As a high-quality publisher of important scholarly books,
our mission is to preserve the art, lore, and wisdom of the
printed word. We are publishers of books about books: histories
of printing, illustration, marbling, typography, bookbinding,
and papermaking, as well as fine books about publishers,
bibliography, book collecting, and book selling. In these fields, we update and reprint classics of the
past, and publish new and original works from authors around
the world. We offer flexible contracts and pay royalties quarterly.
Oak Knoll Press co-publishes important books with The British
Library, Library of Congress, Winterthur Museum, The Tate
Gallery, and a dozen other distinguished publishers in Europe
as well as the United States. Our program is to add 25 to
35 titles a year to our list which now features over 1000 titles that we publish or distribute.
To maintain these goals and reach out to authors who have
the expertise and/or experience to write the books needed,
we have created this want list. If you have the
ability to write an interesting, compelling, and publishable
manuscript on any of the listed subjects, we would like
to hear from you. Your manuscript will be read within two
months of arrival by one of our editors. If it should merit
our interest and fall within our realm of publishing, you
will be contacted promptly.
INQUIRY
GUIDE:
For a publisher to make a fair evaluation of a non-fiction
manuscript, four important elements need to be addressed in
the author's proposal:
1. A Clear, Clean Manuscript: (See Manuscript
Format Guidelines.) If the work has not yet
been written, give us a call or send us an email. Sometimes our editors can express interest
from an outline along with a sample chapter, or from sufficient
previous work. This will allow us to ascertain whether the
author has the ability to write an intelligent, compelling,
and interesting work within our field.
2. Is the Work Saleable? This is the most salient
point for any publisher. In a paragraph or two, the author
should inform the publisher of the book's intended audience
and the size of that audience? The publisher needs to be told why the
author believes this book will serve their needs and be a
commercial success.
3. What is the Competition? Is the work unique, or
are there other books available on the same or very similar
subject matter? If there will be competition, why does the
author believe his book is needed?
4. Author's Qualifications. Education, special training,
life experiences, etc. If an author has written a definitive,
scholarly work or how-to manual, what are his qualifications
and credentials to do so? One needs not to be a "known
expert" to research and write an interesting work, however,
he should have the background to know what he's talking about.
A skilled craftsman who has written intelligently about his
craft, and its unique techniques, will surely have more weight
than a writer who has "just done some research."
Basically, an author's proposal should make the publisher want to read the manuscript. Likewise, a good manuscript
should make the publisher want to publish it.
FORMAT GUIDELINES:
Oak Knoll's Editorial Guideline: The Chicago Manual of
Style.
Format: Your manuscript should be submitted as a hard
copy print-out. It is not usually necessary to submit a disk with electonic files until your book is accepted for publication. However, your files should
be properly organized as per standard computer practices so that they can be submitted when requested.
List the name of each file, number of pages contained, and
a description of the contents on a separate piece of paper.
Page specifications: All pages containing text, notes
and back matter should be consecutively numbered from the
first page to the last. Preliminary pages may use roman numerals.
We suggest a basic font such as Times New Roman for text.
The manuscript (typescript) may be single spaced with margins
at least one inch all around on 8 1/2" x 11" paper.
Chapter openings should begin at least three inches from the
top of the page. Chapter titles and subheads should be typed
in upper and lower case. Subheads of different levels should
be differentiated by their placement on the page (centered,
indented, etc.).
Illustrations: All illustrations should be submitted as electronic files. We accept high-resolution photographs or scans of original materials. All files should be 300dpi or higher at a size that is close to how they will appear in the book. We prefer to receive tiffs or jpegs. Please note: images that are embedded in Microsoft Word or a similar program are very hard for us to extract. Please submit images as individual files.
A clean, clear typescript on white paper will make a favorable
impression on your proofreaders and copy editors. Do not bind
the manuscript - we need to be able to make photocopies for readers
and editors.
Good luck!
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Our Manuscript Want List
