Submission Guidelines
Is Your Manuscript Appropriate for Oregon State University Press?
LIKE ALL PUBLISHERS, large and small, the Oregon State University Press specializes in publishing
certain kinds of books. We publish mainly scholarly books and books of particular
importance to the Pacific Northwest, especially those dealing with the history,
natural history, cultures, and literature of the region or with environmental history and natural resource
issues. If you have written a manuscript on classical Greece, the influence
of the Beatles on contemporary music, or the history of the Middle East,
no matter how well written or important it may be, it is probably not appropriate
for us. We do not publish fiction. Please browse our
on-line catalog if
you are not sure whether your manuscript is appropriate and would like to
see some examples of our recent titles.
What Should You Send?
To help us evaluate your project, we need to know more about you and your book. Please address the following issues: Send
NO stapled or spiral-bound materials.
- Title of manuscript
- Your name, title, and affiliation; please include complete contact information, including e-mail address.
- Briefly describe the content and purpose of your book, including your qualifications as author or editor. If it is a collection of essays, explain your criteria for selection.
- Describe the intended audience. Who will buy this book?
- List the significant books in print on this topic, and explain how and why your book is different. What is its most distinguishing characteristic? What is its unique contribution to the field?
- Does this book have any potential for course adoption, or sales by a book club?
- Provide manuscript specifics, such as approximate manuscript length (including
total word count) and an estimated delivery date. Is it available on disk?
If so, which word processing software did you use?
- Describe any illustrative and/or graphic materials. When submitting your manuscript, please include photocopies of all illustrations you deem essential to the book.
- How long do you think your book should remain in print? How often would revisions/updates be required?
- Include a table of contents and chapter by chapter description.
- If available, provide sample chapters, preferably the introduction and at
least two substantive chapters. Please do NOT send complete manuscript
unless requested to do so.
- Is this a dissertation? If revised, what is the nature of the revisions?
- Include an up-to-date cv or resume.
- Have you submitted this to other presses? If so, to whom?
- Please suggest 2-3 possible reviewers for your manuscript, including contact information, affiliation, etc.
- List any possible sources of outside funding to publish your book.
Send to:
Mary Elizabeth Braun, Acquisitions Editor
Oregon State University Press
500 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, Oregon 97331-2005
mary.braun@oregonstate.edu
voice mail: 541-737-3873 FAX 541-737-3170
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press
We make every effort to respond to inquiries promptly; please expect an average response time of ten to twelve weeks. All manuscript materials submitted for review will be recycled, unless you provide return postage. Thank you for considering OSU Press as a possible publisher.
Our Decision-Making Process
LIKE ALL UNIVERSITY PRESSES, our decision-making process is very thorough.
If we think your proposal looks promising, we may ask you to send the complete
manuscript to help us determine its suitability for our program. In some cases a thorough proposal is enough for us to make this determination.
If your manuscript or proposal seems suitable for us, we will send it to confidential outside readers who are well qualified
to report on its merits.
If the reviews are favorable, we will take your manuscript to our Editorial
Board for a final recommendation on whether or not to publish it. The Board's
recommendation to publish may include suggestions for revising and improving
the manuscript, and sometimes their approval is contingent on certain
changes.
Our Contract with You
ONCE THE EDITORIAL BOARD recommends publication, we will draft a contract
for your consideration.
Royalty provisions and some other contract terms vary depending on the kind
of book and its estimated market.
Your Final Manuscript
WE ASK THAT YOU provide your final manuscript on disk as well as in hard copy, and we will supply you with a copy of Guidelines
for Preparing an Electronic Manuscript prepared by the Association of American
University Presses. Following these guidelines will save both you and the
Press time and trouble. If you are using unusual software,
please check with us before submitting your disk, and we may run
a test.
Please check with us before preparing any digital illustrations to ensure that we will be able to use them. We can work with photographs and slides, both black and white and color.
The Oregon State University Press does not have a uniform style sheet; because we publish in
a number of disciplines, we want your manuscript to conform to the norms
of your own discipline. This is particularly true of bibliographic style;
as long as your bibliographic references are consistent, we will follow
the style of your choice. In general, we normally follow
The Chicago
Manual of Style, 14th edition, and
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,
10th edition, for copy editing. If you would like us to consider using
a different authority, please say so and we can discuss this.
On one point, however, we are inflexible. It is our policy to use bias-free
language and to edit out sexist or racist language.
It is the author's responsibility, unless our contract with you states something
different,
We are glad to offer advice and guidance on all these matters if you wish.
Our Production Process
Oregon State University Press is in the forefront of technological change in book production.
Most of our books are sent to the printer entirely in electronic form, with
design and typesetting done on a Macintosh computer in-house or by freelance designers and with illustrations
embedded in the electronic file.
The first step, though, is copy editing, which may be done in-house or by
a freelance editor, either on screen or on the hard copy. You will be given
an opportunity to check the edited manuscript and will be asked to answer
any questions that have been raised in the editing process.
The first proof you see will be in pages that look very much like the finished
book though the actual pagination may change. You will be asked to check
the proofs for typographical errors and other problems. Once everything
is in its final position and errors have been corrected, we will send you
a set of final proofs from which to prepare the index.
Once the book goes to the printer, we normally receive finished
books in approximately two months.
Marketing: How You Can Help
OUR MARKETING STRATEGIES will vary depending on whether yours is a strictly
scholarly book or a book which we expect to sell widely in bookstores to
the general public. Regardless, we encourage you to become actively involved
in the marketing process. Once a contract is signed, we will ask you to
fill out an Author Information Record and Marketing Questionnaire. We'll
use this information as we develop a marketing plan for your book. A typical
plan includes elements such as review copies and press releases, direct
mail sales, bookstore and library sales, online marketing, course adoptions, author appearances,
awards, advertising, and exhibits.
We work closely with sales representatives who
sell our books to major bookstore accounts around the country and to regional and national book
wholesalers. Readers and bookstores in Canada are able to order Oregon State University Press books through the University of British Columbia Press, our Canadian distributor. We are an affiliate of the Association of American University
Presses and utilize its various marketing programs.
Once your book is published, we will ask you to keep us notified of all
readings, conferences, workshops, and public appearances at which there
might be opportunities to sell books. We actively promote backlist titles
and will keep your book in print as long as demand justifies.
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Secure online ordering form (Orders go to our distributor - The University of Arizona Press). For a complete listing of available books, check out our catalog of books in print.
