Academic submission guidelines

Who should submit

Allen & Unwin generally publishes work by academic authors and researchers from Australia and New Zealand. Regrettably, we are unable to publish academic books by overseas authors unless these authors have an established profile in Australia.  If you live elsewhere, but are well-known in Australia, and if your book fits into one of the subject areas in which we publish, then we are happy to look at your proposal.

Submitting your proposal

If you have an idea for a textbook, academic or professional reference work, the first step towards publication is to submit a proposal. Your proposal should clearly outline the subject matter, format and target readership for the project, including the following:

• The rationale for your project (approximately one page)
• Table of contents, including brief description of each chapter
• 1-2 sample chapters (if available)
• Proposed word length (including references)
• Date you propose to deliver your manuscript
• Target readership/s
• Relevant tertiary courses where your book would be made a prescribed text
• A comparison with competing titles including how your book will differ from the competition
• Whether you wish your book to be illustrated with photographs, diagrams etc, and how many
• Whether you envisage any electronic or multimedia supplement to your book
• Biographical notes for author/s, editor/s, contributor/s
• List of author's previous publications
• Suggested referees

If you are making your submission by mail, we also ask that you send a stamped, addressed envelope or postage bag for the return of your manuscript in the event that we decide not to publish the work.

Send your completed proposal to:

Elizabeth Weiss, Academic and Digital Publishing Director
submissions@allenandunwin.com
Allen & Unwin
PO Box 8500
St Leonards NSW 1590
Australia

For further information, please contact us on:
tel + 61 2 8425 0100 
e-mail: submissions@allenandunwin.com