Submit your proposal

Once everything is good to go, write a brief email addressed to the commissioning editor at your chosen publisher. Your email should include a one-paragraph outline of your project and a note of how you see it fitting with their list. Attach your proposal, CV and writing sample in the format requested by the publisher. Do one final check for typos, take a deep breath and hit ‘send’.

Next steps for your book

And that’s the end of this guide! Hopefully, your proposal will now proceed to the review stage. If it’s no, don’t despair: it’s time to go back to your list of publishers and try again, and be sure to take another look at your proposal to see if it can be strengthened anywhere. Whichever stage you’re at, we have a guide for you.

• Next: read our guide to the review process for academic books
• Back: review the steps for writing your book proposal
• Return to the ECR Hub homepage to browse all of our guides
• Ready to submit your manuscript? Discover the step-by-step guide to publishing with Edinburgh University Press