Interacting with university presses?

[frenchonionsoup]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post. Currently, I'm a tenure track professor who has published works in non-university presses. I am familiar with the processes of submitting a proposal to non-university presses in that an attachment with your bona fides is sent per the instructions of the publisher, with the structure of the proposal being quite coherent across different publishing houses. However, when I visit some university presses' websites, there are calls for proposals with certain themes in which they are interested. My questions are thus:

Am I to understand that one should reach out to the acquisitions editor, presumably with a non-completed proposal, so as to integrate/synchronize one's ideas into their interests for the particular theme? And if this is so, is this how submitting to university presses work; that is, one communicates with the acquisitions editor every step of the way before submitting the proposal (thus maximizing one's chances for a contract), meaning you end up tweaking your writing to more of what they prefer rather than exhibiting your own center of gravity that has resulted in, say, an already completed work for which one desires a contract?

In other words, does one "negotiate" the content of a work into the press by maintaining a line of communication with its acquisitions editor before submitting the proposal?

Thank you for any insights coming this way.

Sincerely,

French Onion Soup

[jerseyjay]

I think it could be done different ways.

For my first book, the acquisitions editor actually reached out to me, more than a decade after my dissertation had been submitted, after he had a discussion with my advisor and thought it might be a good book. At the editor's suggestion, I wrote a proposal and sent my dissertation, which he sent out for peer review, and they gave me a contract. I turned the dissertation into a book and submitted the total manuscript for final peer review.

For my second book, I emailed an acquisition editor at another university press, with a short description of the book and why I thought the press would be a good fit. He agreed, and encouraged me. When I got enough material for a proposal (a cover letter and two chapters), I submitted a formal proposal to the press, along with a handful of others. My former press offered me a contract; one other press asked for a chapter; the press I had been talking to asked for a chapter; and two other presses just ignored me. I decided to submit the chapter for peer review to the press I had been talking to, and they gave a contract. I wrote the rest of the book, and submitted it for final peer review, and they eventually accepted it.

For my third book (edited volume), several editors approached some copanelists and myself at a major conference about a book. We decided to go with a major academic press, expanded the book, and submitted a completed manuscript for peer review, and got a contract.

So it really depends. An acquisition editor can be very encouraging, and this is good. However, usually there is still at least one round of peer review, and acquisition editors can (and do) leave before a contract, and even a contract does not guarantee a published book.

[billtsherman]

Am I to understand that one should reach out to the acquisitions editor, presumably with a non-completed proposal

Yes, that is exactly what you should do.  They will let you know if they have a series your book might fit well with, and hopefully they will tell you if your topic is too far from what they publish to be a good fit.

Look at the press's catalog to get a solid idea of what they actually publish.  It might even be helpful to reach out to an author that has recently published with them.  Some presses are terribly understaffed and really can't promote a book, but others don't have that problem at all.  There is also a huge variance in how well they communicate with authors.  I have one colleague who only found out that his book came out in paper when I saw it on Amazon!

meaning you end up tweaking your writing to more of what they prefer rather than exhibiting your own center of gravity that has resulted in, say, an already completed work for which one desires a contract?

I don't think that's a great idea.  You should write what you believe in, and take it to a press that will publish it - not likely without changes, but not fundamental changes to the argument/themes/etc.

I would change presses before I change my thesis to fit an editor's interests.

In other words, does one "negotiate" the content of a work into the press by maintaining a line of communication with its acquisitions editor before submitting the proposal?

I suppose if your book is very early in the manuscript stage, you might be able to tweak it a little to better fit into a series or something, but I never let an editor tell me what to write - instead I let them tell me how to write it.  Hopefully that makes sense.

[frenchonionsoup]

Thank you for both of your comments. They were certainly helpful. I see that the process is quite fluid once the fundamentals are there (at the very least have a good chapter or two). I appreciate both of your insights and pardon me for the delay. It's my first post and the moderators said they would have to approve this thread before it got published. I thought I would be notified over the weekend but it's good to know upon my visit today that it has been posted. Sending you all my best.

FOS...