Complete this and send it with your table of contents and sample chapters. Each section exists because a reviewer or the Advisory Board will ask for it.
Before you start
This form is close to what any university press will ask for, so nothing you write here is wasted if you take the book elsewhere. The lengths given are guidance. An answer that runs over is acceptable. Write for an intelligent scholar outside your subfield.
1. You
- Name, and the name you publish under if different
- Position and institution (or “independent scholar”, which is not a disadvantage here)
- Email and postal address
- ORCID iD
- Up to six previous publications, with DOIs where they exist
- Co-authors or volume editors, with the same details for each
2. The Book
- Working title and subtitle
- One sentence describing the book, for someone who will read only that sentence
- Type: monograph, edited volume, critical edition, translation, or long-form essay
- Expected extent in words, including notes and bibliography
- Date you can deliver a complete manuscript
3. The Argument
Around 500 words. What does the book claim, and why does it matter? Not what it is about, but what it argues. If you cannot state the claim, reviewers will say so.
4. Rationale and Originality
Around 300 words. What gap does this fill? What does it do that existing work does not? Be specific about the scholarship you are answering.
5. Sources, Evidence and Method
Around 300 words. What does the book rest on: archives, fieldwork, data, corpora, case law, interviews? Where is that material, and do you have access to it?
6. Readership
Who will read this, in which fields, at what level, and in which countries? “Anyone interested in modern history” tells us nothing; “historians of medicine, medical ethicists, and clinicians teaching professionalism to undergraduates” tells us a great deal.
Name any readership beyond the academy: practitioners, policy-makers, campaigners, clinicians, the communities the research concerns.
7. Comparable Books
Three to six recent titles, with a sentence each on how yours differs. Include the books that compete with yours.
8. The Case for Open Access for This Book
Around 300 words, read closely by the Advisory Board. State the reason for open publication in the case of this book rather than the general argument for open access. Relevant grounds include the readers a paywall would exclude, a source base that should be widely available, a practitioner audience, and a region where the subject is studied but library budgets are thin.
9. Structure
A table of contents with a paragraph on each chapter, showing how the argument develops from one to the next. Attach this as a separate document if it runs long. Reviewers use it more than any other part of the proposal.
10. Illustrations, Tables and Third-Party Material
- Approximate number of images, figures, tables and maps
- Whether any are in colour
- Any material you do not own: images, long quotations, archival documents, interview transcripts, song lyrics, unpublished letters
- Whether you have begun clearing it, and any clearance you already hold
Third-party material must be cleared for open licensing, and a print-only permission does not cover it. This is the commonest cause of delay in open-access book production. Material identified at proposal stage can be dealt with. Material identified at production stage delays publication by months.
11. Funding
Whether the research is funded and by whom, with grant numbers, and whether you have access to an open-access book fund through your funder or institution.
This section is not shown to the Advisory Board. It exists so we can tell you early how publication would be paid for. It plays no part in the editorial decision.
12. Other Submissions
Is this proposal with another publisher? Simultaneous submission is acceptable provided you tell us. Reviewers spend days of unpaid work on a report, and they are entitled to know the position.
13. Reviewers
- Up to three scholars you think well placed to review this. We consider suggestions but are not bound by them, and we will not use anyone who has collaborated with you in the last five years.
- Anyone you would prefer we did not approach, with brief reasons. We honour reasonable exclusion requests without argument.
Checklist
- This form, completed
- Table of contents with chapter summaries
- One or two sample chapters, ideally including the introduction
- A two-page CV for each author or editor
- For edited volumes: contributor list with affiliations and confirmations, chapter abstracts, and your plan for keeping contributors to schedule
Where to Send It
One PDF to proposals@bassi.foundation, with sample chapters attached separately and the working title in the subject line. Every submission is acknowledged within one week.