Fortress Press Submission Guidelines

The mission of Fortress Press is:
To provide academic and professional resources that inform and reform Christian faith.

Fortress Press is the academic book imprint of Augsburg Fortress. The Fortress Press imprint is recognized worldwide as a leader in biblical and theological studies and is noted for its significant publishing in the areas of Jewish-Christian studies, African American religion, religion and science, and feminist theology. The Fortress Press program is academic, ecumenical, inclusive, and international.

Fortress Press has four major customer groups:

• educated general readers of diverse cultural backgrounds
• members of professional academic guilds in religion and theology
• students of religion in colleges, universities, and seminaries
• professionals in ministry in all denominations

Fortress Press publishes books in a variety of areas within theology and religious studies, including:

• Hebrew Bible and related areas
• New Testament and related areas
• early Judaism and Christianity
• history of Christianity and historical theology
• Christian theology and ethics
• practical theology, including homiletics and pastoral care

Fortress Press has gained an enviable position worldwide in its major content areas. The program is widely known for:

• books that advance research in certain key areas
• useful textbooks and other classroom resources
• professional books for Christian ministers and seminarians
• high quality of design and production
• an outstanding list of authors from various parts of the world

Submitting a Book Proposal

• Author Information
  Give your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number(s). Enclose a current vita that indicates your present position, educational background, and previous publications. Please state in what ways you are qualified to write the book that you are proposing.

• Working Title
  Indicate the tentative title of the book (with subtitle, if desired) and give possible alternative titles.

• Description of the Book
  In about 250 words, describe the book that you are proposing. What is the nature, focus, purpose, or argument of the book? What is its thesis? Imagine that you are writing the description for the publisher's catalog.

• Table of Contents/Outline
  Give a tentative table of contents of the book. Beneath each chapter title, give a brief outline of the chapter and a brief summary of its contents. This summary should explain the focus and development of the chapter and indicate how the chapter advances the argument of the whole book.

• Readership
  For what audience, specifically, is the book written? Professors? Seminary or graduate school students? College students? Pastors or other religious professionals? What would attract a potential reader to this particular book? Does the book have potential for textbook adoption? If so, in what courses?

• Alternatives Currently Available
  List books in the same genre and subject, including publisher and retail price. What does your book offer that these books do not? How will your book be superior to or different from them?

• Manuscript Length
  What is the estimated length of the proposed manuscript, printed double-spaced on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, 26 lines per page, 65 characters per line?

• Electronic Manuscript Submission
  You will need to submit the manuscript in electronic form. What word processing program do you use?

• Date of Completion
  Indicate the date by which you expect to submit a completed manuscript.

• Sample Pages
  Enclose a sample of 15—25 pages, perhaps of the introduction or first chapter, which illustrates your writing style in the book. These should be pages typical of the book as a whole, especially critical to your argument, potentially controversial, or that give a good overview of the book.

Please send your proposal to:

E-mail: booksub@augsburgfortress.org

Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope large enough, and with enough postage, to accommodate any materials you would like returned to you.

We will not return your manuscript unless you enclose an envelope with sufficient postage.

Please be sure to keep a copy of your manuscript in your possession (preferably in electronic form).