Book Author

If you have written or contemplate writing a book, you may have considered or you may want to consider publishing it in open access model.  In this model, the book is available online to all interested readers, who do not have to pay for accessing its contents. As a rule, open access books are published in so-called author-pays model, which means that the author (or rather his or her affiliate institution or another sponsor) of the book manuscript accepted for publication pays a Book Processing Charge, which covers the production and marketing costs. Versita will use Book Processing Charges, but we have decided to waive them for the next year or two.

Why open access for books ?

For decades, the book has been an important format of scholarly communication, especially in humanities and social sciences. Many scholars must publish monographs for career advancement. Since 1970s sales of monographs have significantly dropped, mostly because libraries have spent growing parts of their budgets on journals. Commercial publishers have become very selective in book acquisition, so scholars face serious problems to publish their manuscripts.

Open access publishing has developed mostly in journals and in science. But it is also coming to books and to humanities and social sciences. Open access brings wide audience and increased readership. It also grows sales of printed copies. Electronic publishing technology offers many functionalities, similar to those known for journals (full-text search, reference linking etc.). Due to lower costs and open access, open access monographs can reach small audiences (very specialized books).

Why publish with Versita ?

One may say that in the internet era authors do not need publishers. Every author can convert his or her manuscript to PDF format and put it online. This is a fundamental misunderstanding. Versita performs literally the same publishing functions, no matter if we publish the book in the traditional (paid access) model or in the open access model. We add value through:

• rigorous and comprehensive peer-review of submitted proposals and manuscripts
• English language copy-editing by native English speaking specialists in the field (in some subject areas we accept also manuscripts in other languages)
• professional composition of the manuscript in PDF format
• hosting the book on MetaPress platform, which offers many functionalities, e.g. active links in references
• printed copies sold to libraries and individuals, by Versita and distributors (e.g. Amazon)
• complimentary printed copies for book author and editors
• royalties for the author from print copy sales
• indexing by Google and other search engines
• e-book delivery to libraries and full-text repositories (e.g. Google Book Search)
• Creative Commons copyright license

For more details on Versita Open Access book program, please see the Frequently Asked Questions.

New Book Proposal Form

If you wish to submit a new book proposal, please fill in our New Book Proposal Form and return it in electronic form by e-mail to your contact person at Versita. If you have not been in touch with Versita representative, please send to info@versita.com. You can also contact Managing Editor for your subject area:

Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences, Forestry, and Food Science
Arts, Music, Architecture
Chemistry
Computer Science
Culture
Earth Sciences
Economics
Environmental Studies
History, Archeology
Language, Literature
Life Sciences
Mathematics, Statistics, Logic, Systems Science
Management, Business, Finance
Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health
Philosophy
Physics, Materials Science, Astronomy
Psychology
Sociology
Theology, Religious Studies