William S. Hein & Co. Colorado Office
8159 S. Corona Way, Centennial, CO 80122
Toll-free: 1-888-361-3255 Fax: (303) 979-0707 E-mail: s_jarrett@wshein.com
BOOK PROPOSAL INFORMATION FORM
DATE COMPLETED: ______________
Part I: Author Information
1. Name(s) of author(s):__________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Affiliations (title, department, institution):________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Title and subtitle of proposed work: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. Mailing address of author(s): ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Phone and fax number(s) of author(s) at home and work: _____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Any temporary addresses/phone numbers: _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7. In a few sentences, please provide a biographical sketch:______________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8. Education: Honorary Degrees: __________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
9. Previous Positions: ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Book Proposal Information Form
10. Books previously published: ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Part II: Description of Book
1. What is the purpose of the book? Please highlight 3 points. ___________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why is this book important to readers? What sets it apart from others of a similar type? _____________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Please provide (in 200–250 words) a description of your book. Please avoid repeating the introduction or
preface. ____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2
Book Proposal Information Form
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. Are there any special parts of this book that stand out for marketing purposes (if so, please note below):
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Are you aware of other books comparable to this one? (If so, please list them). ____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Part III: Submission Format
1. How do you plan to submit the material (disk, hard copy, software type, camera-ready, etc.)? _______
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. How many pages/number of characters is the manuscript?____________________________________
3. When will it be complete and ready to send to us?___________________________________________
4. Will the book contain any charts or graphs? If so, how many, and in what format are you planning to
submit them? __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Will the book contain an index? Will it contain a simple list of terms, or will it consist of a list of
concepts and/or subentries? How do you expect to supply it?_____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. PLEASE ATTACH TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SAMPLE CHAPTERS IF POSSIBLE.
3
Book Proposal Information Form
Part IV: Marketing Information
1. Who is the intended audience? __________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. If the book is suitable for a course, please list the courses: _____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Review information: Provide any individuals or organizations who should receive review information
once the book is published (use an additional sheet if necessary). _________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Have we left anything out that you feel we should be aware of ? __________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you have any unanswered questions at this point? __________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time in completing this form.
It will be mutually beneficial for the proper analysis of this project.
4
Book Proposal Information Form
William S. Hein & Co.
Electronic Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
Manuscript should be submitted in both digital (electronic) and hard copy (paper) forms, and
both should be identical.
Manuscripts accepted for publication, including all associated artwork or graphics, will not
be returned unless specifically requested by the author. If returned, manuscripts and
artwork will be in the condition that has resulted from the work of the editor, publisher,
and printer.
Electronic Standards
Text Files
All files must be submitted on PC-compatible media or as an e-mail attachment.
Use a standard word-processing program (WordPerfect preferred (.WPD), but MS
Word (.DOC), text file (.TXT), and rich text format (.RTF) are acceptable).
All components of the manuscript (except for charts and graphics) should be in a
single electronic file, on a single CD unless this is prohibited by the size of the
final file. In that case special arrangements can be made.
Do not send multiple files or additional, backup, versions of the file.
Graphics
Acceptable graphics formats are JPG, GIF, TIFF, or BMP (TIFF preferred).
Do not embed charts and graphics into the text; keep them separate and provide
each figure or chart as a separate file. Disks must be labeled explicitly with the
application software used (with version number) and author’s name.
Clearly indicate where all graphics should be inserted in the manuscript by
enclosing a bold textual placeholder in square braces indicating the filename for
that graphic (e.g. [Place Fig-2.jpg here]).
All graphics, charts, and figures should be numbered with consecutive arabic
numerals, have descriptive captions at the bottom, and be mentioned in the text.
Provide each graphic in camera-ready hard copy (not photocopies), as well as in
digital form.
Tables should be inserted in the text, given short informative titles, and numbered
consecutively in arabic numerals. Provide a separate list of tables.
5
Book Proposal Information Form
Writing Standards
Manuscript should be _______ to ________ words. Each manuscript is strictly limited to
_____ pages, including abstract, figures, tables, and references.
Please supply a short biographical sketch (one or two paragraphs) of each author and include
highlights such as education, present employment, experience, recognition received for
accomplishments, and professional society membership.
The general layout of the manuscript is:
1. Front matter, including title page (with title of the work, full names and contact
info for all authors), copyright page; dedication or epigraph; table of contents (with
chapter titles and two heading levels, if applicable, but not page numbers);
foreword or preface; acknowledgments; and introduction (if not part of the text).
2. Main text with sections and sub-sections, up to four levels of headings if necessary,
with the pages numbered consecutively.
3. Back matter, including (if applicable) appendices, glossary, bibliography, table of
cases, and index. Please let us know at the start of the project which, if any, of
these will be included. For the table of cases and index, we will do the electronic
markup of the manuscript and ask that you either highlight the appropriate cases
and index terms on the hard copy or supply a file with a list of cases or index terms
to be used.
Format/Style Standards
General Editorial Style
William S. Hein & Co., Inc., reserves the right to edit all manuscripts for
consistency, clarity, and style. Manuscripts will be edited to conform with The
Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Seventeenth Edition for citations and with
The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition generally.
Notes should be embedded in the text using your software’s build-in footnotes
feature (not as endnotes), or simply typed as text at the end of the document. If you
do not use your word processor’s note-making feature, use superscript to indicate
note numbers in text.
For legal citation style use The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation,
Seventeenth Edition, for general style use The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th
Edition.
6
Book Proposal Information Form
Typographic Style
Desktop publishing is done by the publisher so please keep formatting simple—if you
spend a lot of time customizing the look of your manuscript, we must spend time paring
it back down to its basic elements before we can begin formatting. The following
guidelines are designed to minimize file clean-up.
Use the same typeface and font size throughout the entire manuscript.
Headings and subheadings for different sections of the paper should be clearly
indicated, with a line space above and below. Differentiate each level of heading
visually, for example:
FIRST LEVEL HEADING (BOLDFACE AND CAPITALIZED)
Second Level Heading (Boldface and First Letter Capitalized)
Third Level Heading (Boldface, Italicized, and First Letter Capitalized)
Fourth Level Heading (Italicized and First Letter Capitalized)
This is not the way the headings will appear in the final document; it simply allows
us to distinguish the different levels.
Do not indent the first paragraph after a heading.
Do not assign “styles” to achieve different formats for headings, block quotes,
paragraph indents, etc. The default, or “normal,” style should be the only style in
your manuscript (except for footnote style if applicable).
Do not insert headers or footers.
Do not double-space the text.
Do not use spaces to achieve tabs or indents or to align text; use actual tabs or
indents or centered justification.
Do not insert additional hard returns to create extra space between paragraphs.
Do not use the automatic hyphenation feature.
Do not use the automatic outline/numbering feature. Manually number any
sections, lists, etc.
Use only one space between sentences and after colons.
Indent block quotes (extracts) left and right.
Do not manually create hanging indents for your bibliography by using hard
returns and tabs in the middle of an entry. Instead, use the hanging indent feature in
your word processing program. If you are unsure how to do this, simply indent the
first line of each entry.
7
Book Proposal Information Form
William S. Hein & Co.
INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS:
How Does the Marketing Department
Advertise Your Book?
The Marketing Department of William S. Hein & Co, Inc. will create an
advertisement for your publication. Much of the text of the ad will be based
on the contents of your book and the wording used in the introduction or
preface, along with ideas and suggestions from the Manuscript Proposal or
Publicity Information forms. Please contact the Marketing Department with
any information that highlights what’s distinctive about your publication.
Examples of pertinent details include “The first publication of its kind,”
“information found only in this publication,” “just updated,” etc. At your
request, we’ll show you the advertisement before it goes to print, and we
welcome any suggestions. We do reserve the right to determine the final
appearance and wording of any piece of promotional literature.
Your publication will be advertised in several weekly mailings that go out to
our top 500 customers and then separately to our top 1500 customers. If the
publication fits, it also could be selected for advertisement in our Government
Printing Office mailing (to 1400 customers) and an international law library
mailing (to 600 customers). We may also feature your work on our What’s
New section of our web site.
Please keep in mind that our customer base consists of academic law libraries,
court libraries (federal and state), and larger law firms. If you, as the author,
would like to reach additional markets and can provide a list of names and
addresses, we will create and mail targeted advertising on your title. Please
contact the Marketing Department for the necessary specifications for
supplying your list.
We will also send out a reasonable number of review copies at the request of
law reviews and other journals. If you know of possible reviewers or outlets,
let us know.
If you have any questions concerning the promotion of your publications,
please do not hesitate to contact Brian Jablonski, Director of Marketing &
Publications, at (716) 882-2600 x 141 or e-mail at b_jablonski@wshein.com.
8
Book Proposal Information Form
We look forward to a mutually beneficial professional relationship.
9