Publishing with GUP

If you have a project that you are interested in publishing with Georgetown University Press, please first submit a proposal (our Authors page provides more information on how to submit a proposal). A typical proposal includes a cover letter and prospectus.

Once your proposal is received, an acquisitions editor may request a full manuscript or available chapters to send out for peer review. Scholars and experts in your field will be carefully selected to read and comment on your work. Georgetown University Press handles all aspects of the peer-review process. Once the peer reviews have been received by the editor, he or she will contact you to discuss the comments, suggest revisions, and determine next steps.

If your manuscript is approved by the Press’s Publishing Committee and its Faculty Editorial Board, you will receive a contract. This contract is a legally binding agreement between you and the Press and outlines details including draft deadlines, word count or page count requirements, copyright ownership, and more. If your manuscript is an edited volume, each contributor to the volume will be sent a contributor’s agreement to sign and return to the Press.

You will likely need to spend some time revising and putting the finishing touches on your manuscript. When submitting your final manuscript, we ask that you format your manuscript and organize the pieces of the manuscript according to our submission guidelines. Adhering to our guidelines will help ensure that your manuscript moves through the production process as smoothly as possible.

Once your final manuscript is received and approved, the acquisitions editor will “transmit” the project to other departments at the Press at a formal “launch” meeting. This meeting includes the Press’s marketing, editorial, design, and production departments. At this meeting, we will finalize the title, pricing, binding, print runs, and other details of your project.

After its transmittal, your manuscript will enter the production process. (This process can differ from what we describe here in the cases of language textbooks and those with related multimedia; please see the section below for more details.) Some of the steps in this process will have strict deadlines for you so that we can meet the publication date announced for your book. Throughout this process, you’ll be working directly with our production department. Production colleagues will answer your questions about the process and keep you informed about the schedule.

The production process begins with a thorough precopyedit analysis, after which your production editor will send the manuscript to a copyeditor. This stage is often the longest of the whole process, taking approximately three months, though this time frame can vary depending on the length and complexity of the project. When copyediting is complete, we’ll ask you to review the copyedited manuscript in detail (starting with the style sheet compiled by the copyeditor) and answer the copyeditor’s questions. Also, if you want to make changes to the manuscript text, now is your best and last chance to do so.

After incorporating changes from the copyediting process, we will send the manuscript to a compositor for typesetting. When the typesetting is complete, we will send you one set of page proofs for proofreading. At the same time, a professional proofreader will also check the proofs for typos and errors. By this stage, you should be making minor changes only. Extensive text changes at this stage can delay publication of your book.

Once all corrections have been made to the page proofs, the index is prepared. This step is usually on a very tight deadline.

During the production process, we are also designing the cover for your book. We work with many outstanding designers to create high-impact covers for our books. If you have ideas about images or concepts to pursue/avoid for the cover of your book, please discuss them with your editor as you finalize your manuscript. Our marketing department will collect endorsements for your book and write any copy that will appear on the back cover or dust jacket of your book.

Once your book has been indexed and the cover is finished, we will send it to a printer, which will print and bind your book. The printer will then send finished copies of the book to our warehouse, and we will begin shipping the book to customers. You will of course receive a number of complimentary copies of your book, as specified in your contract.

The development and production process for language textbooks can be slightly different from those for more traditional scholarly books. These books often include art, audio and/or video components, and, increasingly, related multimedia, which have different production needs and requirements. The book itself will follow a similar path to the one described above. You will work closely with your acquisitions editor on the schedule for any related audio, video, or multimedia components. Please check with your editor before completing any recording, filming, or programming, because these elements are closely integrated with the book manuscript and require close coordination.

Our marketing team is experienced in academic, textbook, and trade publishing. Our approach is highly collaborative, and our team will work with you to develop marketing and publicity strategies that help your book find its widest readership. 

We help authors gain recognition for their books among local, national, and international audiences. Our books receive notice in many media outlets, such as Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Book Review, Washingtonian, the Washington Post, America Magazine, C-SPAN’s “Book TV,” The Economist,  and WAMU. Our book events are listed in local events calendars like the Washington Post, and we regularly participate in book festivals such as the National Press Club Book Fair and the Gaithersburg Book Festival. Our titles frequently win prestigious awards, including Choice Outstanding Academic Titles (a division of the American Library Association), the Association of Former Intelligence Officers National Book Award, the College Theological Society Book Award, the Catholic Press Association Book Award, the American Academy of Religion Book Award, the Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s Most Promising New Textbook Award, and the AATSEEL Book Award for Best Contribution to Language Pedagogy. 

Our location in Washington, DC, gives us a unique opportunity to connect with some of the most influential organizations in the nation, including prominent think tanks, museums such as those that are part of the Smithsonian Institution, the International Spy Museum, the US State Department, and nongovernmental organizations. We also have strong relationships with independent bookstores in and around the DC area.

Our books are widely available through online retailers and in both print and ebook formats around the world. 

Georgetown University Press has well-established international sales representatives with extensive experience selling both scholarly and trade titles. Our US sales representatives make regular visits to independent and large retail bookstores nationwide. We also work with sales representatives and distribution partners in the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, India, and Asia. Find out about our International Sales partners.

The Press has an active rights program and presents books to publishers in the United States for audiobook licensing and to international publishers throughout the world for translation and copublication.

At about the time your final manuscript is submitted for production, our marketers will ask you to complete a questionnaire about the distinguishing features and potential markets for your book. The questionnaire will help shape our marketing strategy and allow you to make specific suggestions for marketing your book. We will also ask you to review a description of your book that will be used for cover copy and for sales materials.

Once your manuscript has been transmitted to production and your marketing questionnaire is completed, we will coordinate with you to begin soliciting endorsements for your book.

We will first announce your book in our seasonal catalog. Our sales representatives use our seasonal catalogs when calling on bookstores. We will notify you when our catalog becomes available and provide you with the full marketing plan. In the subsequent months, we will meet with you so we can discuss the marketing strategy for your title together. 

Once the seasonal catalog goes live, we will feature your book on our website. When we release your book for sale, we will send an email announcement and discount offer to our subscriber lists.

Our publicity team will send out review copies of your book to appropriate journals and periodicals in your field and work with you to ensure we hit the best potential review outlets. Our publicist will also work with you on scheduling events and interviews as opportunities arise.

We will advertise your book in appropriate media and journals and to the appropriate bookstore and library markets. We will also include your title in catalogs, emails, and flyers that we distribute to professionals in particular fields. We also can provide you with flyers to use in your own promotion of your book.

We will display your book at a number of exhibits at professional and academic meetings. Please keep the marketing department apprised well in advance of any conferences you may be attending—especially if you are presenting—so we can coordinate our publicity and marketing efforts ahead of time to support you

Georgetown University Press distributes author royalties annually approximately ninety days after the end of its fiscal year, by September 30. 

For more information, please visit our Royalties page.