But we cannot undertake original fiction, regardless of topic, children's books, or the work of living poets. Our mission, defined by the University through the Press Advisory Board of faculty members working in concert with the Press, is to find, evaluate, and publish in the best fashion possible, serious works of non-fiction. We prefer to see prospectuses prior to inviting completed manuscripts. We receive more than 1000 inquiries each year. Although we are delighted to find so much interest in our press, we can only invite submission of a small fraction of these projects, and then publish an even smaller fraction of the manuscripts actually invited.
Literary translations are especially competitive.
When we receive an invited manuscript an acknowledgment of receipt is immediately sent, and we evaluate the work promptly to determine whether it would fit our list. If we think it may be appropriate, we send it to two experts in the field for their comments. If both readers endorse publication, we take the manuscript and readers' reports to our faculty committee and request approval to publish. The entire review process usually takes four to six months, and can be longer if the expert readers counsel significant changes. We are becoming increasingly adept at using computer disks.