A philosopher writes:
I noticed that an old thread about editorial practices of philosophy journals (delay, etc.) is generating new interests. I was wondering if you would consider creating a similar thread on editorial practices of philosophy book publishers. I am a young philosopher who recently sent a manuscript to an important press and who is curious about how things normally proceed. Are missed deadlines, emails that are not answered, etc. the norm in this domain? What is the usual amount of time it takes for a manuscript to be reviewed? Is sending the same manuscript to many publishers a big no-no?
Another philosopher writes:
A friend phoned me a bit earlier today to ask advice about correct practice in submitting book manuscripts/proposals to publishers. I don't know if you think it appropriate to open this question on your blog or if you have time to give a personal reply, but if you can do either it would be greatly appreciated. I'm not really sure what the expected behaviour is here for dealing with book publishers.
My friend works in cognitive science/philosophy of mind/philosophy of language/ linguistics. He recently submitted a manuscript to a publisher, a publisher where he would like to be considered in good standing whether or not they publish his book. He wanted to know if he could reasonably send the manuscript to other publishers while the first publisher goes through its review process.
I had two thoughts in response to this.1. As far as I know although it is clear that refereed journals have a strict expectation that an article will not be submitted to more than one journal at the same time, I am not aware of any similar expectation with regard to book manuscripts or proposals.
2. It seems to me to be a bad idea to annoy a good publisher by telling them that one has agreed to publish a book with another publisher while the book was still under review at the original publisher.
I'm not sure which consideration should have more weight, or if there are other considerations I am overlooking.
Comments are open; I will try to weigh in myself when I have a chance. My experience here is somewhat limited, because I have never had occasion to do "cold" submissions to presses, as opposed to solicited ones. But I've heard various anecdotes, but it would probably be more useful for those with first-hand experience to offer their perspective. Since I know a number of philosophy editors at major presses read this blog, I encourage them to comment as well about their expectations and procedures!
