Guidance Notes for Editors and Contributed Books
The first step
The first step is to decide on the outline and purpose for the book and consider its target readership. A proposed table of contents can then be drawn up with a selection of contributors who may wish to write the individual chapters. It is usually best to put contingency plans in place in case some candidates are too busy. At this point you may wish to complete the Author Proposal Form for submission to the mhammond [at] iwap.co.uk (Editor).
In general, the timing for an edited book depends very much on the number of contributions that are requested, the scope of the proposal and also the time commitments of the contributors concerning the delivery of chapters. On average, an edited text can take anything from 12 months to 24 months in the making. The books are usually 128 printed pages to no more than 600 pages in length.
The contributions need not be onerous – in a team of contributors, each person/team usually submits 10 to 20 printed pages for each chapter.
The process
IWA Publishing can help by arranging reviews of the proposal and once the final draft of the proposal has been agreed, we send a publishing agreement to the Editor/s. Royalties are allocated to the Editors of the book.
The next step is to invite contributors and once they have accepted, they sign an agreement for each chapter. Editors send in the details of the chapter titles, length, delivery date and author contact details for each contributor to IWA Publishing. The lead contributor receives a gratis copy of the book and IWA Publishing will supply up to 15 complimentary copies of the book in total. A discount of 50% is offered to all contributors and Editors.
It is important that each contributor agrees to work to the same delivery date, so that the Editor/s can check the material to ensure the quality and coverage of the chapters. IWA Publishing can assist with individual chapter reviews, although most editors prefer to manage this themselves.
The book submission checklist is a useful document for contributors and authors to use before submitting their final manuscript.
Once the final draft of the text is received, the manuscript is checked, edited if necessary and typeset. Final proofs are supplied for checking before publication.
IWA Publishing supplies each author with guidelines and a sample format for the book. The book will usually be published both as an ebook and a print edition in black only. Full colour requires funding and this can be discussed with the IWA Publishing Editor.
If you require any further information then please do contact mhammond [at] iwap.co.uk (subject: Information%20for%20Book%20Editors%20-%20IWA%20Publishing) (Mark Hammond) and he will be pleased to help with any questions or issues.