Author Guide to Acquisitions 

Before we see your manuscript, we’ll typically want to review a proposal for your project. Sometimes a proposal is the first time we hear about a great project. Sometimes a proposal comes after an author has already been in conversation with an editor. Either way, the proposal is the first formal written document that can be shared for discussion and review by our acquisitions editors. For details on how to prepare your proposal, see the Submitting Proposals section on our For Prospective Authors page. We welcome agented submissions for general interest and crossover books. 

If invited to submit a partial or complete manuscript for review, your editor may ask you to complete an Author and Manuscript Inquiry Form (AMI), which provides us with pertinent information about yourself and your work. Please take the time to fill out this form carefully and completely as it plays an important role in our review process. 

Download the AMI (pdf)

In general, you should only submit your full manuscript to the Press after an editor has invited it for review. Our editorial team will first complete an in-office review, meant to determine the work’s general suitability for our list and readiness for peer review. This process can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Ask the editor to whom you have submitted your project for an estimated schedule for this part of the process. Thereafter, your editor may decline further consideration, invite you to revise and resubmit the manuscript, or send the work to peer reviewers. 

We expect every manuscript will improve through revision and editing as a part of the review process, but we expect generally clean copy with minimal typos, spelling errors, or other infelicities. Any citations (eg. notes and bibliography) should be complete. If you expect to include illustrations in your book, preliminary copies and captions are welcome but not required, and we do not expect you to have high-resolution reproductions or permissions at this early stage of review. Submit the manuscript in one digital file (MS Word strongly preferred), with a title page, table of contents, and clear chapter headings. Please consecutively paginate the manuscript and prepare it in a standard 12-point font, double-spaced for easy reading. For other general formatting advice, please consult the UNC Press Manuscript Formatting Guide below. 

The Guide is geared specifically to your FINAL manuscript that will be transmitted for copyediting after peer review and final approval by our Board of Governors. Manuscripts submitted for peer review are not required to follow all the standards below. Nevertheless, because formatting and file naming can involve many small details, we urge you to begin this work as soon as possible. 

Download the UNC Press Guide to Manuscript Preparation (pdf).

Manuscripts invited for review will receive our careful attention. If the in-office review process confirms an editor’s interest and the manuscript’s readiness, the next step involves formal peer review. Peer review is a hallmark of university press publishing. To learn more about the peer review process, we encourage authors to familiarize themselves with the Association of University Presses’ Best Practices for Peer Review. This document offers a detailed overview of how university press acquisitions editors typically approach the peer review process. There are variations from publisher to publisher; when in doubt, ask your editor. 

The Board of Governors of UNC Press, which authorizes all publications, requires that every manuscript recommended to it by the Press have the written support of at least two outside peer reviewers. Their reports are made confidentially, and copies are sent to the author. As our reviewers are generally distinguished and experienced authors and commit their time and perspective as a service to the scholarly publishing community, this part of the evaluation process can be time-consuming. We do our best to provide authors with thoughtful and useful responses to their manuscripts within a reasonable amount of time, and we keep authors informed throughout. 

The review process represents an investment of intellectual concern, time, and money. When we engage outside readers for peer review, we prefer to be the only press considering your manuscript. We are willing, however, to consider simultaneous submissions on a case-by-case basis. 

Because UNC Press publishes general interest books as well as scholarly works, we adapt our peer review processes regularly to suit the needs of every manuscript; a manuscript by a journalist or other writer outside the academy will have different kinds of “peers” than a work produced for readers in a scholarly community. The experienced team of editors at the Press is ready to help authors experience a peer review process that is ideally suited to a book and its aims. 

A contract creates the binding legal commitments necessary for you as an author and UNC Press as publisher to produce your book. Before offering a contract, the Press will have completed an internal review of a work’s editorial merits (often complemented by external peer review) as well as an evaluation of a preliminary financial plan for the book’s publication. The Press’s director, acquisitions team, marketing team, and other key staff participate in the decision-making process.  

All books published under the UNC Press imprint must receive approval from the Press’s Board of Governors before publication, but the Press offers contracts to authors both before and after Board approval. Contracts offered before approval are known as “advance” contracts, and they are fully equivalent to a “standard” (i.e., post-Board approval) contract. 

Most of a book’s contract consists of boilerplate legal guarantees meant to establish the roles of the author and the Press and to protect the interests of both parties. This language is largely non-negotiable, but your editor will be prepared to answer questions about the terms and to clarify which terms may be open to negotiation. 

Download Form W-9 (editable pdf)
Download Form W-8BEN (editable pdf) 

After an initial round of in-office evaluation and external peer review, it is common that outside readers and/or your editor will ask for substantial revision that could entail changes to the content and structure of the manuscript as well as its presentation/style. In such a case, you and your editor will agree on a deadline to submit a revised manuscript that can be evaluated again before determining whether it is ready for final approval by the Press’s Board of Governors. We expect a revised manuscript will have a higher level of polish, and because it may closely resemble the final manuscript submitted for copyediting (after Board approval is secure), we encourage you to attend more carefully to formatting and presentation before submission. If you expect the final manuscript to include illustrations, appendixes, etc., please plan to submit these materials in preliminary form so that Press staff can work with you on final details of evaluation and preparation. (For art guidance, see the Acquiring Art section below.) It is common for some preparation to remain, but ideally remaining tasks can be completed in the same time frame that outside readers are finishing their review, and your editor is preparing to present the work to the Board of Governors. This advance preparation will help smooth the process of delivering your final manuscript for copyediting.  

The UNC Press Manuscript Formatting Guide provides authors with basic guidelines for manuscript preparation and a general outline of the editorial process that lies ahead. While every book is different and no guide can cover every situation, following the Manuscript Formatting Guide will expedite the copyediting and production of your book. 

Download the UNC Press Guide to Manuscript Preparation (pdf).

If you plan to include art in your book—photos, maps, tables, and/or graphs—you’ll need to read and follow our Digital Art Guidelines, below. Many first-time authors aren’t familiar with the requirements for high-resolution art files or the intricacies of map creation, and misunderstandings can cause disappointment or delays to your book’s schedule. Communicating early and often with your acquisitions team about your art program and its specific needs is the best way to ensure a smooth process and a well-illustrated book that will be attractive in all its print and e-book formats. 

Generally, authors are responsible for the time and cost associated with securing illustrations in production-ready form. 

In a digital world, keeping guidelines up to date can often be a challenge. If you have questions about the Digital Art Guidelines, or if you want to confirm that the information here is current, questions should be directed to [email protected].  

Download the Digital Art and Map Guidelines (pdf). 

Maps are some of the trickiest pieces of art to prepare for publication, and it’s crucial that you talk to your editor early and often about your map program. There are two approaches to map creation, but regardless of which option you choose, keep in mind that map costs are the author’s responsibility, and all maps must adhere to the Digital Art Guidelines, linked to above. 

Option one: You can work with a cartographer who creates a map to Press specifications. If you choose this option, it is crucial that the mapmaker get in touch with our Production team before beginning the work to ensure they understand our technical and other guidelines. 

Option two: UNC Press can create the map from materials that you provide. First, supply a base map that shows all the information you want included on the map. In addition, you will need to prepare a text (Word doc) file with all the labels to be included on the map, broken down into categories (e.g., cities, states, rivers, attractions). 

As an author, or as editor of a collective work, your contract with UNC Press places responsibility on you for obtaining the necessary permissions for publication. You may need to seek permission for use of any material in your book—text or image—to which you do not hold the rights and that is protected under copyright law. 

The permissions process can take some time, especially if you are planning to include artwork in your book, or if your book includes substantial extracts from previously published works. Because all rights information must be checked by Press staff before copyediting can begin, any necessary permissions paperwork must be submitted with your final manuscript. We encourage you to start the process early to avoid causing delays to your book’s publication schedule. We also suggest that you run permission forms from outside entities through your acquisitions team. 

The UNC Press Guide to Securing Art and Text Permissions, below, will help you understand and navigate the permissions process. We also strongly encourage authors to consider the Fair Use Doctrine as it applies to the use of copyrighted material. 

Download the Guidelines for Art and Permissions (pdf) 

Sample Permission Request Letter (doc) 

Download the Art and Text Permissions Log (xls) 

The final step in the peer review approval process is presentation of your project to the Press’s Board of Governors, a body comprised of faculty and others charged with the authority and responsibility to make the requisite, formal decision to publish a work under the Press’s imprint. The Board meets on a regular basis throughout the year, and a docket containing the manuscript’s complete peer review history is presented by the editor to the Board in preparation for the Board’s decision. Once the decision to publish has been made by the Board, a project under “advance contract” can move forward to the final manuscript submission stage. For projects with a “standard contract,” a contract will be drawn up and signed by the author and the Press. After that contract is in full effect, final manuscript submission can proceed. 

Learn more about the UNC Press Board of Governors. 

A university press is a not-for-profit business, and for most scholarly books, the cost of publication is greater than what is returned through sales. The Press maintains an endowment that helps to offset the difference between publication costs and sales revenue. We also welcome opportunities to work with university departments, centers, and institutes and other grantmaking partners who support publication by subsidizing publisher costs.   

Authors based in the academy may also have access to dedicated funds from their college or university, often called subvention, to support faculty publications. We encourage authors to investigate possible subvention sources; deans or department heads, especially at research universities, may have access to these funds. We are happy to provide support for these inquiries and regularly provide supporting letters or budget documentation. 

The decision to publish a book is not dependent on subvention but rather on the editorial merit of the work and its likely impact. We do not accept subventions directly from an author. 

Learn more about other types of fundraising we do to support our books.

The Marketing Author Questionnaire (AQ) will be sent to you just after your project is approved by the Board of Governors. This will ensure we can consider your suggestions before our launch meeting with the editorial and production departments where we discuss your book’s plans. 

The AQ will ask you to provide critical information necessary for the promotion of your book, such as keywords for metadata and search engine discoverability, key features of your book, competitive titles, and more. We’ll also ask you for information that includes: 

• A description of the readership and audience profile: is your book intended for general readers, scholars and researchers, students, or for course adoption? In many cases, the answer will be all or most of the above;   

• Any publicity or reviewer contacts you might have, and a list of the relevant journals and publications where review copies should be sent;   

• Any local contacts as well: your local booksellers, libraries, publications, etc.;  

• A list of the book awards you’d like us to pursue, as well as the academic and other conferences you attend and where your book should be displayed; 

If your book is published in a paperback edition and has course adoption potential, please pay attention to those items in the AQ. 

This information is important for us to have in advance as we prepare to launch your book and start putting together all the elements of your book’s marketing plan. We will consider all your suggestions as we make an effective marketing plan for your book. 

When you send the final version of the manuscript for copyediting, you will also be sending us the manuscript’s illustrations, permissions, and digital files. Final materials can be sent via an online file-sharing system (like Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint, or Dropbox). The manuscript file(s) can also be sent via email, but we ask that you send all illustration files through an online file-sharing system or external drive to prevent image compression. We cannot begin copyediting until all final files (manuscript and illustrations) and permissions are in hand. To ensure as smooth a path as possible into copyediting, it is important to attend to all matters addressed in the editorial appraisal that comes from your book’s project editor, and please refer to the Guide to Manuscript Preparation for our in-house style and formatting preferences. 

Final Manuscript Checklist (pdf)

After you submit final manuscript, art, and permissions to your editor, our team makes sure all elements are in place before we transmit the manuscript out of Acquisitions and over to our Manuscript Editorial team. We’ll be in touch with you about anything that might be missing or unclear and will also ask you to share your communication and schedule details for the next year. Because missing elements can significantly delay your book’s publication schedule, please respond to email queries about your final materials as soon as possible. All final files (text, art, permissions) must be in place before your manuscript can move ahead to the copyediting phase. 

As we prepare to transmit your manuscript for copyediting (see above) and to move forward with marketing and promotion of the finished book, your editor will guide a process of consultation about your book’s confirmed title and its jacket/cover design. Because the Press’s marketing team is responsible for guiding your book into the hands of its various audiences and customers, they play an essential role in these decisions. Your book’s title (and any subtitle) must be finalized before copyediting can begin, so starting these conversations in advance with your editor is encouraged. For the book’s jacket/cover design, your editor will welcome general and/or specific ideas you may have, including an image or images our marketing and design team can consider, preferences about color or typography, or designs of other books that may appeal to you. Our book designers will then produce a design for your book’s jacket/cover, and after it has been reviewed and approved by Press staff, we will share it with you. 

Twice a year, the Marketing department hosts a series of launch meetings in which the Acquisitions, Manuscript Editorial, Design, and Marketing teams meet to discuss each manuscript making its way through editorial and production. Also discussed are the production and marketing strategies for each individual book that will hit the market in a specific publishing season. In January, we discuss books that will publish the following Fall; in July, we discuss the following Spring’s books Afterwards, the Marketing department will send you a Marketing Author Questionnaire (AQ) after your book is approved by the Board of Governors. This is the tool with which we can include your ideas, resources, contacts, and suggestions as part of our launch conversation. It’s important for the Marketing department to have your feedback in hand before this meeting so they can come to the discussion prepared with informed strategies for how best to reach the audience for your book. 

UNC Press publishes several book catalogs annually. To have a successful catalog, we need excellent descriptive copy—often called book or catalog copy— to introduce readers, scholars, media, and booksellers to your work. In addition to print catalogs, this copy is used online on Amazon and the Press’s website, and on the book itself. We take care to collaborate with authors to create this copy. Your first opportunity to offer a draft of your book’s descriptive copy is in the Marketing Author Questionnaire (AQ), described above. The AQ offers rules and concepts to consider as you draft your copy. Your editor will use this AQ draft in fashioning the final draft of the descriptive copy. You will have the opportunity to edit and/or approve your editor’s draft of the copy and the book’s tagline. A tagline is a short phrase, normally five to ten words, that introduces readers to the general concept of the book and is included in print catalogs. Afterwards, the copy, along with blurbs and the tagline, is sent to our manuscript editorial department for copyediting. 

UNC Press actively sells our authors’ books in digital formats through several prominent library-facing aggregations, including Books@JSTOR, Project Muse, and Oxford UP’s University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO). We provide these platforms with additional, extended metadata that will improve the discoverability of your work. To that end, about six months after your book’s publication, we’ll ask you to create abstracts and select keywords for your book, as well as for each individual chapter. We’ll provide you with several weeks’ time to complete this task. 

Download the Guidelines for Submitting Abstracts and Keywords (pdf).

Download the Keywords and Abstracts Template (doc).

The Press is able to make one set of corrections to address significant errors only. We make such corrections no sooner than nine months after a book’s publication date in order to provide sufficient time for errors to surface via readers’ feedback, published reviews, and so on. 

We consider the following significant errors: 

—misspellings (e.g., in proper nouns or those that cause misunderstanding) 

—factual errors (e.g., dates or incorrect attributions for quoted material) 

Errors that won’t cause misunderstanding (e.g., missing or misplaced punctuation, transposition of letters or words, or grammatical errors) are not significant errors, nor are incorrect or outdated author affiliations. 

When you have a complete list of corrections, please forward it to your acquiring editor. It should provide the location of each correction, the original text, and the text that replaces it (if any). For example: 

—page 3, line 27: the year 1993 should be 1995 

—page 174, line 8: the name Sarah S. Johnson should be Sara M. Johnson 

Alternately, in place of a list, you can include a single PDF file that contains all the relevant pages with the corrections clearly marked. 

We will make corrections to both the print and the ebook formats of your book within 4 to 6 weeks. UNC Press reserves the right to stet requested corrections that we deem unnecessary, do not conform to house style, or are not significant in nature. 

If you have questions, please contact your acquiring editor.