Author agreements

When a work has been commissioned it is time to do the paperwork. An agreement between ourselves as publishers and you as author needs to be raised. There are many reasons for doing this, but mainly we need to formalise the arrangements that have been agreed verbally (i.e. delivery dates and royalties) and to satisfy the law in acquiring the copyright to the work so that we may publish it on your behalf. Our authorship agreement  document that might look a little daunting at first sight but don't be alarmed. The agreement aims to cover all eventualities, hence its length. We aim to represent you, as your publisher, in a professional and efficient manner and start this process by entering into an agreement laying out all the terms and conditions relevant to the publication of your work. We are frequently asked by authors to explain various issues relating to the publication of their work, so we hope the following guide is useful. Warranty and indemnity: why do publishers need this? Our author contract, in common with those of most commercial publishers, contains a warranty and indemnity clause. The reason we require authors to sign up to such a clause is because we as publishers have no independent way of knowing whether or not a work is the author's own original work. The author is the only one who can give an absolute warranty, that his/her work does not violate or breach any existing copyright or contain defamatory or libellous material and that it is an original work. We, therefore, need to include a clause in the agreement to ensure that the author takes responsibility for the content of the work. An author who knows that he/she has gained the necessary permission to use third party material, or that his/her work is original and contains nothing defamatory or libellous has nothing to fear from the warranty and the accompanying indemnity.

Libel

By accepting the warranty and indemnity clause in the contract, you have guaranteed inter alia that nothing in your book is potentially defamatory or libellous. The only defence against a claim for libel is to prove that what has been said is true. To do this you must be able to provide several credible, reputable and independent sources to support your claim and you must be willing to appear in court and repeat the allegation under oath Specific danger areas include allegations relating to an individual's mental, sexual, criminal or financial history. Be clear about what is  fact and what is opinion. Please make your publisher aware of anything potentially libellous as early as possible, so that appropriate legal advice may be sought if necessary.

Seeking permission

You can obtain permission by contacting the publishers cited on the copyright page of the publication concerned. It is important that you contact the publisher and not the author because in many cases the publishers are also the rights holders; if they are not, they will redirect your request. It is recommended that you make your requests as early as possible because there may be a delay on the part of the publishing house dealing with your request. You must obtain a written reply to your request which you should then pass on to your editor, who will hold all the responses in the file for the work. As a word of warning, authors are entitled to payment for the use of their material so do not be surprised if there is a charge.

Manuscript Delivery

One of the most essential factors in the success of a quality publication is timeliness. We cannot overstate the importance of meeting the delivery date agreed with your publisher. Late delivery will limit the editorial time available to develop the quality and production of your work, and may force us to abandon promotional campaigns planned in advance. Our partners in the retail book trade do not look kindly on books that fail to appear at the agreed time, and late books invariably suffer in the selling process Student textbooks must be published by the end of December if they are to be adopted by lecturers for the following academic year. This gives lecturers time to evaluate the books and alter their teaching if necessary to accommodate the new book.

We have a primary duty towards the books delivered on time by the majority of our authors, and to the wider credibility of our list. In a situation where the ongoing slippage of one title begins to undermine the success of others, we will not hesitate in removing that title from our publishing programme. We will do all we can to help you meet your agreed completion date, and please let your publisher know as soon as possible if you are having trouble doing so. We would always prefer to hear of potential problems with delivery at the earliest possible stage, so that we can reschedule our editorial and promotional activities accordingly. We would also strongly recommend that you send in draft material to your publisher for comment before final completion of the manuscript. Set yourself some way-marking targets at regular intervals throughout the writing process - delivering some advance draft chapters in batches - in order to keep you on track. What gets measured gets done This will also help us to give you valuable advice which you can incorporate into your writing before completion, and is essential for any book for which we have ambitions in the US market. We hope that these suggestions are useful. Please feel free to contact us at any time to discuss the development of your book. We will be happy to help.

Manuscript delivery checklist

Please refer to this checklist when finalising your manuscript to send to us.

• The manuscript should be supplied on disk (MS Word is preferred)

• Two hard copies of the manuscript should be supplied with the disk

• Ensure the disk and hard copy match exactly.

• The hard copy should be double-spaced and on one side only of A4 paper.

• Number the sheets consecutively throughout the manuscript, not chapter by chapter.

• Illustrations and figures should be included at the appropriate location within the manuscript but, if they are available electronically, they should be also supplied on a separate disk. When supplied on disk they should be greyscale, not colour.

• Permissions should have been obtained for any copyright material to be included in the text (click Copyright for advice on copyright and permissions).

When you deliver your manuscript, please also supply

• details of the system on which the manuscript has been prepared and word-processing software (package and version).

• a list of the chapters and corresponding filenames on the disk.

• the total word count and total number of illustrations and tables included.

• contact details where we can reach you regarding editorial queries or promotional opportunities over the coming months

• how you would like your name and title to appear on the title page.

• an author biography describing yourself, your qualifications, your work (academic and professional) and your experience. We are keen to use photographs of authors in the books where studio-quality photos are available.

• a brief executive summary emphasising the key elements of the book and main selling points. This will help our marketing executives put together winning promotional copy which is appropriate to the book's contents and target market.

• endorsements (or contact details for suggested endorsers and reviewers) which can be used on either the jacket or opening pages of the book. These endorsements can significantly boost the sales of a book.

• a list of case studies employed (companies and countries etc.). Where possible, a contact name and number for each organisation featuring as a case study.

• if your book ha s potential for use on business or finance courses, please give us details of appropriate courses (and relevant business schools where possible).

• hard copies of all permissions authorisations (see Copyright guidelines).