Book proposal question

[mathofsorts]

Hi,

I have been talking with editors at four different presses about a book proposal I am working on. It is finally about ready to be officially sent to the editors so they can find reviewers.  My question is: They all ask for names of potential reviewers -- is it ok to send the same list to all of them?

[new_anth]

I would just submit the same names.

[bibliothecula]

Do you know not to send the proposal out to all of the presses at the same time, right? That's known as simultaneous submission and is generally frowned upon in academic publishing. You have to submit to each publisher one at a time.

[Deacon_blues]

In my humanities field, it is fine to send out the *proposal* to many presses at the same time. However, the *book manuscript* may only be sent to one at a time. Perhaps that is also the case in the OP's field.

[traductio]

In my humanities field, it is fine to send out the *proposal* to many presses at the same time. However, the *book manuscript* may only be sent to one at a time. Perhaps that is also the case in the OP's field.

Same here. I'm always upfront with presses when I send the proposal to more than one, but usually even on their websites they say that simultaneous proposal submissions are fine.

But they're also usually quite clear that if I send them the manuscript, they want to be the only press reading it.

[hungry_ghost]

In my humanities field, it is fine to send out the *proposal* to many presses at the same time. However, the *book manuscript* may only be sent to one at a time. Perhaps that is also the case in the OP's field.

Same here. I'm always upfront with presses when I send the proposal to more than one, but usually even on their websites they say that simultaneous proposal submissions are fine.

But they're also usually quite clear that if I send them the manuscript, they want to be the only press reading it.

Multiple (simultaneous) submissions of the proposal is not against the rules, but I have heard that it can be a good strategy to send it out only to your top two presses first. When #2 gets back to you, you contact #1 and say, I have interest from another press, are you still interested? and if they aren't interested, go with #2. If you don't hear back from either in a reasonable amount of time (field-dependent, don't ask me what that is for you), then move on to #3.
I was never that strategic ... but only because I've only written one book, and I only dealt with one press. But a few colleagues have suggested this strategy.

And, echoing what others have said, simultaneous submissions of the full manuscript is not OK.

[mathofsorts]

Excellent! Thanks much. I have sent out the proposals to the editors that I have talked to. I had one of the reviewers on my suggested list let me know they were asked to review it... I am excited and a bit daunted at the same time.  Thanks for the replies.