English for Language Teaching / English as a Second Language

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Guidelines for submission of a book proposal

Cambridge University Press is always willing to consider new book proposals in all the major areas in which we publish. If you are interested in submitting a proposal please follow the guidelines below. Please do not send in a complete typescript unless you have been asked to do so by an editor.
A book proposal of the following kind should be submitted irrespective of whether the book has already been written or not. It should contain as much information as you yourself would require to offer a meaningful evaluation. There is no prescribed length for such outlines but they will tend to be at least 3 pages long. They should in all cases include the following information:

• The title of the book
• A description of its rationale and scope
• An explanation of how it relates to other books on the topic that have been published recently
• A breakdown of the table of contents with descriptions of the contents of each chapter, or in the case of a textbook either a complete table of contents or syllabus
• A description of the intended readership
• Details of the proposed length of the book and its intended completion date
• Brief credentials of the author (N.B. a full curriculum vitae is not required)

If you are proposing a textbook your proposal should contain specific details of the level at which the book has been or will be written, as well as of the kinds of courses for which it would be suitable.
If you are submitting a proposal for a collaborative volume please indicate clearly who the contributors are and what they will write on. Affiliations should be supplied.

This proposal should be sent to the relevant editor. It may be sent out for external review or circulated to editorial and marketing colleagues, and so you should not expect to hear back from the editor for several weeks. You will be told by the editor whether your project fits with current publishing plans in a given subject, and if it does, will be asked to submit a complete typescript or sample chapters as appropriate. The review process varies in length depending on the nature of the project, the number of reviews considered necessary to reach a publishing decision, even the time of year of the submission. The review of a proposal and sample material or full typescript will rarely take less than 3 months and should generally not take more than 6 months.

Preparing a book proposal? Please use the form below.

Principal Editorial Contacts