The Publishing Process

Submit your proposal

Contact your Publisher about your idea for a new edition or a brand new book and they will provide you with guidelines for submitting your proposal.

Publishing Assessment

Your Publisher will assess the strengths of your proposal, the commercial viability of the project (both print and digital form) and how it fits within our publishing portfolio and strategy. Your Publisher will also look at the competitive landscape.

Review

Your book proposal will be sent out for initial review (4-6 weeks). Your publisher will then discuss the reviewer feedback with you and ask you to make revisions and resubmit the proposal if necessary. If the feedback is positive, the proposal will move to the next stage.

Editorial Approval

The internal Editorial Board will make the final decision on approving the book for publication, and digitisation, and will discuss contract terms.

Contract

Your contract will be drafted to include clauses on length of manuscript, royalties and fee arrangements, copyright position, delivery date and terms, and other legal commitments on both the author and publisher side.

Manuscript Writing Phase

Your Publisher will send you detailed author guidelines on house style, style templates, formatting, image specs, permissions. Your Publisher will be available throughout the writing and will arrange regular check-ins to find out how your manuscript is progressing and whether you have any queries or problems. Our Publishers and authors strike up very long and productive collaborations over many years and forge good and trusted relationships working together over multiple editions. Our current House Style Guide can be downloaded here.

Manuscript Delivery

Your Publisher will give you clear guidelines on how to submit your final manuscript and will be responsible for handing over your manuscript to our Production and Editorial team for work to start on the publication process.

Editorial & Production Process

An Editor and Production Editor will be assigned to manage the book through the copyediting and typesetting, proofreading and indexing, collating and correction, and (in conjunction with the Publisher) the cover design process. Production usually takes 3-4 months for an average book. Digitisation of your book to Westlaw UK and / or our ProView eBook platform will take place concurrently.

Book Publication

Our UK and global sales and marketing team works with trade booksellers, universities, membership organisations and other sales partners to ensure your book is promoted and sold to reach the target audience. For more information on our Marketing activity and on how you can self-promote your book please take a look at the Marketing tab.