Submission Guidelines
Montagu House is open to considering original nonfiction book or anthology contribution proposals from prospective authors, subject to the conditions below. If you want to submit a proposal to us, please don’t send us a manuscript as a first step. Manuscripts which are submitted without being preceded by a proposal summary, as described below, will be discarded unread.
We’re interested in full-length academic and general-interest books, preferably of 60,000 - 90,000 words, as well as shorter works (preferably around 10,000 words) suitable for inclusion in an anthology. We’re currently building five book lines, as described below, and are especially interested in manuscript proposals that fit into one of these subject areas. If you’d like to make a proposal but you’re not sure whether it fits readily into any of these areas, you're welcome to tell us about it; we might be interested anyway, as we’re constantly exploring new lines of publishing that don't yet appear on our website. But as a first step it's a good idea to browse our site to see our interests. Here are our current lines:
* Studies in Online Civilization is a scholarly series developed with support from the New York-based King Baudouin Foundation United States, whose patron is Queen Mathilde of Belgium. These are works about the Internet and its associated technologies. We prefer contributors to this series to be academics with university affiliations but will consider contributions of high scholarly quality from outside academia.
For our other four current lines, we prefer contributions that strike a balance between rigorous research and broad readability, resulting in books that will interest scholars but will also be readily accessible and interesting to the general public outside academia. We welcome books with an interdisciplinary flavor.
* For our Profiles in Popular Culture line, we’ll consider proposals on the history of any aspect of popular culture, such as comic books, comic strip art, cartoons, science fiction, fantasy, other genre fiction, and films.
* For our Profiles in Urban Thought line, we’ll consider proposals on any aspect of urban policy, cityscapes, architecture and the intellectual history of urban development and the concept of the city.
* For our War History line, we’re especially interested at this time in the role of Greece in World War 2, but we’ll consider proposals on any aspect of military history.
* For our Issues in Science & Technology line, we’ll consider proposals in the areas of science writing, medical subjects, history of science and technology, philosophy of science, and public policy matters related to scientific research, science education, the scientific professions, technological infrastructures, and technology innovation.
If you send us a manuscript proposal, this will mean you have read and agreed to the terms presented here.
Your proposal should not include a manuscript, and should not exceed 2000 words in total, please. It should contain:
• Some information about yourself, including your qualifications for writing on the subject of your proposal and a list of your previous publications, if any.
• A synopsis of the manuscript you'd like to submit, the proposed length of your manuscript, and a tentative title.
• A description of your manuscript's target audience, ie the people you believe will buy it if we publish it.
• The names of two or three existing publications which deal with the subject of your proposed book, with an explanation of how yours will differ from them.
• Your thoughts on how, if we publish your manuscript, you'd be able to help market and promote it, including the names of appropriately qualified people you know whom you'll ask to review it.
• Whether you've already completed the manuscript and, if not, when you expect to complete it.
By sending us a proposal, you agree that our receipt of it does not create a contract or business relationship between us, nor does it imply or create any obligation on our part toward you or anyone else. By sending us your proposal you also acknowledge, understand and agree that we may well already be working on a project similar to the one you’re proposing, and that if this is the case your submission of your proposal will not in any way limit our right to continue our existing project.
Your proposal should be e-mailed to editorial@montagupublishing.com. Please put MANUSCRIPT PROPOSAL in the subject heading. We generally respond to a proposal within thirty days. If you don’t hear from us by then, you’re welcome to email a follow-up query to ensure that we received your first email. But emailing us a second time within the first thirty days won’t make anything move faster. If your proposal interests us, we’ll ask you for more information that will enable us to determine whether your proposal is right for us.
For all inquiries other than proposals, such as inquiries about bulk book purchases at a discount, please use our CONTACT US page.