Thank you for your interest in writing for Neal-Schuman Publishers. We pride ourselves in producing authoritative books that contribute substantially to the professional literature of librarianship and information science. Here is what we require in a book proposal:
- A general description of the book addressing:
- Why your book is needed
- How it will be written or compiled
- The audience(s) and market(s) for which the book is intended
- A thorough competitive analysis identifying similar books and describing the ways in which your book represents a compellingly distinct contribution to the literature.
- A prospective table of contents, including the estimated length, in pages, for each chapter, as well as the length of the total manuscript. Please specify the types and approximate lengths of all indexes you intend to provide. This gives us an idea of the depth and relative proportion of your chapters.
- An outline describing your proposed book in detail. This element gives us our best glimpse of the book you intend to write, and is therefore absolutely crucial. Please provide as much detail as possible here, preferably in traditional outline format.
- Sample pages. We prefer to receive an entire sample chapter, but 6-10 sample pages usually suffice. These should be representative of the book’s theme (sample introductions are not as helpful as samples drawn from the proposal’s body). If possible, please include non-text elements such as tabular material, illustrations, sample worksheets and checklists, and the like.
- A draft preface addressed to the book’s readers. This vital element is your opportunity to demonstrate exactly why you intend to write the book, and exactly how you mean to communicate with your audience. At a minimum, the preface should address:
- The book’s topic
- Your reasons for writing the book
- The way in which the book was compiled or written
- How the book is organized (most prefaces found in Neal-Schuman books contain brief descriptions of each chapter, and we recommend such an approach for your proposal as well).
- The projected date of manuscript completion.
- A brief resume, including lists of other publications, membership in professional organizations, and so forth.
Some successful proposals run to all of ten pages or so; others are much longer. When you have completed your proposal, please send it to Charles Harmon, Neal-Schuman’s Director of Publishing (charles@neal-schuman.com). We prefer to receive proposals via email, as attachments in Word format. If this is not possible, we will gladly receive your proposal at the address listed below.
|
Charles Harmon Voice: 212-925-8650 |