Guide to Submitting a Proposal

Introduction: The proposal you submit will be the basis on which we judge the book's suitability for publication. We may send your proposal to specialist reviewers to report on for us. Therefore, it needs to be organised in such a way that we and our reviewers are given the right information on which to judge the potential and suitability of your proposal and offer constructive criticism.

The following notes are designed to help you prepare your proposal and to ease the task of evaluation. We emphasise that these are intended as guidelines; some of the sections will be inappropriate to your particular project so do not worry if you feel unable to provide information on all the points. If you have any queries Rebecca Barden will be pleased to discuss them with you.

Contents:

• A summary and rationale for the project
• A detailed synopsis
• A definition of the market
• A review of the main competitive books
• One or two sample chapters, if available
• Format
• A Curriculum Vitae
• Notes on the contributors if this is to be an edited volume

Statement of aims

Briefly and concisely state the main themes and objectives of the proposed book.

Detailed synopsis

Please list chapter headings and provide at least one paragraph setting out what you intend to cover in each chapter. Indicate the basic structure and any features of each chapter, e.g. introduction, argument summary, case studies, notes on further reading. Please also list any additional features that the book might include, e.g. glossary of terms, full bibliography, resource information.

Definition of the market

Identify as accurately as possible the intended market for your proposed work. If the book is intended for use by students or teachers, provide details as to which school or college courses or modules your book could be useful for. This may include, for example, A/S, A2 or other FE courses; introductory undergraduate core courses; upper-level undergraduate options or modules, post-graduate courses; professional courses or in-service training. List any secondary markets for your book.
Where possible, give rough estimates of the size of each market (the numbers of students or numbers of universities or colleges offering the course), and indicate the basis on which the estimate was reached. A list of institutions which offer similar courses is particularly useful.

If there are particular international markets for your book outside your own domestic market which you feel are relevant please also outline these.

Review of competitive books

Briefly review each of the main competitors to your work. These could be books covering the same subject matter or books which would be used as set texts on courses where you hope your book could be used as a substitute or additional text. Please give details of author, title, publisher, price, date of publication, number of pages, hardback and/or paperback. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each book, and how your book will be different/better. If different books are used in domestic and international markets, please give details of these. If there are no direct rivals, review the books which are most similar to your proposed book.

Format

Please indicate how long you think the manuscript will be, giving a total number of words (many of our manuscripts are between 60,000 and 100,000 words) and, if you plan to include illustrations in the book, please state how many, and whether they will be line-drawings - figures, tables etc. - or half-tone illustrations - photographs, film stills, frame enlargements, paintings etc. If possible, indicate the source of these images, so that we can form a rough idea of likely reproduction costs. Please give a realistic date when you intend to submit the complete manuscript. If this is an edited collection, remember to allow time for revisions to individual chapters once these have been delivered by contributors.

Sample chapters

If you have any sample chapters prepared please send them with your proposal. If you have versions of chapters available in the form of journal articles, conference papers or even lecture notes, please send these, as we like to send reviewers as much material as possible in order that they can assess your writing style and approach.

Curriculum vitae

Please list the academic and relevant professional posts which you have held and your main academic qualifications and publications. If there is more than one author, please supply a brief curriculum vitae for each author.

Notes on the contributors

Please supply details of each contributor's affiliation, their main publications and if they have already agreed to contribute to the project.
Once we receive the proposal and sample material we will endeavour to have it reviewed and to reach a decision on whether or not we can publish the book as quickly as possible. If you have any questions while you are preparing your proposal or during the review process, please do contact:

Rebecca Barden, Head of Publishing
r.barden@palgrave.com