Publishing with York Medieval Press

York Medieval Press is interested in proposals for publication of monographs and editions, as well as edited collections of essays. Potential authors should heed the message conveyed elsewhere on these pages: the authors and editors published by YMP range from young scholars to senior ones, and their academic milieu is often not York but elsewhere in Britain, Europe or other continents. Although interdisciplinarity has remained a special interest, YMP has also published much single-discipline work. At YMP we welcome authors and editors who range from post-doctoral to senior scholars, from various areas of medieval scholarship and from near and far-flung university milieux.

We draw the attention of potential authors and editors to the various appraisals listed in the outline of the process given below: their meticulousness and number are an essential element in the standard of the books published by YMP.

1. The Process: the Stages

The potential author or editor/s should download the YMP Proposal Form (MS Word , 40kb), and in the case of works intended for the general list submit the completed form to the General Editor, and in the case of works intended for one of the specialised series to the editor or editors of the series in question. [They are listed below] Submission of written materials should be discussed with the editor/s.
The General Editor, or series editor/s in consultation with the General Editor, commissions at least two reports from experienced scholars in the field.
When these reports have been received, the General Editor circulates a dossier to the Board of YMP [its members are listed below]. The dossier contains the proposal (with in many cases written materials) and the reports, and also – when publication in a series is envisaged – comment from the series editor/s.
The Board discusses the materials and comes to a recommendation. Where this is a recommendation to publish, the General Editor conveys this formally to Caroline Palmer at Boydell and Brewer.
The materials are put to a publications committee at Boydell and Brewer. When the proposal is approved Caroline Palmer conveys the news immediately to the author or editor/s, and corresponds later about the details of the contract.
When author or editor/s submit the full manuscript of the contracted book to YMP, a reader is commissioned to provide a ‘pass for press review’. This often produces some points that need to be referred back to author or editor/s. The corrected manuscript is then ‘passed for press’ by YMP and submitted to Boydell and Brewer.
Boydell and Brewer’s copy-editor reads the manuscript, and, after noticing and listing problems, corresponds with author or editor/s about them.
After the production of proofs, they are sent to author or editor/s for checking and to enable the compilation of the Index. The last pre-publication stage is the author or editors’ checking of the proofs of the Index.

2. Miscellaneous advice

Before submission of a formal proposal, a potential author or editor may well wish to email and sound out the general editor, or a series editor, or Caroline Palmer at Boydell and Brewer.
Once under contract an author or editor will of course download the YMP Style Sheet & Writing Guide (MS Word , 96kb). We also advise obtaining a recently published YMP book, whose reading will be an effective additional aid to learning and internalising the York rules.
We counsel looking at an early stage at the advice on the Boydell and Brewer website about obtaining permissions for the reproduction of copyright materials.
We also counsel starting to think at an early stage about the image to be used on the cover of the book.