Submit

Purdue University Press is dedicated to publishing works for academic and general readers. To get a better sense of the areas we currently focus on, please browse our recent catalogs. We welcome proposals in these core subjects:

  • Science and Technology, including aeronautics and astronautics, environmental studies and climate change, engineering, agriculture, and public health. We especially are interested in interdisciplinary titles in the social sciences and humanities that cover history, policy approaches, and cultural impact.
  • Navigating Careers in Higher Education (see series)
  • Human-Animal Bond (see series)
  • Central European Studies (see series)
  • Regional works about Indiana and Purdue (see series)
  • Romance Studies (submit proposals directly to PSRL’s submissions website)
  • Jewish Studies, particularly the Holocaust
  • Gerontology and Dementia Studies

Proposals in science and technology and central Europe should be emailed to Justin Race (racej@purdue.edu). All others should be emailed to Andrea Gapsch (agapsch@purdue.edu). See below for full proposal guidelines.

What to include in a proposal

A proposal should include a prospectus, sample chapter, and author qualifications (CV or resume).

Prospectus:

  1. A description of the book, outlining the core themes, arguments, issues, goals, and topics of the work, what makes it unique, what questions it seeks to answer, and why you are qualified to write it.
  2. A description of your target audience (students, scholars, practitioners, the general public, etc.).
  3. An analysis of competing or similar books, indicating distinctive and original elements of your project that set it apart.
  4. A list of courses in which your book might be used as a text or supplementary text, indicating the course level at which this book could be used.
  5. An indication of whether any part of your manuscript has been published previously, and if it is a doctoral dissertation, what changes you are proposing to prepare it for publication.
  6. The length of the manuscript as a word count. Will there be figures, tables, or images, and if so, approximately how many?
  7. If the manuscript is not complete, an estimate of when it will be finished.
  8. The names of five to seven respected scholars in your field with whom you have no personal relationship who would be qualified to review your book. Include their titles, institutional affiliations, and email addresses.
  9. An indication of whether the manuscript is under consideration by other publishers.
  10. If this is an edited collection, please include abstracts for each chapter and brief biographies for each contributor.

Response time

Due to the volume of proposals we receive, we will only contact you if we feel your project would be a good fit for our program. If invited to proceed, you can expect a response within two weeks. All manuscripts are peer reviewed by external readers who are recognized disciplinary authorities. After review, each project is presented to the Press’s editorial board. Final publication is contingent on editorial board approval. We look forward to receiving your materials.