Thursday 2 October 2014

Publishing with Palgrave Macmillan

Dear Friends,
Please forgive the (sort of) circular! I have signed on
as the editor of a new monograph series, "Society,
Culture, and Text in Late Antiquity," published by
Palgrave Macmillan. I am writing to let you know about
the series, and to invite you to consider publishing in
it.
Over the last thirty years Late Antiquity has become a
hot field as opposed to the “What?-field” it used to be.
Medievalists have always welcomed Late Antiques (witness
the burgeoning Late Antique program at Kalamazoo and at
Leeds) and now even the border to the Classical world is
increasingly passable (witness developments at the more
conservative APA). There is a tremendous amount going on
in our area all over the world. But there are still not
enough venues for English language publications in Late
Antiquity and particularly for ones that are not
primarily historical. I am hoping that this new series
may open up new possibilities for our inclusive “Long
Late Antiquity,” running from the 2nd century CE down to
the 7th century CE (100-700 CE).
This series is intended to be variegated in nature and
will address an intended audience of classicists,
medievalists, and some general readers, as well as
specialists on Late Antiquity. The disciplinary purview
will likewise be broad and will include literature,
history, religion, philosophy, material culture
(archaeology and art history), as well as history of
scholarship. Interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary
approaches will be particularly welcome. Monographs are
likely to predominate, but edited collections will find a
place as well as the occasional translation or hard-toclassify
item.
Manuscripts should be learned, original, lively,
passionate, fresh-voiced, incisive, and, ideally interor
multi-disciplinary. The recondite is by no means ruled
out, but this is not the series for fundamental
contributions to technical scholarship or for the average
revised dissertation. The authors should have an ear for
tradition and for quality as well as something new to
say. Contributions that know how to tell a tale
effectively and make primary sources come alive are
particularly welcome. Books in this series should, as
appropriate, speak to the imagination too. The quirky or
offbeat can be delightful, and, in its place, the
personal. The purely gimmicky, however, is another
matter. Readability is desirable; surfeits of post-modern
jargon not so.
By providing a new and serious venue for cutting-edge
readable research, we hope that this monograph series may
help to shape and expand our field. In addition to the
openness to new scholarship described above, "Society,
Culture, and Text in Late Antiquity" should appeal to
scholars for several other reasons. At a time when many
academic presses are cutting or eliminating their lists
in the humanities, Palgrave Macmillan is unusual in
making a new (and double) major financial and
intellectual commitment to our field. (In addition to
"Society, Culture, and Text in Late Antiquity," it is
also inaugurating a monograph series on "The New
Antiquity," edited by Matthew Santirocco).
Our flier can be downloaded at:
http://mittellatein.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_
platinumlatin/Society__Culture__and_Text_in_Late_Antiquit
y.pdf
Volumes in the series will be published in hardback
format and will regularly be between 70,000 and 100,000
words in length. Authors with original MSS that fall in
between an article and a monograph in length (25,000-
50,000 words) should consider publishing in Palgrave’s
innovative new venue, Palgrave Pivot under the auspices
of the Late Antique Series:
http://www.palgrave.com/pivot/
In addition, Palgrave's author services are outstanding:
the referee process is expeditious, and, once a
manuscript has been accepted, the time from its delivery
to actual publication is six months. Palgrave still
provides its authors with copyediting, and produces
beautiful volumes, both in terms of design and also the
accuracy of copyediting and proofreading (I speak as a
recent Palgrave contributor). You are very probably
familiar with Palgrave’s “The New Middle Ages,” edited by
Bonnie Wheeler:
http://www.palgrave.com/products/series.aspx?s=NMAG. Our
books will be similarly produced. Finally, as one of the
world's largest and most respected academic publishers,
Palgrave has unparalleled global reach. Thus, books in
this series will be priced competitively, brought out
simultaneously in both print and e-book format, promoted
aggressively online, in print, and at professional
meetings, and marketed effectively around the world.
Once the initial print run is sold out, books will remain
available through print-on-demand and, when warranted,
through second editions. I would be delighted if you
would let me know whether you have a manuscript for which
our series might be appropriate. Please do inform your
colleagues of this publishing opportunity and above all
suggest to me the names of some of them whose work might
find a good home here. I am, of course, also available to
discuss possible projects by email
(danuta.shanzer@univie.ac.at) or Skype (allowing for
time-zones!); please don't hesitate to be in touch with
me directly.
With warm regards,

Danuta

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