Our Sunday Visitor is the country's largest non-profit Catholic publishing company. It was founded in 1912 by Father John Noll to "serve the Church." Today we publish a weekly newspaper, magazines, religious education materials and books. Every year we publish about 20 trade book titles, some in hard cover but most in soft. We also publish pamphlets and booklets, and we publish in other formats, such as CD-ROM.
We have two main book-publishing seasons, spring and fall. The bulk of our sales are to parishes, schools, religious book stores and individual consumers -- the man and woman "in the pew." Our primary audience is North America. (A copy of our book catalog can be obtained by writing our Book Marketing Department, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750 or e-mail cmccauley@osv.com.)
We are particularly interested in the following six categories:
Our Sunday Visitor is dedicated to publishing materials of use to Catholics everywhere. Through the pages of our many periodicals, as well as through our highly successful direct mail campaigns and other promotions, we reach a national Catholic audience. Through these networks, we sell to individual consumers as well as established bookstore and parish markets. We also have close ties with the Christian Booksellers Association. Of course, nothing helps sell books more than the dedicated involvement of authors themselves. That is why we always encourage authors to lend their ideas and expertise to the selling of their own books.
First, even if you already have completed the manuscript, we will request a proposal. A variety of publishing professionals will be reviewing your project, but few of them have the time or the training to evaluate a complete manuscript.
A fully developed proposal should include the following items:
Please enclose an SASE with sufficient return postage if you want your materials returned. You can expect an initial response within 6 weeks of your proposal. We would appreciate knowing if your proposal is being simultaneously submitted to other publishers.
If our editors are initially interested in your proposal, we will send you an Author's Autobiographical Questionnaire. Your answers to this questionnaire are crucial, because it is reviewed by our Publishing Committee, and will be used by our marketing department later if we decide to publish your book.
We may also have your proposal (and/or manuscript) reviewed by outside experts. When the Editorial Department decides that it wishes to publish a manuscript, a formal proposal is presented to the Publishing Committee, which consists of representatives from the marketing, business, production and editorial departments.
Whether the Publishing Committee approves the project, asks for additional information, or rejects it outright, you should hear from us within two months after we have received your autobiographical questionnaire.
After approval is received, a contract will be sent to you with terms that the acquisitions editor has already discussed. In general, you should know that we pay royalties on net sales (as do more than 80 percent of all small book publishers).
We strongly prefer that your manuscript be delivered on diskette, CD, or as a Word attachment to an email. (Microsoft Word format is appreciated). If the manuscript is not available in a digital format, we may charge the author a fee against royalties for the cost of inputting the manuscript.
In addition, we also ask that you send a typed or printed copy of your manuscript. It must be double-spaced throughout (including long quotations and bibliographies), on one side only of 8 1/2 x 11 -inch white paper, with all pages consecutively numbered throughout. Margins should be no less than an inch and a half. Please make sure to keep a copy of your manuscript.
If your manuscript includes quotations from copyrighted materials, the responsibility for obtaining permission from the copyright holders to reprint such material (plus the payment of any permissions fee) is yours. All biblical citations -- unless otherwise agreed to -- should be from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
Until your completed manuscript is accepted for publication, you will be dealing with an acquisitions editor. After acceptance, your manuscript is given to a project editor, who will copy edit, format, and proofread it for publication. The project editor will inform you of the necessary deadlines for returning proofs. Normally, it takes 12 months or longer from when a manuscript is accepted for publication until it appears in bookstores, but the acquisitions editor will keep you informed of its exact publishing date.
By all means. Send us your ideas or proposals at any time, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.All materials should be sent to:
E-mail to: booksed@osv.com
Acquisitions Editor Book Department Our Sunday Visitor 200 Noll Plaza Huntington, IN 46750 (260) 356-8400
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