You Submitted a Book Proposal, Now What?– Mimi Benjamin & Jody Jessup-Anger

You Submitted a Book Proposal, Now What?

In our last Developments article, we discussed considerations you should think about before submitting a book proposal.  Once you have settled on an idea, drafted a proposal and submitted it, you may wonder what happens next.  Below we explain what you can expect once your proposal is submitted to ACPA Books.

First, as ACPA Books co-editors, we review your proposal with an eye toward clarity and audience.  We read the proposal independently and then meet to discuss it.  Some of the questions we ask ourselves are: Is the proposal clear and does it provide sufficient information to portray what the book will be about?  Is the topic sufficiently broad to attract an audience, but still pointed enough to map onto someone’s job? Is the book appropriately situated in the context of existing books? Does this book make sense in light of ACPA’s mission and vision? Does the timeline for completion seem reasonable?

These questions typically result in feedback that we provide the authors prior to passing the proposal along to Stylus.  Sometimes authors desire additional guidance, in which case we set up a meeting. Based on the feedback, authors typically revise and resubmit their proposals. Once the proposal is in final draft form, we submit it to our Stylus editor, David Brightman, who works in conjunction with the Stylus Editorial Board to make a decision about the book. Once we have Stylus’ decision, we communicate that to authors and work with them on next steps.  For more information about ACPA Books, please visit: https://www.myacpa.org/publications