Prospective Authors

Thank you for your interest in publishing your work with the University of Texas Press! Before submitting a proposal, please browse our website and review the acquisitions areas of our editors. Once you are ready to submit a proposal, please note that we prefer electronic submissions of queries and proposals. We are unable to return unsolicited physical materials that have been mailed to the Press. We do not publish unsolicited original fiction or poetry, and we consider only a limited number of edited collections or memoir projects.

Submitting a Proposal

Proposal submissions will ideally include a cover letter, a prospectus, an annotated table of contents, two sample chapters, and a current CV. We prefer that all submissions be accompanied by a completed Submission Inquiry Form.

Cover Letter

A cover letter typically runs from one to two pages. It includes basic information about the project, such as a brief description, the estimated word length, and the timeline for completion. It can be helpful to briefly explain why you are interested in publishing with UT Press and to mention whether you are interested in having your book be considered for a particular series. Please include complete contact information.

Prospectus

The prospectus (often also referred to as a proposal) is a five- to ten-page document that provides key information about your project. The following key elements of your project should be discussed in the prospectus:

Description

A comprehensive overview of the project, the description, is often a preview of the project’s introduction, including the project’s argument, intervention, scope, and how it fits into and adds to current discussions on the subject.

Audience

This section should identify the likeliest readers of your book and describe its primary and secondary (or beyond) audiences. For scholarly books, indicate whether your book might be accessible to audiences beyond academia, such as practitioners or policymakers. If you are proposing classroom adoption, identify the specific classes that might adopt your book.

Complementary titles

Also referred to as “competing titles,” this element should discuss the main books that you see as being in conversation with your work. In addition to foundational texts in your subject area, the list can include current books with which your manuscript engages, particularly UT Press books.

Origins

What is the background of the project? If it is based on a dissertation, please specify how the project has been transformed into a book manuscript. Please note that we do not publish unrevised dissertations.

Previously published material

This refers specifically to material in a proposed book that has appeared or will appear elsewhere, usually as a journal article or a chapter in an edited collection. We are unable to consider projects in which the majority of the text was previously published elsewhere.

Format

Include specifications such as the word count of the manuscript, the number of black-and-white images you plan to include in the book, and other details about the art program. Proposed art should be limited in scope, should add significant editorial value, and should be reviewed in consultation with your editor. For books requiring specialized production processes, such as art history or photography books, it can be helpful to include a breakdown of color and black-and-white images, indicate the desired trim size (overall dimension of the book), and provide other details pertaining to the book’s production.

Timeline

When do you anticipate that the manuscript will be complete? While this information rarely factors into our decision about a project, it does help give us a sense of the work ahead and the pace of future conversations.

Exclusive submission

Please disclose whether your proposal is an exclusive submission to UT Press or if it is also being considered elsewhere.

Annotated Table of Contents

Sometimes included in the proposal as its own document or as part of the prospectus, the annotated table of contents provides a synopsis for each chapter of the book. A chapter annotation should be one to two paragraphs in length and single-spaced, and should describe the argument and scope of each chapter of the proposed book.

Sample Chapters

We appreciate receiving two polished sample chapters with your proposal submission. Sample chapters help us see your vision for the book in terms of writing style, argumentation, and structure. The chapters you share are entirely up to you, and they do not have to be sequential. If you choose to share the introduction, please make sure it differs from the prospectus. Please do not send unrevised dissertation chapters or journal articles as sample chapters.

Curriculum Vitae or Résumé

Please provide a current CV or résumé with the proposal submission. A scholar with a lengthy CV is welcome to provide an abbreviated version.

Submission Inquiry Form

We prefer that all submissions be accompanied by a completed Submission Inquiry Form, which you can access here: Submission Inquiry Form

After You Submit a Proposal

After emailing a proposal, you can typically expect a confirmation of receipt in three to five business days. If two weeks have passed and you have not received a reply to your submission, please follow up with the person you originally emailed. While we strive to consider projects as expeditiously as possible, it may be four to six weeks before an editor is able to give undivided attention to your proposal and reply to you with a decision.

If an editor decides to pursue your project, they may invite you to send the full manuscript for further consideration upon its completion. Or the editor may initiate a discussion about the possibility of peer review of the proposal (the prospectus, the annotated table of contents, and two sample chapters). For trade projects, your editor will have details for you about the contract and review process.

Submitting a Manuscript

If an editor has invited you to submit your manuscript for further consideration, the following steps may help facilitate the review process:

  • Submit a polished version of the manuscript as a Word document with sequential page numbering (i.e., do not have each chapter start at page 1).
  • Include a title page, table of contents, a bibliography (if you intend to have one), and other elements you plan to include in the book.
  • For art, art history, and visual studies projects, include images in the manuscript. For other books, the art does not need to be final, but we encourage you to have representative images embedded in your submission.
  • Share the names of five to six potential reviewers

Exclusive Review

Please note that the University of Texas Press has an exclusive review policy: we ask for a period of time during which we are the sole press to be peer-reviewing the project. We ask for this as a gesture of good faith, and in part to avoid the risk of individuals reviewing the same project for different presses. The exclusive review period is intended to be a reasonable period of time; if unexpected issues arise, editors welcome conversations about navigating the review process.

An exclusive review policy is different from the exclusive submission policy that journals typically have. We understand that an author may be submitting a proposal to several presses to gauge interest and may also submit a manuscript to more than one press for serious consideration. We ask for exclusivity only after you and your editor formally agree to move to peer review.