We welcome proposals to publish with the APUS ePress and its publishing partner Westphalia Press. Find the submission guidelines for monographs/course materials and electronic journals below. Contact APUSePress@apus.edu with further questions.
General Overview
To be considered, projects should normally reflect extant (or approved) courses within the University curriculum. External authors and subject matter experts (SME) may be acceptable—especially as co-authors. The intent, however, is to work with AMU and APU faculty. Although printed textbooks are part of the intended outputs, projects should be first conceived as an assemblage of Web deliverables for weekly classroom use. Indeed, the AMU Press seeks to break new ground as an electronic university press. To such ends:
- Project Inquiry & Review: AMU Press, librarians, Course Materials staff will conduct initial reviews. Acceptance and commissions are based on projections of likely course enrollment, classroom need, and author credentials. The enrollment figures are also used to determine remuneration.
- Contracts & Copyright: Each work requires a signed contract. Copyright will be shared with the University. The University gains exclusive rights to distribution for its educational purposes, and the author retains all other rights.
- The authors guarantee that the work is their own and/or that any parts used are free from copyright restrictions. AMU Press will assist in securing needed releases for suspect material.
- If requested by the author, AMU Press will assist in reaching out to other publishers for co-listings or alternative publication.
- Students as primary audience: Graduate texts may be considered, but the focus is on undergraduates.
- Technical Writing: Assume construction no higher than an eighth-grade level of comprehension. Stress is simple declarative sentences and visual presentation with heavy reliance on bullets and illustrations.
- Team Efforts: Each author will have a parallel expert editor. Editors will receive 10% of the contracted funding.
- Authors and editors will be free to establish their working relationship, but must jointly ensure a grammatically tight and precise product.
- Librarians will be available to assist with research, as well as the production of corresponding Electronic Course Guides .
- Web Conceits/Print Output: Most projects will include several outputs
- HTML Modularized Parent: Development will focus through the Web. Chapters will be constructed for ease of reconstitution into Style Manual specific outputs for the use of individual Programs and readily embedded in syllabuses
- Online versions can be advanced. At the minimum, construction will include enhancements for search-engine discovery and relevancy ranking. Presentation can also feature interactive displays that cannot be duplicated in the print realm - e.g., simulations that unfold with added voice-overs, wiki, Web 2.0 components.
- ADA 508 Compliance: Authors and AMU Press will collectively help ensure reasonable alternatives for handicapped students.
- PDF/Print-on-Demand Options: Web content will also be laid out for book-like output through PDF formatting for download and printing. The University will author will have the option of a link for POD output.
Format and Submission Considerations
The above is merely indicative. Specifics are to be negotiated between the author and AMU Press.
