Palgrave Macmillan

[sgunelius]

Does anyone have any experience with Palgrave MacMillan (a division of St. Martin's Press)? A gentleman with the title, "Global Publishing Director for Economics, Business and Management; Academic and Professional Publishing" contacted me via email. He read a post on my branding blog about branding/marketing and Harry Potter and how it should be a marketing case study, and he said Palgrave MacMillan is interested in a book on the subject.

I checked and it appears Palgrave MacMillan is legit, but I want to make sure this email isn't fishy before I speak with him. I have to assume this will be a flat-fee, no royalty project, which I wouldn't be interested in except the subject could bring a lot of attention to my writing. I have two agents interested in my first business nonfiction book, so I think I can get my work published without a flat-fee project, but I can't help but be interested based on the possibilities the topic offers.

What do you think? What kinds of questions should I ask when I speak to him?

Thank you!

 

[RTH]

I have no specific info, but St. Martin's is pretty big so I'd tend to trust any of their imprints. Just make sure he's really working for St. Martin's!

 

[sgunelius]

Yes, I Googled his name and he is definitely who he says he is. I'm concerned more about whether or not this is a project with no royalties. Is there a time when that type of project makes sense for an author?

 

[Bo Sullivan]

They are excellent publishers. They publish academic work. I received a reply to a query, but mine is a true crime novel so they are not interested. I would definitely pursue it.

 

[herdon]

Why wouldn't you be interested in a flat-fee project? I would never be disinterested without knowing the actual fee.

 

[Bo Sullivan]

Yes, I Googled his name and he is definitely who he says he is. I'm concerned more about whether or not this is a project with no royalties. Is there a time when that type of project makes sense for an author?

I would get in touch and discuss things with him.

 

[CaoPaux]

http://www.palgrave.com/aboutus/index.asp

I'd also suggest asking in the both the Freelance and Academic publishing forums re: the pros and cons of work-for-hire vs. royalty (and how to negotiate same).

 

[sgunelius]

Thank you, everyone. Also, I think there is something wrong with me as I can't find the academic publishing forum. Can someone point me in the right direction?

 

[Bo Sullivan]

Thank you, everyone. Also, I think there is something wrong with me as I can't find the academic publishing forum. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Ask him if he will commission the work for a fee? It's worth a try.

 

[Bo Sullivan]

Does anyone have any experience with Palgrave MacMillan (a division of St. Martin's Press)? A gentleman with the title, "Global Publishing Director for Economics, Business and Management; Academic and Professional Publishing" contacted me via email. He read a post on my branding blog about branding/marketing and Harry Potter and how it should be a marketing case study, and he said Palgrave MacMillan is interested in a book on the subject.

I checked and it appears Palgrave MacMillan is legit, but I want to make sure this email isn't fishy before I speak with him. I have to assume this will be a flat-fee, no royalty project, which I wouldn't be interested in except the subject could bring a lot of attention to my writing. I have two agents interested in my first business nonfiction book, so I think I can get my work published without a flat-fee project, but I can't help but be interested based on the possibilities the topic offers.

What do you think? What kinds of questions should I ask when I speak to him?

Thank you!

Ask him what kind of print run he is thinking of for your book?
Would it be sold in bookstores?
How much would it sell for?

etc.

 

[CaoPaux]

Thank you, everyone. Also, I think there is something wrong with me as I can't find the academic publishing forum. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Huh, I coulda sworn we had an Academic forum. But Biz/Tech Writing will serve, too. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[HapiSofi]

Unless they explicitly told you so, why do you think this would necessarily be a flat-fee, no-royalty project? You're dealing with a long-established conventional publishing house, as legitimate as they get. IIRC, they're part of the Holtzbrinck empire.

 

[James D. Macdonald]

Why are you assuming flat-fee?

From St. Martin I'd expect a substantial advance against standard royalties.

 

[sgunelius]

So there's hope it may not be a flat-fee project? I assumed since they contacted me it would be flat-fee. I'm totally new to this and I'm so appreciative of everyone's help. If anyone has any other suggestions on questions I should ask when I speak with him on Monday, I would be very grateful!

Thank you!

 

[David I]

Palgrave Macmillan is managed in the US by St Martins, but the imprint itself is international and one of the most respected academic and scientific publishers in the world.

They (both Palgrave Macmillan and St Martins) are a subsidiary of London-based Macmillan, which has been in the business since, if memory serves, 1843, and is one of the great publishing houses. (It is now Pan Macmillan, and owned by the Holtzbrink group, the German publishing conglomerate.)

Macmillan also publishes the journal Nature, generally regarded as the premier science journal in the world. To give you some idea of where Nature stands in the scheme of things, that's where Watson and Crick published their paper on the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953.

In other words, although I can't comment on the specifics of whatever deal you might be offered, Palgrave Macmillan is top-notch in the academic arena, and has worldwide distribution.

 

[MTaillard]

Palgrave MacMillan is interested in my book. I'm at this phase:
"[FONT=&quot]We’ll go ahead and send this out for a peer review immediately."

[/FONT]What does this mean, exactly? Has it already been reviewed by the publisher and is now approved as long as the peer review goes well? Is the peer review just to filter out the crap and the publisher still has to determine whether or not it can be sold?

On my end, all I can do is wait 4-6 weeks until they get back to me but I have no idea what the implications are on their end. Thoughts?

 

[IceCreamEmpress]

Having an academic or other non-fiction manuscript sent out for peer review is definitely a positive sign that the editor is interested in publishing it. However, it's not a slam dunk, even if the peer review is 100% supportive; it still has to pass whatever internal hurdles there are around shaping the publisher's or imprint's lists (the big cheeses might decide, for example, that there are already too many books about this topic on the current list and backlist, even though this particular book has gotten the thumbs-up from peer reviewers).

Still, it's a great sign! Congratulations. (I am kind of surprised that they plan to get back to you in 4 to 6 weeks on a peer review; peer reviewers are often really behindhand in doing that work. If they run late with the peer review, it wouldn't be unusual.)

 

[Deleted member 42]

On my end, all I can do is wait 4-6 weeks until they get back to me but I have no idea what the implications are on their end. Thoughts?

I've never seen them get back that quickly, but it is a good sign, and it's SOP for academic books. They'll have a group of readers with background in the topic you're writing about, and one or two will be asked to sit down and carefully read and respond to your book.

Depending on the readers, even if PM decide not to take the book, you'll likely get a through review, complete with some suggestions for making the book even better.

And it's not something a publisher does lightly, so yes, this is a Good Thing.

 

[MTaillard]

Ok, so now I'm at this part.
"I'm pleased to let you know that we received the review of the project. As you can see, the reviewer sees merit in the project [...] Once I have your response I can present the project to our editorial board for a possible contract, so I look forward to hearing from you soon!"


Can anyone tell me what a fair contract for writers with PG looks like? I mean, what would be pretty average for the initial payment and royalties? I know it probably varies depending on the book and everything but can anyone give me an idea of what a pretty standard contract looks like?

 

[MTaillard]

They've offered 2% royalties. Does that seem low?

 

[Deleted member 42]

They've offered 2% royalties. Does that seem low?

Not for an academic press, noe.

We rarely get paid more than honorariums, outside of rather well-known scholars, or textbooks.

 

[CaoPaux]

I'll just quote their Our History page:

In 2015 Palgrave Macmillan also became part of the newly merged company Springer Nature. Springer Nature is the world’s largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world’s highest impact journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.

 

[AW Admin]

In other words, Palgrave Macmillan, like parent company Springer Nature, is part of the Big Five publishing entity known as Macmillan Publishing, owned by Holtzbrinck.

 

[CaoPaux]

Updating URL: https://www.palgrave.com/us