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Submitting a book proposal

The guidelines below provides you with general suggestions for the preparation of publication proposals, but you should check with the editor by sending an inquiry first. The inquiry, which must be send by email, should simply describe in a few paragraphs, the project, the author, and the main reasons for writing the book. Please not that we do not accept manuscripts & sample chapters, unless you are specifically invited to do so.


Please keep in mind when preparing your proposal that we need to know as much as possible about your project, including its scope, intended audience, and how we can promote the book to that audience. It's essential that you can design your book as an object, if necessary, and thus provide us with suggestions for the form you'd like to give it.

Your proposal should generally include the following four items:

1. A prospectus describing your intentions.
2. A detailed table of contents.
3. Two to four sample chapters that demonstrate the clarity and precision of your prose and the appeal of your expository strategy. (Check with individual editor first.)
4. An up-to-date curriculum vita.

The Prospectus

The prospectus should include the following:
1. Brief Description
In one or two paragraphs, describe the work, approach, theoretical frame and pedagogy.

2. Outstanding Features
List briefly what you consider to be the outstanding, distinctive or unique features of your proposal. Consider the existing books in this field and discuss their strength and weaknesses, individually and specifically. If other books similar to yours have been written in the field, please explain why you chose to write a new book on the subject. Please mention all relevant books, even if only a few chapters resonate with yours.

3. Apparatus
In this section, please indicate whether your book will include specific elements such as interviews, glossaries, appendices, and so on, as well as whether you intend to provide additional material with the book (links to documents, films, sound, records, etc.).

4. Audience
Please explain to whom your book is addressed: is the audience vast, or is it limited to an academic and student readership? In which discipline? (Philosophy, aesthetics, art history, sound studies...).

5. Authors
Provide relevant information about your research, professional qualifications or other aspects of your background (e.g. those outside the strict academic framework: artistic creation, curating, role in an institution, etc.). In short, what is it about all this that qualifies you to write about it?

6. Market Considerations
To complete part 4, please tell us about potential buyers of your book: what is their profile? What is your estimate of sales? If you have any, please provide us with mailing lists that could help improve the book's distribution, as well as organizations that could help publicize it.

7. Status of the Book
How much of your work is already completed? When do you expect to have your manuscript completed?
How long is your manuscript, in words? How many images, appendices, or other specific elements do you want to add to the text? Do you have any specific suggestions as to how you would like the book to look?

8. Reviewers
To examine your proposal, we can call on reviewers of our choice, selected from the Enceladus Press scientific committee, or elsewhere if the subject or approach justifies it. However, you can also indicate reviewers who you feel would be particularly competent to evaluate your work. You can therefore mention a few of them, specifying their affiliation and the links you have with them. If you think your book is relevant to several markets and disciplines, please list one reviewer for each. Your material can be submitted anonymously if you wish.

9. Explanatory notes
They should be included as necessary, especially if they can help the reviewer understand the structure of your work or some of its singularities.

Sample Chapters

If you are invited to submit sample chapters, these should be in sufficiently advanced form (structure, corrections & layout) to allow effective evaluation of your work. However, they do not necessarily have to be in their completed format, especially if certain aspects of their presentation or layout need to be discussed with the editor. Make sure you choose the most relevant or innovative chapters. The chapters chosen should ideally represent a quarter of the book; they can be presented out of sequence if necessary. The chapters submitted must be representative of your style and your scientific approach to the subject.