a note from the publishers

I received an email today from Edward Elgar about the project partly in response to the questions I have sent. Here is part of the email. I will post separately the reviews that they sent about other books.

from EE:Our strategy would be to sell a paperback priced ebook (c£25) of the book at Google ebooks, from the date of publication. Google ebooks are accessed through the Google ebookstore and can be purchased only by individuals rather than institutions. In this way we can service the individual and student market from the outset. An institutionally priced ebook version of the book would also be sold through all the major ebook aggregators.

If time is a pressure for such authors, it may be another idea that you give them the option to write a relatively short chapter. We would trust your judgement as to whether fewer longer chapters or a greater number of shorter chapters (or indeed a combination of the two) is the best structure to cover the subject matter.

I fully appreciate that time pressures may also be an issue for you as editor. As we discussed, it is not uncommon for editors to recruit a junior colleague as a co-editor who is willing to undertake much of the administrative work in return for the prestige of having their name associated with a volume such as this. We would simply ask that your name appear first as lead editor.

We would be very interested to learn more about your ideas for the scope and content of such a volume, if the idea continues to appeal to you.  We would be pleased to receive a draft outline for the handbook - a likely table of contents and a wish-list of contributors. We appreciate that such information is liable to change and will likely evolve over time, however this would be extremely helpful to us. We would then be able to discuss your plans for the handbook and come back to you with our thoughts and comments and a firm offer. We certainly would not ask you to complete a detailed proposal or proposal form. In our experience editors can find it easier securing contributions if they have a firm contract and guarantee of publication.

I very much look forward to hearing from you and do hope you will not hesitate to come back to me if you have any queries or questions I can help with. I do hope your conference trip went/is going well, and you have been able to discuss the idea with colleagues.