Questions and answers

Everything authors ask before they send us anything.

Submission, review, contracts, royalties, production and orders. If your question is not here, the contact form reaches a person, not a queue.

Submitting a manuscript

How do I submit my manuscript?

Use the contact form and choose “Manuscript submission”. Include a proposal of two to four pages, a chapter list with one-paragraph summaries, and three sample chapters including the introduction. Add a link to the full files if you have them.

A commissioning editor in your discipline reads the submission and writes back within fourteen days. There is no submission fee and no reading fee, ever.

What types of books do you publish?

Monographs, textbooks and course texts, edited volumes, conference proceedings, professional reference works, translated fiction and criticism, children’s non-fiction, and institutional knowledge resources such as datasets and teaching repositories.

We publish across nine disciplines, from academic and research through to environment and sustainability. If you are unsure which list your work belongs to, send it anyway and we will route it internally.

Do you accept first-time authors?

Yes. Forty-one per cent of the authors we published last year had not published a book before. Referees see the manuscript, not your CV, and we do not require an agent.

Can I submit a revised doctoral thesis?

Yes, once it has been revised. A thesis argues to examiners; a book argues to readers, which usually means cutting the literature review, rewriting the introduction and dropping the methodological defensiveness. Your editor will tell you exactly what has to change before review begins.

Can I submit to more than one publisher at once?

Yes, and you should tell us if you have. Simultaneous submission is normal in academic publishing and it does not count against you. It only matters when we reach the contract stage.

What if my manuscript is not finished?

That is the usual case. Three chapters and a credible plan for the rest are enough for a decision. Most contracts we issue are for books that are between forty and seventy per cent written.

Peer review and contracts

What is the publishing process, step by step?

Editorial reading in the first fortnight, peer review over the following four to six weeks, contract and scheduling in week nine, production through to week eighteen, and launch by week twenty-two.

The full stage-by-stage version, with what you are asked to do at each point, is on the Publish with us page.

Who reviews my manuscript?

Two or three subject referees, selected by the chair of our peer review committee rather than by your commissioning editor. Review is double anonymous for research monographs. Course texts also go to a teaching reviewer who assesses classroom usability.

Do I see the reviewer reports?

In full, always — including the reports on manuscripts we decline. You also get a revision plan agreed with your editor, so you know which recommendations are conditions and which are suggestions.

What happens if the referees reject it?

You keep the reports, and your editor tells you plainly whether a revise-and-resubmit is worth your time. Roughly one in four declined manuscripts comes back revised and is accepted on the second pass.

Do I keep my copyright?

Yes. You license us to publish; you do not assign copyright. The licence names the territories, formats and term, and you can read a specimen contract before you submit anything — just ask.

Can I publish open access?

Yes, on the Institutional plan and on funded research titles. We register a DOI per chapter, deposit in your institutional repository and apply the Creative Commons licence your funder requires.

Production, ISBN and rights

How long does it take to publish a book?

About twenty-two weeks from acceptance to publication. Production itself — copy-editing, typesetting, cover, index and proofs — takes eight to nine of those weeks. The Partnered plan guarantees a fourteen-week production window.

Do you provide ISBN and copyright registration?

Yes. We register an ISBN for every format, a DOI for academic titles, CIP data, and the deposit-library copies your jurisdiction requires. All of it is included at no cost on every plan.

Who designs the cover?

Our in-house designers, working from a brief you approve. You see two directions, choose one, and sign off the final artwork. Authors who arrive with their own designer are welcome to use them instead.

Will there be an ebook and an audiobook?

Ebook conversion is included on every plan and goes to all major platforms. Audiobook production is included on the Partnered plan and available as an add-on elsewhere.

What about translation and foreign rights?

Our rights desk pitches your title at the Frankfurt, London and New Delhi book fairs. Translation income is split with you at the rate named in your contract, and you approve every licence before it is signed.

How long will my book stay in print?

As long as it has readers. Print-on-demand means we do not pulp a backlist to clear warehouse space, and titles stay in catalogue and in library feeds indefinitely.

Royalties and costs

How are royalties calculated?

As a percentage of net receipts — what we actually receive after trade discount, not the cover price. Commissioned titles earn twelve to eighteen per cent; the Partnered plan earns twenty-two per cent.

Statements are issued quarterly, itemised by channel and territory, with the underlying sales data attached. Payment follows within thirty days of the statement.

Does it cost anything to publish with you?

Not on the Commissioned route: if we accept a manuscript onto the research list, we publish it at our own expense. The Partnered and Institutional plans are paid because they buy a faster schedule and a wider promotional push, not a decision.

We never charge submission or reading fees, and we will not sell you a plan for a manuscript that is not ready.

Can my grant or institution pay?

Yes, and this is common. We invoice your department, funder or research office directly, and we can supply the quotation format most grant offices ask for.

Are there discounts for authors buying their own book?

Authors receive ten complimentary copies and buy further copies at forty per cent off the cover price, with no limit and at cost of postage only within India.

Question we have not answered?

Write to us. Editorial enquiries are answered within two working days, and manuscript submissions within fourteen.