Contributed volume
If you are proposing or writing an edited collection (also called a contributed volume), you will need to consider a few extra things. See below for information regarding contributor agreements and tips for working with contributors. If you have any queries about your role as a contributor or an editor of a contributed volume, do not hesitate to contact your editor for advice.
Contributor agreements
You will need to provide the addresses of each of your contributors who have written chapters in your book in order for us to have Contributor Agreements, (also known as Copyright Assignment forms), drawn up. These detail the contributor's agreement to have their work published by Palgrave Macmillan within your book. Once you have provided the addresses the agreements will be drawn up and returned to you for distribution.
The decision to involve book editors in the distribution, collection and return of contributor paperwork is partly due to the legal structure of the documentation, as the contributors aren't contracted directly with us, but through the book editor. To explain in a bit more detail: you are commissioned to produce a book of a certain length and, while we make allowance for a certain number of contributions within this, effectively the other writers you involve are 'subcontracted'. It is up to you to identify and approach them, and then edit their material to a standard you are happy with (or to cut it, as appropriate). We deal with full manuscripts rather than individual chapters, as we won't (can't) publish these unless they are part of a complete book. The Copyright Assignment forms which we send to contributors are, effectively, documents that we have drawn up on your behalf, and so in many ways it makes sense for these to be circulated by you. Of course, the other reason to ask editors to collate the paperwork is that, in most cases, you are building on existing personal relationships (possibly with the added benefit of geographical proximity) and as such get a much faster response! Please ensure that as soon as you have all signed copies of the agreements you return these to Palgrave Macmillan (you will be given instructions as to who when the agreements are sent to you). Without these we are unable to publish your book.
Tips for working with contributors
Chasing contributors
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