willing to do this for them, that is fine, but make sure it is clear from the outset who is taking responsibility for this task. Don’t leave the matter unmentioned because this always leads to trouble down the road. See our Permissions Guidelines. Make sure your contributors read the guidelines carefully. Your acquiring editor will help contributors if they do not understand how to interpret or follow our instructions. Note that information on the likely print run for your book and the tentative prices of hardback and paperback editions is often required in order to clear permissions. We need to have signed permission forms or proof of permission in hand for each essay that requires them. This, in the end, is your responsibility. We do reserve the right not to begin copyediting on a book if the permissions are not cleared. This can delay publication by many months. The earlier you and the contributors begin to address this issue the better. You cannot begin too early.IMAGESMake sure that any contributor who will be using images has a copy of the Digital Art Requirements for Submission and has read the Permissions Guidelines regarding use of such material. Become familiar with both sets of guidelines yourself.For an essay collection, it is best to number images not consecutively for the volume as a whole, but essay by essay: Smith-1, Smith-2, Smith-3, etc., or alternately, last names can be replaced with chapter numbers (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.).All images should be gathered in the following way: 1) digital images (300dpi at approximately 4 x 5 inches—the size of reproduction in the published book) saved with the image number in the file name; 2) two full sets of photocopies of all images, also clearly labeled; 3) two full sets of captions (double spaced)—again clearly marked for matching them with the text. The images need to be “called out” in the text, indicating their approximate placement. Insert a line in the text such as, <~?~Insert image Smith-1 about here>. We strongly recommend using Dropbox or another file sharing site for sending images.PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIALNote that if you are using previously published material as an actual contribution to the book, it is a good idea to have the contributor sign an agreement for his/her piece anyway. A letter should be attached to the agreement specifying who controls the rights to the piece. Sometimes a “courtesy letter,” informing a journal that a previously published piece is being used in your book, will suffice. In any case, we will need a clear credit line for use of such an essay. Just because an essay is copyrighted in an author’s name, is no guarantee that the author controls reprint rights. Prior publication of individual pieces can be noted on the copyright page, in the acknowledgments, or as the first note (or on the foot of the page) of an essay; but it must be noted. If more than one piece has been previously published, it is best to handle all of the credit lines in the same way. Wording or placement may be dictated in the letter granting permission. If so, please make sure that those instructions have been followed. If there are images in the previously published material, we will usually need originals. You will need to submit digital art following our guidelines.THE PREPRESS CHECK OF YOUR MANUSCRIPTOnce your acquiring editor has the penultimate draft of the manuscript in hand, we will review it for mechanical and stylistic problems. At this point, you will receive a letter addressing any matters of manuscript preparation that need attention. Please read and follow this letter carefully so that the final draft will be in as good a shape as possible. Everything will go more smoothly and more quickly if the contributors are held to our suggestions. DELIVERY OF THE FINAL DRAFT READY FOR COPYEDITING, PRODUCTION, AND DESIGNPlease send to your acquiring editor:digital files for all essays, front matter, back matter, and captions, clearly labeledall the permissions for the book (originals or photocopies) arranged essay by essay, and accompanied by forms for each image, poem, song lyric, etc., requiring permission for use. We would even like to have some indication that permission issues have been discussed—for example, a letter stating that no permissions are required for essays by Smith, Jones, if that is the casedigital files for all images that will be used in the bookif you have not already done so, a completed Acquisitions Questionnaireif you have not already done so, the completed form regarding the cover or jacket of the book, expressing your color preferences and telling us what, if any, image you suggest for the covera cover letter, letting us know what—if anything (we hope nothing)—is missing from the manuscript and when we can expect it. If you want to alert us to particular stylistic preferences to pass along to the copyeditor, please do thata Notes on Contributors section at the end of the manuscript—a brief biographical sketch of each contributor that each has seen and approved. This section may need to be updated prior to printing if there are promotions or changes in academic affiliationCOPYEDITING AND PROOFREADINGAs in all other areas, responsibility for these stages is also in your hands. Once the copyediting has been completed, the copyeditor will send the entire manuscript to you—not to individual contributors. Be sure to review the copyeditor’s work. You should not send the essays to the contributors even if there is an issue which you cannot resolve yourself. If you do need a contributor’s assistance, just highlight the query and ask for a quick response. The contributors must meet their deadlines to keep things on track for returning everything to the copyeditor for “clean up,” that is, the incorporation of any changes and revisions. You should review everything to make sure that all queries have been answered. You may need to resolve disputes or do some of the work for contributors who cannot meet the deadline. Contributor agreements do spell out responsibilities for this stage, but sometimes such obligations are not met. Contributors are almost always bypassed at the proofreading stage.TIME FRAMESThe review process for full manuscripts can take two to three months but is often quicker than that. The process for partial manuscripts is quicker.The revision process takes as long as you and your contributors require.Copyediting takes about three months, and you will be notified about progress by your acquiring editor, the pre-press department, and the copyeditor as the manuscript moves along.You will see a preliminary design for the cover/jacket of your book. The actual typesetting takes about four (depending upon the length and complexity of the book).Page proofs are usually received about six weeks after copyediting has been completed. Two to three weeks are normally allowed for proofreading.Indexing should be started early if you are doing it yourself, so that actual page numbers can be inserted at the time of proofreading. We allow four to five weeks for proofreading and indexing, depending on whether you are doing the index yourself or hiring someone to do it for you. If you decide to have us hire an indexer for you, we will ask you to pay as soon as the job is completed. The pre-press department will be happy to give you the estimated cost for the index to your book before you make a final decision.The entire process from delivery of a final manuscript to bound books in your hands averages ten months. The publication date is usually weeks later, to allow time for the marketing department to prepare publicity materials. Your contributors, who have very little direct contact with the Press during this process, would probably welcome some news from you as the book moves along. Other stages that you will see along the way are catalog copy (for your approval) and book cover/jacket copy (again, for your approval). WHAT HAPPENS UPON PUBLICATIONAs soon as advance copies of the book arrive at the press, a copy (or more, if there is more than one volume editor) will be sent to you. Your contributors will not receive their copies until the full shipment arrives and has been inventoried in our warehouse. The remaining contractual copies that we owe you will also be shipped at that time. Your acquiring editor will send a copy of the book to any outside readers of the manuscript and to anyone who has provided promotional endorsements for the book. The marketing department will send complimentary copies to recipients that you have listed on your Marketing Questionnaire. You will be sent a book flier for your book (in addition, of course, to any catalog in which the book appears). Our publicity manager will also be in touch shortly after publication to share the press release, the list of publications to be sent copies for potential review, and any relevant plans for events. Once the book is out and is being reviewed, the marketing department will, upon request, update you about published reviews, ads in which the book is featured, catalogs and fliers in which it appears, and any other marketing activities in which it is included.Again, sharing information and materials with your contributors, if you have the time, can further the success of the book.LB 11/10/15 ................
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