Author Guidelines

If you are an author of a scholarly book or work of reference, then we may be able to consider it for publication. However, you should read the following before getting in touch with us.

Please note that we are not accepting submissions for children's books at the current time.

An Outline of Our Policy
Sending Your Typescript
The Market for Your Book
And Lastly

An Outline of Our Policy

We publish up to fifty books a year, but for each one that we publish we are offered a great many that we cannot take on. Many we reject simply because there is a limit to the number we can take on, but others are rejected either because of their presentation or because they are unsuitable in subject matter.

In particular we do not publish and cannot consider:

fiction (novels or short stories) for the adult market
cookery books
drama, or
poetry

It costs time and money to consider books for publication whether we eventually accept them or not. For non-fiction and academic titles we look for books that are well argued and authoritative, and we need to be told of any special qualifications that the author has for writing the book.

To get an idea of the kinds of books we do publish, see our Catalogues, and also the catalogue for our other imprint Acorn Editions. For more detail on some of our latest publications, see our New and Forthcoming Titles page.

However, please note that we have cut back on our children's titles, and we would ask authors not to send us unsolicited typescripts for children's books.

Sending Your Typescript

Rather than sending your complete typescript in the first instance, it is usually better to post us a synopsis of the book, with a detailed contents list and a sample chapter or two. This will save you money, and may well save both you and us time, whether the book is one that we can publish or not.

If you send us your typescript, we will only be able to return it to you if you send us postage (British postal stamps or international reply paid coupons) to do so. We can in any case take no liability for lost typescripts or material, so please do not send us valuable photos or original artwork.

We often have to reject books that might otherwise be suitable because they are presented in a form that makes reading them too difficult. If you are in any doubt about how to present a typescript you should look in an author's guide for suggestions on how to do so. We cannot, for example, consider handwritten books, books presented on disk without a print-out, or books printed out on continuous stationery. And furthermore, please DO NOT submit typescripts by email, although we do welcome email enquiries.

The Market for Your Book

We are a commercial publishing house and we have to make a profit from the books that we publish. However good your book is we will be unable to publish it unless we can see how we will be able to sell it, so it is important that we should be able to see what the potential market for the book will be, and how it may be reached. The more that you can tell us about this, the easier it will be for us to consider your book favourably. The most successful publishing is the result of close co-operation between author and publisher.

In some cases where we think a book is worth publishing, but cannot see enough market potential to make a profit, we may offer to publish the book but ask for a subvention towards the costs of publishing it.

And Lastly ...

We will only publish a book after we have agreed terms with you and have signed a contract.

You may also like to check the Author's Guidelines for our sister imprint James Clarke and Co Ltd.