Scholars proposing manuscripts for publication should submit a prospectus to the acquisitions department at the University Press of Colorado before submitting a complete manuscript. Submissions to our Utah State University Press, University of Wyoming Press, or University of Alaska Press imprints will be routed to the correct personnel. We do accept simultaneous submissions.
Until further notice, only electronic submissions will be accepted.
Select the imprint below for more information about specific areas of interest.
University Press of Colorado
The University Press of Colorado is currently accepting manuscript proposals in anthropology, archaeology, ethnohistory, environmental justice, history of the American West, indigenous studies, and the natural sciences as well as projects about the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. We are also accepting submissions for the following series:
- Decolonizing Archaeology and Heritage
- The George and Sakaye Aratani Nikkei in the Americas Series
- Global Colonialism
- Intersections in Environmental Justice
- Mining the American West
- Timberline Books
The University Press of Colorado distributes poetry titles published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. For their submission guidelines, please visit: Colorado Prize for Poetry or the Mountain West Poetry Series.
Utah State University Press
Utah State University Press is currently accepting manuscript proposals in composition (writing studies), environmental justice, folklore, history of the American West, and the natural sciences as well as projects about the state of Utah and the Rocky Mountain region. We are also accepting submissions for the following series:
- Computers and Composition Digital Press
- Contemporary Legend Casebook Series
- Intersections in Environmental Justice
- Writing Research, Pedagogy, and Policy
Utah State University Press is not currently accepting proposals in fiction, memoir, or poetry.
University of Wyoming Press
The University of Wyoming Press publishes peer-reviewed works of scholarly, cultural, and social importance that are relevant to our state, region, nation, and world. As an imprint of the University Press of Colorado, we aim to advance and disseminate knowledge globally by publishing significant scholarly works and making them accessible.
University of Wyoming Press titles are anchored in interdisciplinary approaches to the humanities and social sciences, including books that enhance, explore, extend, critique, and interrogate Wyoming’s cultural, political, economic, and historical narratives. Our goal for these books is to facilitate communication among scholars and to engage the peoples of Wyoming and the Mountain West in conversations about our histories, cultures, and resources.
Democracy and the United States
We seek manuscripts that deepen our understanding of the quality of democracy in the United States, as well as the colonial legacy and influence of the United States internationally. This work is like a laboratory of democracy: we publish books that consider problems of democracy and how the history of race, class, and gender have shaped systems, political movements, and institutions. We are particularly interested in publishing books rooted in intersectional, interdisciplinary approaches to humanities and social sciences scholarship that ask enduring questions about democracy, ethics, justice, and the public good.
Public Humanities
We are interested in projects that describe, theorize, or critique the ways in which humanities scholars and practitioners interact with the public in the form of cultural institutions such as museums and libraries, cultural agencies that create programming for communities, nonprofit organizations that promote humanities engagement, as well as public events in local communities.
Environmental Humanities
Recognizing that the acute challenges of local and global environmental crises are fundamentally entangled with human culture, we seek manuscripts that take interdisciplinary approaches to explore the relationship between human values and belief systems and environmental change. We invite submissions from scholars from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to literary studies, history, philosophy, religious studies, American studies, and ethnic studies. Publications will contribute to growing conversations about the critical, complementary role of the arts, humanities, and social sciences in addressing environmental crises and supporting efforts to build just, sustainable futures. Environmental humanities manuscripts that also deal fundamentally with issues of environmental justice will be considered for our Intersections in Environmental Justice series, published in cooperation with University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press.
University of Alaska Press
The University of Alaska Press welcomes the submission of book proposals in the areas in which we publish. Launched in 1967, the University of Alaska Press is a nonprofit scholarly publisher and distributor of books about Alaska and the circumpolar regions. Although physically located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, the Press represents the entire University of Alaska and by extension the entire state of Alaska.
UA Press publications cover an expanding range of subject areas, including politics and history, Native languages and cultures, science and natural history, biography and memoir, poetry, fiction and anthologies, and original translations. The Press publishes books in print and electronically for both the scholarly community and the general public.
In 2010, UA Press launched the Alaska Literary Series with Peggy Shumaker as the Series Editor. The Press publishes approximately one to three works of fiction in this series each year. Submissions may include fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry- with an emphasis on works that make the northern experience available to the world.
Please browse our web site to get a better sense of how your project might fit within our established publication lists.
SAA Press
The official book-publishing unit of the Society for American Archaeology, the SAA Press focuses on the discipline and context of archaeological endeavors and helping archaeologists in their work, be it in the private sector, government, schools, universities, or museums. Submissions are currently being accepted for the following series:
General Guidelines
Ideally, proposed manuscripts will be 90,000 words or less, and no submission should be more than 120,000 words.
A book prospectus should include the following:
- a clear and concise description of your book and its notable features
- a table of contents, including a brief précis for each chapter
- an estimated word count of the project
- an estimate of the number of illustrations, tables, appendices, etc.
- an analysis of the expected audience for the book
- a round-up of competing books (if any exist), and a brief explanation of the uniqueness of the proposed book
- an approximate date when the manuscript would be completed
- a current resume or curriculum vita
How many images can or should I include?
There is no single answer here, as each book has its own needs based on content and scholarly discipline. As a general rule, we encourage you to keep the image count as low as possible. For most books, this limit should be kept at 25 or fewer. What’s most important to us is the specific vision of each book we publish, and we understand that some books are significantly more visual in nature and require a more extensive collection of illustrations. We encourage you to consider the questions below and talk with your editor about how you might use images in your manuscript, what these images can contribute to the book’s overall goals, and how many would be appropriate for your particular project.
When should I use images?
In a typical scholarly book, we encourage our authors to think of images as primary sources or evidence. You could ask whether the inclusion of an image significantly strengthens the argument(s) in a particular passage, or the book as a whole. Does the image offer context that would be difficult to explain only with words? Does the text engage with the image (e.g., close reading)? Or is the image simply something “extra” that could be accessed elsewhere and/or doesn’t advance the discussion? If the image isn’t serving the argument of your book, the solution might be to amend or expand the text, rather than remove the image. You can talk with your editor about what makes the most sense given your particular field(s) and methodology. Regardless of the conventions of your discipline, it’s always a best practice to be intentional about every image you include, for the reasons listed above.
We do our best to respond to submissions within six weeks of receipt. Due to our small staff size and the large number of submissions that we receive, our review time may take longer. Please be patient while we give your proposal or manuscript our full consideration.
Manuscript Review
Occasionally, the University Press of Colorado issues a book contract on the basis of the prospectus, but more generally the practice is to write a contract based on the finished manuscript. Once submitted, manuscripts are reviewed by the press editor or by an appropriate series editor. Manuscripts recommended by the press editor or series editor are then considered for publication. The press requires two professional evaluations of manuscripts and the approval of our editorial board prior to moving forward with publication.
For authors submitting manuscripts for peer review or final publication, visit Author Materials.
