|
The editor of a manuscript made up of essays by multiple contributors bears several
unique responsibilities. This guide describes what you will need to do and some
challenges you may confront. If you have questions not addressed here, please feel
free always to check with our editorial staff by letter or email.
Your Basic Responsibilities
- Identifying authors who will write the essays, and securing their commitments.
- Providing whatever editorial guidance the contributors may need, answering their
questions, and conducting all necessary communication with them. McFarland needs to
be in touch with you only
- Causing the contributors to deliver their essays to you by an agreed-upon date
with a signed release (see below). You may have to manage or replace an uncooperative
author (keeps promising, continues to delay, but insists he's in to stay).
- Ensuring that the essays are in proper form before delivering the manuscript.
It is the editor's job to assess and resolve such matters as quality, appropriateness,
disharmony, and disproportionate length. You must also determine to your satisfaction
that the content and style of each essay are consistent with a description you and
the author have agreed on. The chapters must follow a uniform format on such matters
as notes, bibliography, use of subheadings, and so forth. You should proofread and
correct each essay before sending the manuscript to us; this includes ensuring the
citation styles match throughout the manuscript. Don't allow one contributor to use MLA,
for instance, while another uses Chicago.
- Delivering to McFarland a manuscript complete in every way, including hard copy,
disk(s), and contributor releases. We cannot call a manuscript "received" until we
have every component of it--and we need it all together in one mailing only.
- Answering any questions we may raise during the publication process.
- Reading proofs and creating an index. And, just as important, letting contributors
know they will not be allowed to proofread their essays or to revise them
after the manuscript has been delivered.
Editorial Points to Consider
Work with your contributors to ensure that the essays fit comfortably together.
Common problems include subject overlap (the reader will tolerate a little, if the
book has a narrow topic, but more than a trace hurts); conflicting styles or formats
(keep it simple and uniform) and varying documentation systems (each essay must use
the same standard style). Also watch for individual chapters whose voice is incompatible
with the book--too personal, too slangy, etc. And guard against wildly unequal
chapter lengths. We also ask that all essays conform to American conventions of
style and spelling.
The manuscript needs to come in at an appropriate total length. In early discussions
we will agree on an approximate length (usually in the form of a word count), and it
will be your job to keep it in or near that range. Sometimes this means dropping chapters.
McFarland reserves the right to reject a chapter at any time should it prove unsuitable
or its author troublesome or uncooperative. This is rare but the possibility exists.
Chapter titles can be a trouble area, especially in books with a narrow focus.
Attack repetition: In a book of essays about Mark Twain, for example, you don't want
Twain's name appearing in all, or even most, chapter titles. Aim for economy: Discourage
contributors from indulging in triple-decker titles (main title: subtitle: sub-subtitle),
tricky locutions or excessive wordiness. Work out the titles with the contributors
before delivering the manuscript, and make sure they know that you and the
publisher have the final say.
Contributor Names and Bios
Most multicontributor books feature a section of biographical information on the
authors, describing their background, qualifications, institutional affiliation if any,
and other pertinent facts. If you plan to include such a section, be sure to provide
an entry from every contributor, and edit each to a brief, fairly uniform length.
Your contributors should provide factual information only; to ensure consistency
it is best if you write or rewrite the bios yourself. Don't allow the bios to veer
into the unprofessional; there's little need to mention pets or unrelated hobbies,
for instance. An easy-going tone is fine, but unrevealing discursiveness that tries
to ingratiate is not.
You must regularize names so that each contributor's name is in exactly the same
form everywhere it appears: in the table of contents, at the head of the essay, in
the biographies, and (if applicable) in your preface or introduction. Don't have John
Doe in one place, John M. Doe in another and J.M. Doe in a third. You might include
a line on the release so a contributor can print exactly how she wants her name to appear.
Contributor Releases
As noted above, signed releases from all contributors, delivered with the
manuscript, are a necessity; without them we cannot publish the book. If a chapter
has two or more coauthors, each must provide a release. In the usual scenario, that
of an essay that has never been published, the release should grant you (not McFarland;
the book will be copyrighted in your name) ownership of the essay. The author of the
essay must state that he or she expects no remuneration from the publisher.
McFarland will control all rights to the essays while the book remains in print.
This is vital to the success of your book; if the contributors retained the right
to republish their essays elsewhere, your potential buyers (especially libraries,
the heart of our market) would have less need for your book.
Contributors may balk at giving over the rights to their essays; it is your job
to convince them. Our policy is to ensure that the book is the only place the essays
can be found while the book is young and earning most of its sales. Later, we will
generally approve reprint requests for a modest fee. If a contributor wants to reuse
her essay in a book of her own (after the initial period), we will almost certainly
grant reprint rights gratis. Once we are no longer causing the book to be in print,
rights revert to you by common law; at that point you can decide whether or not to
return copyright to the contributors.
If you are including a previously published essay (not usually a good idea; they
hurt a book's sales appeal), you will need a reprint permission from the author and
the previous publisher, unless the publisher has returned the rights to the author.
Reprint permissions won't grant you actual ownership of the essays; what you need is
"nonexclusive world rights" or the equivalent, with no restrictions on term, territory
or print run. Be sure to include in the manuscript a credit line detailing the
original publication of any reprinted essay, including any special wording the permission
grantor requires.
Other Permission Issues
In examining the essays before manuscript delivery, look for elements that may present
copyright issues. Sometimes two or more essays quote from the same original works,
and thus the book in aggregate uses more than fair use permits. Beware of poetry or
song lyrics, both of which are categorically very rights-sensitive while under copyright.
(Works first published after 1922 may still be under copyright.) Contributors may
include photographs or other illustrations that require permission from rights owners.
It is your job to identify and, via the contributors, satisfy all permission needs
before delivering the manuscript, whether by supplying permissions or by deleting
the material in question.
Delivering the Manuscript
Deliver the manuscript complete in every way in one mailing only. That means
a final double-spaced hard copy (with title page, table of contents, your preface or
introduction, all the chapters, all notes and bibliographies, with continuous page
numbers), matching electronic file(s), all contributor releases, any other necessary permissions,
and any photographs or other illustrations. The delivered manuscript represents
a work fully edited and approved by you.
Royalties and Free Books
As editor you will receive all royalties. (If there are two or more editors, your
contract will specify whatever division of royalties you settle upon together.) There
will be 10 free copies of the published book for you (to be divided if there are
two or more editors). Ordinarily we also provide one free copy for each contributor.
Discuss this with us early, though, if you are going to have a high number of
contributors. We send these copies to you to distribute.
|
|
