What Does UC Press Publish?

University of California Press is one of the largest, most distinguished, and most adventurous scholarly publishers in the world, respected for its creativity and renowned for attracting authors whose work transcends traditional academic boundaries to speak to people everywhere. For more than a century, UC Press has considered manuscripts from the world's foremost scholars, writers, artists, and public intellectuals. UC Press publishes annually about 200 new books and 40 multi-issue journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. About one-fourth of current authors are affiliated with the University of California.

Established in 1893, UC Press serves all ten campuses of the University of California, and is a department of the University of California Office of the President. All manuscripts undergo extensive peer-review, which includes outside readings by field experts. The imprint of UC Press is controlled by a faculty editorial committee composed of twenty members of the Academic Senate, which is representative of the ten campuses of the University, and this committee exercises the final acceptance of all books and periodicals published by UC Press.

University of California Press publishes general interest and scholarly books in the broad categories listed with the editors names. We do not generally publish new fiction, religious inspiration or revelation, children's books, Festschriften, conference volumes, unrevised dissertations, or autobiographies.

How Do I Submit a Proposal?

Please send a book prospectus rather than a full-length manuscript. This will allow us to quickly assess our interest in your work. If we decide to pursue consideration of your project, we will either request the full manuscript or send the prospectus out for external review.

Please address your submission to only one editor who will review it or pass it to another editor if appropriate. Proposals should not be sent electronically, either as disks or as attachments to email messages. Please mail a hard copy of all materials to:

[Editor's Name]
UC Press
2120 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
USA

If you would like to submit to a particular series, please visit the series page for relevant submissions information.

Please note, your book need not fit into one of our series to be considered for publication. However it should fall within one of our existing publishing fields. To determine whether or not the press publishes in your field, please visit the description of editors and their lists.

UC Press does accept simultaneous submissions, but requests that you keep the editor informed of the status of manuscripts submitted to other publishers.

If you would like to have your manuscript returned to you after the waiting period, please state this in writing, and include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Please do not send original materials and keep a copy of everything you send.

What Should Be in a Proposal?

A proposal should give the UC Press editors and marketing staff—most of whom will not be specialists in your area—clear and detailed idea of what your book will be about. Your initial submission should include a letter of introduction, a proposal as outlined below, your CV or resume, and a sample chapter or two.

1. Brief Description

In a few paragraphs, describe the work. Be sure to include what you consider to be the outstanding, distinctive, or unique features of the work. This narrative description should explain the proposed book's purpose, themes, arguments, scope, contribution to scholarship, and place in the literature. Please state your argument concisely and clearly.

2. Outline / Table of Contents

Include a detailed outline of the book with paragraph-length descriptions of each chapter.

3. Apparatus / Illustrative Materials

• What do you estimate to be the length of the completed book?
  (Note: Doublespaced typewritten pages normally reduce about one-third when set in type; e.g., 300 typewritten pages make about 200 printed pages. There are about 450 words on a printed page.)
• Describe any plans for ancillary materials (workbook, teachers manual, audio, CD ROM, etc.).
• Approximately how many photographs and/or line drawings (charts, graphs, diagrams, etc.) do you plan to include? If illustrations are planned, please send photocopies of sample art—do not send original photographs, artwork, negatives, or any materials that are irreplaceable.
• Will the book include cases, questions, problems, glossaries, bibliography, references, appendices, etc.? If so, please describe and indicate how many of each.

4. Market Considerations

• For what type of reader is your book intended? Specialists in your field, or in some particular area of a larger field? Is it intended for general readers without specialized knowledge?
• Is it a book that students might use, and if so, students at what level (major or non-major; freshman, senior, graduate) and in what course?

5. Competition

• Describe existing books in this field and spell out how your book will be similar to, as well as different from, these works. Discuss specifically their strengths and weaknesses, how your coverage may vary from the competing titles.
• Please discuss each competing book in a separate paragraph. If possible, please provide the publisher and date of publication as well.

6. Status of the Work

• What portion or percentage of the material is now complete? When do you expect to have a complete manuscript?
• Do you plan to include material requiring permission (text, music, lyrics, illustrations)? To what extent? Have you started the permissions request process?

7. Reviews

Please provide the names and contact details for three or four people whom you feel would be competent to review your material and whose opinion you would find valuable. We will try to use some of these along with our own selection. Naturally, we do not reveal the names of reviewers without their permission.

The Review Process

After receipt of your proposal, the sponsoring editor will review your materials and consider whether it is a good fit for the UC Press list. We make every effort to ensure that editorial decisions are made in a timely manner, but because UC Press receives hundreds of book proposals each year, it may take up to four months for a response to this initial submission. During the waiting period, UC Press editors do not accept phone queries regarding the status of your proposal.

If we are interested in your project, we will notify you of our interest and then commission outside reviewers to read and evaluate your proposal. At this stage, we may ask for additional materials. We will, of course, obtain the best available reviewers to consider your work. The review process typically takes up to four months, depending on, among other things, the nature of the project and the availability of reviewers.