Submission Guidelines
Subjects
We are interested in manuscripts that are accessible to a wide range of political activists, while being useful to an academic audience.
We do publish manuscripts on grassroots activism/knowledge-making that address structural inequalities/inequities and support movement-building and political/policy change. We are especially committed to analyses that place socioeconomically disenfranchised, differently abled, and queer people, women, gender warriors, and communities of color at the center. For examples of the broad range of subjects we do publish on, please browse our catalog at www.southendpress.org.
We do not publish fiction, poetry, graphic novels, drama, dissertations as-is or other academese, military histories, apolitical memoirs, board games, photography, self-help manuals, esoteric philosophy, music CDs, or books that might be described as libertarian, conservative, religious, apolitical, or New Age.
Submission
If your project falls within the guidelines of the work we do publish, please send a query letter including the following:
- a cover letter explaining your proposed topic and its relevance to our audience;
- a 2-page outline and summary of the book, and 1 or 2 sample chapters;
- a brief annotated list of the existing literature on the topic and the political work your book would perform;
- a timeline for completion of the manuscript and important considerations—such as an election, political anniversary, major conferences, etc—for the timing of its eventual publication (n.b.: Publication most often occurs roughly one year after a completed, contracted manuscript is submitted to its assigned editor); and
- any publishing credits or activist or academic experience in the field.
Please note that if we find that your project fits within our current editorial priorities, we will contact you. Please do not call or email us asking for the status of your manuscript. Given the overwhelming number of manuscripts we receive, we cannot reply to all or even most submissions. Also, we hope that you understand that we are a small press, publishing only 10-12 books a year, which means we often must pass up important and well-written projects.
Please send your proposal by email to southend[at]southendpress.org, or by post to
Acquisitions
South End Press
7 Brookline Street, Suite 1
Cambridge , MA 02139 -4146
If you would like your manuscript back, please send, at the time of your submission, an envelope large enough to contain the whole manuscript, and sufficient postage to get it to you. We suggest $3.85, which is adequate for most first-class returns within the US . For international addresses, please add more postage and we’ll supply the customs slip.
THANKS FOR CONSIDERING SOUTH END PRESS! WE WISH YOU THE BEST WITH YOUR WORK.