Manuscript Submission Guidelines

The Editorial Department of Prometheus/Humanity Books receives hundreds of inquiries, proposals, and manuscripts each year. In order to expedite the evaluation process as much as possible, please follow these guidelines:

Prometheus accepts submissions from both authors and literary agents. Before sending any materials, it is always best to submit a letter of inquiry that introduces the topic; briefly outlines the author's project; and discusses relevant competing works, the potential market, the availability of the complete manuscript (or its likely completion date), and the manuscript's (tentative) length. A copy of the author's vita/resume with publishing history should accompany your inquiry.

To obtain a better idea of our publishing program, authors and agents are urged to review Prometheus's complete catalog or browse our Web site. There are also descriptions of our subject listings in Books in Print, The Literary Market Place, Writer's Market, and other relevant reference works.

Letters of inquiry submitted via e-mail are accepted provided there are no attached files. We do not accept e-mailed proposals. All proposals must be sent via regular mail.

PLEASE NOTE: TELEPHONE INQUIRIES ARE NOT ACCEPTED.

Upon review of the inquiry, the Editorial Department may request a detailed proposal and/or all or part of the manuscript for review. The detailed proposal would expand more fully on the information offered in brief when the letter of inquiry was sent.

Please provide the proposal and/or (partial/full) manuscript on 8.5" x 11" white paper. The text should be, at minimum, double-spaced and nonproportionally spaced (i.e., unjustified right margins) for ease of editing. Please be sure that your pages are consecutively numbered throughout. Do not number chapters separately.

If illustrations, art, photographs, graphs, charts, or the like are integral to the work, please provide photocopies of these. If we need to see the originals we will contact you.

Please allow 4 weeks for review of an inquiry, 6 to 8 weeks for review of a proposal, and 10 to 14 weeks for review of partial or complete manuscripts. Every effort will be made to expedite this process and to give each project our fullest attention, but due to the large number of inquiries, proposals, and manuscripts received, the high volume of incoming material can cause delays.

All inquiries, proposals, and manuscripts should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope for our reply. If you desire your materials returned to you, please provide postage suitable for that purpose.

If a proposal or a partial or complete manuscript is requested from the author or agent, Prometheus prefers to be the only house receiving the work. However, we will accept simultaneous submissions provided that the author or agent makes this clear in a cover letter and immediately informs us if and when another publisher has tendered an offer or has accepted the work for publication.

Please send your inquiry to:

Steven L. Mitchell
Editor-in-Chief
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, NY 14228-2197

Your interest in Prometheus Books is greatly appreciated.