Proposals
In addition to the Monograph Series and Humanities Insights described on other pages Humanities-Ebooks will publish in the following categories.
To propose a title contact richardgravil@hotmail.com .
1. Out-of-Print Editions, Monographs and Collections
Inexpensive editions of sought-after editions, monographs and collections (usually, but not necessarily, revised) in which copyright has formally reverted to the author (we use 'monographs' in the broad sense of the term, i.e. studies of a unified topic by a single hand.) Older contracts often permit such reversion if a work goes out of print and the publisher declines an author's request to produce a new impression within a specified time. Recent contracts will preclude such action unless you or your agent insisted on amending the standard contract. But you may still have the right to request a new edition, and to take it elsewhere if the original publisher declines. For works of normal length we envisage a highly competitive price at around £9.95 to 12.00.
2. Original Independent Monographs and Collections
Original peer-reviewed studies and unified collections (e.g. a lifetime's collection of essays on a single author) at a competitive price, designed to appeal both to libraries and to scholars who now find printed books prohibitive. The residual prejudice against electronic publication in parts of academia is diminishing. Authors will wish to weigh this disadvantage against the attractions of (a) reaching a wider audience, (b) being paid for their work, and (c) being empowered to revise, correct and update their work with relative ease. Since these titles will not be available otherwise, they should command a somewhat higher price, around £14.95.
3. Rare Books & Facsimiles
Rare books (perhaps books in your possession) of a kind normally available only in major research collections. Unlike most freely available online texts (which look nothing like a book) these will be carefully designed to make the reading experience as close as possible to reading the original. An ebook cannot replicate the feel of calf, or genuine dust and bookworms, but it can make rare and exciting work available to small libraries, individual scholars, and even (at around £7.50) postgraduate students. For collectors, such publication offers an opportunity to enjoy the altruistic pleasure of sharing the content of rare works, at no risk to the original, while raising revenue to expand one's collection. And unlike the alternatives, you won't need to be online to use them.
4. Micro-Ebooks; or, Academic Essays Online
Individual articles of the kind that deserve a wide circulation but are normally available only by subscribing to Journals or purchasing edited collections or through subscription databases. These will sell at £2.45 and are likely to achieve a far higher circulation than is usual for academic essays. Unlike other digital projects authors will be involved in the process and properly rewarded for their work. Journal Editors who wish to digitize their back numbers in a way that rewards authors rather than exploits them should contact richardgravil@hotmail.com .
PROCEDURES
Book proposals may be made by email attachment. Proposals for full length books should include a table of contents, a chapter by chapter outline, and a description of the purpose of the work, its intended audience, and how it compares to existing work in the field. You are welcome to provide any feedback you have already received regarding your project, as well as a sample chapter. For the appropriate addressee please see our Personnel page.
Submissions
Once a proposal is provisionally accepted, the entire text should be submitted for peer review. Before or after peer review, your book should be restyled in accordance with the HE Template (available from richardgravil@hotmail.com) which includes ready-made styles for Name, Chapter Heads, Footnote Reference, Footnote Text, Subheads, Poetry Quotations, Prose Quotations, Free Verse, etc. and is available in several versions. To facilitate the production process, all work accepted for publication on a profit sharing basis must be submitted using a version of this template, with a separate file for each chapter, and in accordance with the HE Style Sheet (also available from richardgravil@hotmail.com) OR in the author's own layout ready for PDF conversion. A scanning and conversion service is offered for authors who are unable to do this work but is charged for at hourly secretarial rates which will be debited against the author's eventual income. Work requiring a major investment in time (such as scanning complex layouts) may be accepted for in-house conversion on a conventional royalty basis ranging from 12% to 24% rather than the standard profit share arrangement.
Production Process
Humanities-Ebooks will not, initially, have the resources to provide a free sub-editing process for works other than Humanities Insights. Authors may decide to employ an experienced sub-editor to check the text for inconsistencies, typographical errors, missing references, and so forth, and to query clarity and usage. If they prefer, however, they may submit their work with a sub-editing fee of £100, which will be passed to one of HE's free-lance sub-editors. If we have arranged the sub-editing, the files will then be returned to the author to approve and incorporate any corrections. We will then convert the corrected work into a finished Ebook. The Ebook will be emailed to authors to be printed and proof-read. Only corrected pages need be returned for final processing and encryption.
Indexing
Because of the excellent search facility incorporated in Ebooks, a full index of names, works, and places, is not strictly necessary. However, you may wish to include one, primarily to provide the reader with a list of Indicative Search Terms and a Conceptual Index (with page references added at proof stage).
Permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions for use of quoted material (which is likely to include any poetry) or illustrations, and for making payments for those permissions. If you are in doubt as to what will need permission, there is useful summary on the website of the Society of Authors: http://www.societyofauthors.net/. The work will not be published until such permissions have been cleared. Illustrations must be provided in economical electronic form (normally in the form of separate gif or jpeg files).
Distribution
Once your work is online, purchasers will select a work from the list of products, inspect its abstract, endorsements and t.o.c., add it to the shopping cart, and make secure payment by credit card. Immediately on payment they will then be enabled to download one copy of the work, which be so encrypted that it will open only on the computer on which it was purchased. The purchased product will be printable, but not amendable. Bona fide purchasers may, however, request a second licence for a new computer from support@humanities-ebooks.co.uk .