Send query letters and/or proposals to the press via email at [email protected]. Nonfiction proposals should include an attached letter describing the project, a table of contents, introduction, sample, and target audience. For fiction, please send a plot synopsis and a sample. Please submit all attachments as Microsoft Word documents. For children’s books, please include sample artwork, if available. Simultaneous submissions are not encouraged. We send out manuscripts or prospectuses to readers for professional peer review. Therefore, please do not put your name on every page of the prospectus or manuscript. Listing your name on the title page is sufficient.
Submission
Manuscripts are first evaluated in the editorial offices. If a work seems appropriate for our list, it is then sent out to two or more outside reviewers—specialists in the field—who remain anonymous to the author. Readers are asked to recommend for or against publication and, more importantly, to provide specific suggestions on revisions to enhance the manuscript. It is often several months before readers’ reports are received. If extensive revision is suggested, we may ask authors to make changes before continuing the review process.
When a manuscript is recommended by outside readers, it is presented to the TCU Press Advisory Board, along with the readers’ comments. Generally, two positive readers’ reports are sufficient for a contract to be extended.