academic publishing process (condensed)

As discussed in the previous post, an author can be commissioned through a proactive, reactive or collaborative process. After the commissioning editor and the author have made contact, the steps to produce a publishable and professional-standard monograph can be detailed.

• The author/academic submits a book proposal based on their research. This outlines a synopsis of the book, where its place in the market will be, a list of the contributors, how relevant the book will be to the market, and offers a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the content.
  

• The author -if not already on file - submits a copy of their CV, which details the published works and academic background of the contributor.
  

• The commissioning editor reviews the work and decides whether it is publishable based on market research and financial investigation into the costs of production using a P&L sheet. MUP aims to have a 65% profit margin, and will only publish after this amount. Here is an example of a P&L sheet:

• The title is sent to an acquisitions meeting, which includes members of staff from editorial, sales and marketing, and rights. These respective contributors determine if the book is publishable from their aspects.
  
  
• If it is commissioned, the academic publishing house will send out a house style attachment that outlines the writing style that is preferred.  This list is quite extensive, and contains grammatical, spelling and structural preferences outlined by the publishing house. An example of this sheet for MUP has been provided on Blackboard. The author must adhere to these rules if they are to be published.
  

• During this process, contracts between the publishing house and the author will be drawn up, these contracts talk about the digital, media and adaptation rights of a book, the revenue breakdown and the legal obligations both parties have toward one another. Some examples of these can be found on BlackBoard. Tony showed the group a few examples of their contracts at MUP, and we went through the contract line-by-line. It was very interesting how different the fiction/small publisher contract at Blue Moose was in terms of tone and address, in comparison to the academic contract.
  
  
• The work is then peer-reviewed by comparable academics in the field, these in-depth reviews work on a quid-pro-quo basis, and the reviewer is usually only paid £50 for the effort, or given five books from the publisher's backlist (in some cases).
  
  
• If the book passes the peer review process, the work is edited and finalised by the editorial team, the marketing and sales team work on the design. The cover is decided at this stage.
  
  
• The book at this stage is saleable, and the metadata and isbn must be put in place.
  
  
• Sales and marketing teams introduce the book at conferences and book launches, and the book is distributed through existing channels to retail outlets.