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 Sander Goldberg (sander@humnet.ucla.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.
