Submitting a Proposal

Guidelines for Authors - The Responsible Tourism Book Series

The Responsible Tourism book series is a cutting edge industry relevant and academically informed collection of high quality publications. The aim of this series is to go beyond the stale rhetoric behind sustainable tourism by advancing knowledge, challenging current views and breaking boundaries. The series aims to critically understand and change behaviour of individual tourism stakeholder groups, and private sector in particular, towards taking responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The series starts from the premise that much of what has been written in sustainable tourism to date does not lead to challenging practices and promoting change; the prism of taking responsibility by individual players allows breaking down global challenges and provides levers for change.

The series is edited by Prof. Harold Goodwin and Dr. Xavier Font, directors of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University. The aim of this series is heavily influenced by the changemakers’ philosophy behind this centre of action oriented research.

Please contact us at H.J.Goodwin@leedsmet.ac.uk and x.font@leedsmet.ac.uk +44 113 812 5880 with your publishing suggestions.

The Responsible Tourism Book Series to Date

We are launching the series with a number of books in mind produced by ICRT staff and fellows. We hope your own proposal can complement our current thinking.

• Goodwin, H (2010) Responsible tourism theory & practice
• Goodwin, H & Font, X (ed) (2011) Pro poor tourism: a reader
• Walmsley, A & Parrish, B (2011) Responsible entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality: the Geotourism changemakers
• Weeden, C (2011) Values of the Responsible Tourist: A New Understanding
• Mihalic, T (2011) Environmental economics in tourism
• Font, X (2011) Responsible tourism marketing

Why Publish in this Series?

Routledge is keen to consider proposals for new Routledge Research books as part of this series. We are able to offer:

• ICRT marketing -The International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Met will actively market your book through the www.icrtourism.org website, regular industry newsletters and international consultancy assignments
• Book launch - We plan to organise a book launch event for each book in the series linked to an international responsible tourism event, usually as a parallel session to the ICRT’s annual responsible tourism industry conference, World Responsible Tourism Day at World Travel Market or similar event
• Global distribution and marketing - Unlike many UK publishers, the majority of Routledge’s sales come from overseas. We have a strong presence in the US with our sister company, Routledge Inc., and a dedicated international sales team
• Quality design and production values - Our books are produced efficiently, quickly and attractively using the latest technology
• Prestige - Routledge is one of the world’s leading academic publishers with a reputation for cutting-edge and groundbreaking books. We are the publisher of many of the leading figures in the Western intellectual tradition including Einstein, Wittgenstein, Hayek and Foucault

The Contents of your Proposal

The proposal you submit to Routledge will be the basis on which we judge the book’s suitability for publication. It will be sent out to be reviewed by specialists in your field. It therefore needs to be organised in such a way that the reviewer is given the right amount of information on which to judge the quality of your work.

The following notes are designed to help you prepare your proposal, and your co-operation in following our recommendations will ease our task of evaluation and aid you in reaching your objectives.

Excluding sample chapters, or a draft manuscript and curriculum vitae, we would suggest that your proposal would be between 3-4 pages in length.

There are seven main areas we would like to be addressed:

1. A statement of aims including 3-4 paragraphs outlining the rationale behind the book
2. A detailed synopsis and chapter headings & length and schedule
3. Your definition of the market
4. A list of the main competing books
5. Product category
6. The completion to the best of your ability of the attached Questionnaire for authors
7. A blurb

The proposal in detail

Statement of aims

• Quite simply, what is your book about?
• What are its main themes and objectives?
• What are you doing differently, or in a more innovative way, or better than existing books?

Detailed synopsis and chapter headings. Schedule & Word Length

• Please list working chapter headings and provide a short paragraph of explanation on what you intend to cover in each chapter. This may be all that the reviewer has to go on, so a list of chapter headings alone is not enough
• If sample chapters, or a draft manuscript are available, please send them or let us know when they will be available
• How many tables, diagrams or illustrations will there be (roughly)?
• Roughly how many thousand words in length will your book be? Does this include references and footnotes>?
• When will you be able to deliver the completed typescript? Please be as precise as possible

Definition of the Market

• Who is your book primarily aimed at? Who will buy it? Who will read it?
• Is it aimed at an undergraduate or postgraduate student audience?
• What courses would the book be used on?
• Is it a research monograph, which will sell primarily to academic libraries?
• Is the subject area of the proposal widely taught, or researched?
• Would this subject have international appeal outside your home country? If so, where?

What are the main competing books?

• We would like some indication that you are familiar with competition to your proposed book. What are their strengths & weaknesses? What makes your book better then the existing competition?

Product Category

• Is it a supplementary text which would provide secondary reading for undergraduate or postgraduate students?
• Is it a research monograph? We would define a monograph as high-level research book (either single-authored or edited) which is published in hardback rather than paperback in the first instance. It would be aimed at postgraduates, researchers and academics rather than undergraduate students and would sell primarily to the international academic library market.

Questionnaire for Authors

See final page ..........

Blurb

• Please write a brief blurb (approx 250 words) which would effectively describe your book to an interested reader who may not have a background in the discipline

It will also be necessary to include:

1. One or two sample chapters, or a draft manuscript, if available
2. A curriculum vitae of all authors, and notes on any other contributors

Additional Information for Authors submitting PHDs

In the case of PhDs we would prefer to see the entire manuscript, or thesis, as well as a proposal.

We need to know:

• Which parts will you cut or modify?
• How will you draw out and expand the main findings and conclusions?
• What specifically are the aspects of the work as it stands which are designed to satisfy your examiners, but which you think are not suitable for a book and which you plan to change?
• How will you be adapting the language and style, as well, as annotation and references?
• Is the thesis in an area of increasing academic and research interest?

Additional Questions for Edited Collections

• Is the book of a consistent academic quality?
• Should some of the weaker chapters be excised?
• Are the chapters structured logically and integrated around a coherent central theme?
• Will you be providing a detailed introductory chapter and a conclusion?
• Is there a balance between theoretical/methodological & empirical chapters?
• Will the case studies (if appropriate) appeal to an international audience?
• What percentage of the material has been published before?

Marketing your Book

We would be grateful if you could spend some time answering the following marketing questions at the end of your proposal. Below are some key questions which will help us market your book better if we go ahead:

Societies and Organisations
Do you belong to any societies, associations or organisations that could be used for promotional purposes? Please supply details of websites, contact names, addresses and telephone numbers where possible

Journals
One key promotional tactic is to send review copies to relevant journals. Please list in order of importance the 20 (or more) key journals whose readership you think would find your book most interesting. Think laterally outside tourism.

Conferences
Routledge are represented at all relevant major conferences. Please give details, if possible of any specialist conferences or professional meetings where your book could well do with being advertised. Think also of events you can be involved in running to promote it.

Courses
It may well be that your book could become supplementary reading on courses. If you can provide a list of courses/modules where the topics within your book are taught, along with the names of the course leaders, then it will go a long way towards convincing us of your project’s viability.

Marketing your Book

Evaluation by book series editors: Prof. Harold Goodwin and Dr. Xavier Font

• Your proposal will be looked at closely by the book series editors, Prof. Harold Goodwin and Dr. Xavier Font, from the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, Leeds Metropolitan University. The editors will consider the quality of the proposed contents and the fit of your proposal with the rest of the collection, and support you in improving the book proposal as well as judge its merit before passing on to the Routledge commissioning editor.

Evaluation by commissioning editor(s)

• Your proposal will be looked at closely by the most suitable Routledge editor. The editor will consider several questions: Is the content of this book of a high academic standard? Is there a market for a high quality book on this subject? What evidence is there for this market? If there is a gap in the market, is this the right book to fill it? Will the book sell internationally? If the editor is satisfied at this stage, then the proposal will then be evaluated by academic experts.

Evaluation by independent referees

• We ask respected academic specialists in the field to give us independent advice on the content, quality and potential market for a finished book based on your proposal or manuscript. We normally solicit 2 or 3 reports from academics. This process should take 6-8 weeks but can take longer as it is sometimes difficult to find suitable reviewers, and reviewers are almost always extremely busy. Routledge are anxious to offset the accusation that book projects are not subject to the same rigorous process of peer review that journal articles must undergo.

Editorial Board Meeting

• If the reviews have been positive, then the editor puts together a written proposal including your proposal, the referees’ reports, and projected production costs and revenues. These are circulated to all members of the editorial board in advance of a fortnightly meeting, where each proposal is discussed and either approved (frequent), rejected (infrequent), or provisionally passed, subject to certain revisions (frequent). The editorial board consists of editors, a publisher (who manages a team of editors), marketing and sales managers and sometimes directors.

Contract, Desk editorial and Publication

• If your proposal is passed then we will issue a draft contract. Once we have agreed on terms you sign and return the contract with an agreed date for the delivery of the manuscript. Prof. Goodwin and Dr. Font will support your writing process and provide feedback on draft chapters as well as proposed changes from the original proposal including any changes to submission deadlines. Once the book has been written and delivered, you will liaise with a desk-editor over the copy-editing and production process. We will then publish, market and sell the book.