APA Publications:
Textbooks and Resources
The
APA sponsors two series whose primary aims are to be
useful as aids to teaching, study or research.
"Texts and Commentaries" are annotated editions of
important works intended for students in intermediate and
upper-level reading courses. The primary aim of these
editions is to assist students in reading through the
text itself, while helping them appreciate–even
enjoy–its artistic qualities and understand its
significance. Accordingly, they feature a style of
scholarly commentary that emphasizes linguistic issues
and relies on the editor's knowledge of what to omit.
While the format is not invariable, the dedicated mission
of this series, which distinguishes it from other series
of texts, is maintained by a fairly specific set of
editorial requirements, which are given in detail
in a separate section, below.
"Classical
Resources" has a much broader mandate, and can include
any kind of work (other than original scholarship, which
is published in the Monographs series) that is likely to
be of service to Classicists; it can include, for
example, texts for specialized or graduate courses,
republication of important articles on a single subject,
reference works, or collections of source material. APA
members are encouraged to think of the kind of resources
they would like to have for their own work and teaching
that are not already available and to develop proposals
for this series.
In
general, the APA does not take on publication projects
which are likely to be of interest to commercial
publishers (e.g, elementary textbooks, books for survey
courses, or general interest source books in English); it
is, however, a criterion for proposals under both series
that the books be widely useful. Royalties are paid for
books in both series (and the APA intends to remain
competitive with other academic publishers); the amount
may vary in accordance with each project's budget. Books
are designed and type-set by our publisher, Oxford
University Press, although in special circumstances
camera-ready copy may still be appropriate.
How
and When to Submit Proposals
We
are aware that the preparation of books for these series
is a time-consuming task, and that the development of a
good, helpful book may go through several stages. Many
books originate in their authors' own teaching or
research experience, and require a certain amount of
reworking to become attractive to a larger audience. The
Textbook Editor and the members of the APA Publications
Committee who function as the Editorial Board (as well as
the APA members who act as readers) are committed to
working with authors to achieve the goal of a textbook or
resource that will become a standard work.
Authors
are encouraged to submit proposals at any stage in their
planning or when they have a complete manuscript. All
correspondence should be directed to the Editor for
Textbooks, preferably by email Justina Gregory
(jgregory@email.smith.edu). For initial inquiries, the
editor will ask the author for whatever additional
information is appropriate, but, if possible, the
prospectus (as described below) should be included, and
the author should indicate his or her qualifications for
the project. The editor will consult with the members of
the Publication Committee to decide if we wish to
encourage the development of a formal proposal that can
be the basis of an advance contract (in the case of a
project in the planning or writing stages) or to review
the full manuscript. Formal proposals, which include a
substantial sample of the written text, will be sent out
for external review to three to five readers, to
ascertain whether or not we will want to go ahead with
the project, or how we feel the project should be
modified to improve its utility and (in the case of
Commentaries) conformity to the series. Complete
manuscripts will be sent to at least two readers. In the
case of both proposals and manuscripts, authors should
anticipate that the Editor, the Committee or the readers
will have suggestions or queries, which will require some
response and sometimes resubmission. For a detailed
description of the process of submitting a formal
proposal or a manuscript, see below.
Requirements
for Formal Proposals and Submissions
When
an author wishes to submit a manuscript or make a
proposal as the basis for an advance contract for a book
in either series, he or she should include the following:
A
covering letter
briefly identifying the project, giving contact
information for the author, and answering the following
questions:
have you ever discussed the project with a representative
of Oxford University Press?
are you currently a member of the APA? (Membership is
required but open to all; for information see.....)
has any part of it been published before, and is it also
being submitted to another press? (We cannot send to
readers proposals or submissions that are under
consideration elsewhere.)
will there be special needs, such as plates or
permissions?
A
prospectus
(1-3 pages) introducing the author's experience with the
material and explaining the scope, nature, and aims of
the book, its anticipated (or actual) length, the
author's view of the need for or use of the book, and its
differences from other texts or books covering the same
ground which might be in competition with it. This
version should reflect any revisions that arose from
earlier discussions or submissions.
An
outline
or table of contents.
A
sample
totalling about 30 pages. In the case of commentaries,
this should include a section of the introduction and of
the commentary. Although this sample is necessarily a
draft, authors should take some care with the details,
since it will be the basis of the reviewers' judgment of
the quality of the finished project and of the author's
ability to match the contents to the prospectus. The
author should also propose a schedule for the completion
of the work.
A
curriculum vitae.
The
review of all proposals and new manuscripts will take
into account the scholarly quality of the work, the
likelihood of its being brought to a satisfactory
completion, its value as a contribution to the Classics
community, and its prospects in the marketplace. If there
was an advance contract, the final manuscript will be
reviewed to ensure that it meets the expectations of the
original agreement.
Upon
the Committee's recommendation, proposals, readers'
reports, and the author's responses to readers'
suggestions will be forwarded to Oxford University Press.
OUP does not send proposals or manuscripts that we
recommend to external readers, but it does have internal
review procedures to assure the Press of the quality of
its publications and to develop a budget and gauge the
project's feasibility. Once the project meets with final
approval, the Press will issue the advance or final
contract.
Specific
Guidelines for "Text and Commentaries"
In general, editions can and should reflect the editor's
interests, understanding, and enthusiasms, but they must
avoid being tendentious or polemical. A typical edition
is between 225 and 275 printed pages, and has an
introduction, a text without apparatus, a concise
commentary, a guide to further reading and an index, with
appendices as necessary.
The
introduction
should provide information on the author and the work,
explain the characteristics of the genre, give the
necessary basic historical or cultural background,
briefly discuss the transmission, and introduce the major
interpretive issues; here, rather than in the commentary,
the editor should take the opportunity succinctly to
explain his or her own views as part of the presentation
of scholarly disagreements.
The
text
should be a modern standard, with variants noted
separately in an appendix (because of our relationship
with Oxford University Press, it will probably be easiest
to use the OCT as a basis). Significant variants should
be discussed in the commentary.
The
commentary
is the most important and largest part. The notes should
explicate difficulties concisely (translating or
paraphrasing obscure passages) but with an eye to
advancing the student's understanding of difficult
problems of idiom or grammar; assist the student in
following the work's argument and structure; signal, but
not discuss in depth, major cruces and matters of
controversy; and call the reader's attention to points of
special interest. They should include, as appropriate,
references to the secondary literature (mostly in
English) and citations of parallels (quoted and perhaps
translated). The linguistic and historical comments
should strive to be self-contained, and not require
students to go to works of reference they are not likely
to have at hand.
The
selective bibliography should emphasize works in English, without
ignoring the most important works in other languages. It
should be useful to advanced undergraduate students as a
starting point for further study of important aspects of
the work or of the interpretive controversies surrounding
it.
The
Index
should be keyed to the line-numbers that are the lemmata
in the commentary.