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Submission Guidelines
The University of Illinois Press publishes scholarly books and serious nonfiction, with special interests in African American studies; American history; anthropology; Appalachian studies; Asian American studies; communications; folklore; food studies; immigration and ethnic history; labor history; military history; Mormon history; music; Native American studies; philosophy; religious studies; sensory history; southern history; sport history; transnational cultural studies; women's studies.
Before submitting a proposal, please be sure that we are the appropriate publisher for your work. Note that we do not publish original fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
University of
Illinois Press
1325 South Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820-6903
Submitting a Proposal
Our acquisitions editors prefer to consider a written proposal prior to inviting submission of a complete manuscript. If you do not already know which editor to contact, please consult our staff listing for editors' names and their areas of interest. If you are still uncertain, address your submission to the editor in chief, who will relay it to the appropriate acquisitions editor. Your proposal will not be returned unless you specifically request it and include a self-addressed envelope and adequate return postage.
Your proposal should include the following items:
- a cover letter describing the length of the manuscript (number of words or number of double-spaced pages) and any intended elements other than text, such as photographs, musical scores, graphs, line drawings, or tables; also, if the manuscript is not yet finished, let us know when you expect to finish it;
- a table of contents;
- one or two sample chapters that accurately reflect the nature and quality of your work;
- a copy of your résumé or curriculum vitae;
- the names of any experts who have already read your manuscript or are familiar with your work.
Proposals are generally evaluated within four weeks of receipt. You should feel free to submit your proposal to as many presses as you wish, but please inform us if you have done so.
Submitting a Manuscript
Please do not send unsolicited manuscripts. We prefer to receive proposals first. When invited, send one printed-out version of the manuscript (double-spaced, single-sided, and unbound) along with a matching electronic version on disk.
We will not send out for evaluation any manuscript that is under consideration elsewhere. If your manuscript has been or will be submitted simultaneously to other presses, you should immediately inform us of that.
Series
If you would like your manuscript to be considered for inclusion in one of the Press's series you should so inform your acquiring editor. It is possible that he or she may also initiate series consideration for your manuscript. Books included in series must be approved by the editors of that series, and no book will be included in a series without the author's consent. We can and do publish books independent of series, even if they might fit into particular series.
Edited Collections and Festschriften
We occasionally publish edited collections of essays but prefer works written by one or two authors. For best consideration an edited collection should be original (no previously published contributions), cohesive, consistently styled and formatted, and concise.
The University of Illinois Press does not publish festschriften.
Dissertations
The Press does not consider unrevised doctoral dissertations for publication. If you're writing a book based on your dissertation, you'll find useful advice in The Thesis and the Book, 2nd ed., edited by Eleanor Harman, Ian Montagnes, Siobhan McMenemy, and Chris Bucci (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), and From Dissertation to Book by William Germano (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
The Review Process
Like other academic presses, we encounter many manuscripts that exhibit excellent scholarship but are poorly written and are longer than they need to be. We encourage you to be clear and concise, to avoid jargon and pretension, and to make brevity one of the strengths of your manuscript.
Should an acquisitions editor decide to pursue your project, he or she will send the manuscript to one or more expert referees for evaluation. Referees typically recommend for or against publication, but often they recommend acceptance contingent upon certain revisions. Usually a referee requires six to eight weeks to evaluate a manuscript.
If the referees recommend publication, the editor who is sponsoring your project will present it to the Press's internal review committee, which is made up of the director, the editor in chief, and representatives of the editorial, design, production, and marketing departments. This committee reviews the referees' reports and relevant correspondence, considers the quality, length, costs, and potential audience for the manuscript, and decides whether the project fits into the general plans for the Press.
Approval by the internal review committee is necessary before a project can be presented to the University of Illinois faculty members who constitute our Press Board. Contracts are generally offered following Press Board approval, though sometimes an advance contract will be offered with the approval of the internal review committee.
The Press Board is expected to guard the imprint of the University by weighing the merits of each project. The board takes great care in its deliberations and, on occasion, may approve manuscripts only on the condition that certain revisions are made or additional outside readings are obtained.
Usually you and your sponsoring editor will work together on final revisions, and authors should consult Style Guidelines at this stage. The production manager and the managing editor will also review your disk and manuscript prior to final submission and may request that you make further changes in accordance with our guidelines.
Time Frame
Once a project has been approved by the Press Board and all revisions are completed and approved, it will take approximately 10 to 12 months to publish your book, after the final manuscript has been submitted. During that time yours will be one of approximately 160 projects we will copyedit, design, typeset, proofread, and have printed and bound. We will do our best to keep you involved in and informed about the progress of your manuscript as it makes its way through the publication process.
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