Guidelines for Editors of Multicontributor Manuscripts
The editor of a manuscript made up of essays by multiple contributors bears several unique responsibilities. This guide describes what you will need to do and some challenges you may confront. If you have questions not addressed here, please feel free always to check with our editorial staff by letter or email.
Your Basic Responsibilities
- Identifying authors who will write the essays, and securing their commitments.
- Providing whatever editorial guidance the contributors may need, answering their questions, and conducting all necessary communication with them. McFarland needs to be in touch with you only
- Causing the contributors to deliver their essays to you by an agreed-upon date with a signed release (see below). You may have to manage or replace an uncooperative author (keeps promising, continues to delay, but insists he’s in to stay).
- Ensuring that the essays are in proper form before delivering the manuscript. It is the editor’s job to assess and resolve such matters as quality, appropriateness, disharmony, and disproportionate length. You must also determine to your satisfaction that the content and style of each essay are consistent with a description you and the author have agreed on. The essays must follow a uniform format on such matters as notes, bibliography, use of subheadings, and so forth. You should proofread and correct each essay before sending the manuscript to us; this includes ensuring the citation styles match throughout the manuscript. Don’t allow one contributor to use MLA, for instance, while another uses Chicago.
- Delivering to McFarland a manuscript complete in every way, including an electronic copy of the manuscript and printed copies of all contributor releases. We cannot call a manuscript “received” until we have every component of it—and we need it all together in one mailing only.
- Answering any questions we may raise during the publication process.
- Reading proofs and creating an index. And, just as important, letting contributors know they will not be allowed to proofread their essays or to revise them after the manuscript has been delivered.
Editorial Points to Consider
Work with your contributors to ensure that the essays fit comfortably together. Common problems include subject overlap (the reader will tolerate a little, if the book has a narrow topic, but more than a trace hurts); conflicting styles or formats (keep it simple and uniform) and varying documentation systems (each essay must use the same standard style). Also watch for individual essays whose voice is incompatible with the book—too personal, too slangy, etc. And guard against wildly unequal lengths. We also ask that all essays conform to American conventions of style and spelling.
Essay titles can be a trouble area, especially in books with a narrow focus. Attack repetition: In a book of essays about Mark Twain, for example, you don’t want Twain’s name appearing in all, or even most, titles. Aim for economy: Discourage contributors from indulging in triple-decker titles (main title: subtitle: sub-subtitle), tricky locutions or excessive wordiness. Work out the titles with the contributors before delivering the manuscript, and make sure they know that you and the publisher have the final say.
Contributor Names and Bios
You must regularize names so that each contributor’s name is in exactly the same form everywhere it appears: in the table of contents, at the head of the essay, in the biographies, and (if applicable) in your preface or introduction. Don’t have John Doe in one place, John M. Doe in another and J.M. Doe in a third. You might include a line on the release so a contributor can print exactly how he wants his name to appear.
Contributor Releases
As volume editor, one of your responsibilities is to secure a contributor release for every previously unpublished essay in the collection. This release must grant exclusive rights to the essays to you. McFarland will control those rights while the book remains in print. While the book is young and earning most of its sales, it is important that the book is the only place the essays can be found. After 18 months, we will generally approve reprint requests for a modest fee. If a contributor wants to reuse their essay in a book of their own, we will grant reprint rights gratis.
Other Permission Issues
In examining the essays before manuscript delivery, look for elements that may present copyright issues. Sometimes two or more essays quote from the same original works, and thus the book in aggregate uses more than fair use permits. Beware of poetry or song lyrics, both of which are categorically very rights-sensitive while under copyright. (Works first published after 1923 may still be under copyright.) Contributors may include photographs or other illustrations that require permission from rights owners. It is your job to identify and, via the contributors, satisfy all permission needs before delivering the manuscript, whether by supplying permissions or by deleting the material in question.
Delivering the Manuscript
Deliver the manuscript complete in every way in one mailing only. That means a final double-spaced copy with continuous page numbers (with title page, table of contents, your preface or introduction, all the essays, all notes and bibliographies) on disk or flash drive, scans of all contributor releases and any other necessary permissions, and any photographs or other illustrations (not embedded in the manuscript). The delivered manuscript represents a work fully edited and approved by you.
Royalties and Free Books
As editor you will receive all royalties. (If there are two or more editors, your contract will specify whatever division of royalties you settle upon together.) There will be 10 free copies of the published book for you (to be divided if there are two or more editors). Ordinarily we also provide one free copy for each contributor. Discuss this with us early, though, if you are going to have a high number of contributors. We send these copies to you to distribute.