In this episode Christine Tulley guides academic authors through the process of selecting the right university press for their work, a high-stakes decision particularly for tenure-track faculty at research institutions. She walks through key strategies: using the Association of University Presses' subject grid (available in Excel or PDF) to identify presses active in your field, visiting press websites to assess the fit of their current lists, sending brief author query emails to gauge interest, and evaluating a press's output volume and consistency as indicators of its health and competitiveness. Christine also clarifies an important protocol — proposals can be sent to multiple presses simultaneously, but full manuscripts must go to only one — and encourages authors to support the university press ecosystem by purchasing books directly from press websites. The episode closes with a reminder about the 2026 Textbook and Academic Authors Institute (June 12–13), where Christine will be presenting sessions on scholarly and textbook authoring.

Resources Mentioned

• Episode 77: Buy a University Press Book
• AAUP Subject Area Grid
• Textbook and Academic Authors Association Summer Institute

DPL Resources

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