Submission Guidelines

Welcome to Fortress Press, the academic book imprint of Augsburg Fortress Publishers.

Fortress Press is recognized worldwide as a leading publisher of biblical, theological, and ministerial resources. The Fortress Press program is intentionally academic, ecumenical, inclusive, and international in scope, and dedicated to providing outstanding resources in both print and digital formats. New areas of acquisition include undergraduate textbooks for religious and biblical studies, theology, and ethics. Our longstanding mission is to advance both scholarship and knowledge in our key topic areas among our diverse audiences.

Fortress Press has four major customer groups:

• Members of professional academic guilds in religion and theology
• Students and professors in colleges, universities, and seminaries
• Professionals in ministry in all denominations
• Educated general readers of diverse cultural backgrounds

Fortress Press publishes books in a variety of areas, including:

• Hebrew Bible and related areas
• New Testament and related areas
• Early Judaism and Christianity
• History of Christianity
• Christian theology and ethics, including historical and practical theology
• Christian ministry, including homiletics, worship, leadership, and pastoral care/counseling
• Religious studies and world religions

Fortress Press does NOT publish fiction, poetry, children's and young adult literature, and nonscholarly books for general audiences.

Submitting a Book Proposal
Please prepare a proposal that is organized by the following categories.  We prefer an electronic submission of your proposal for our editorial review.

• Author Information
  Give your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number(s). Enclose a current vita that indicates your present position, educational background, and previous publications. Please state in what ways you are qualified to write the book that you are proposing.

• Working Title
  Indicate the tentative title of the book (with subtitle, if desired) and give possible alternative titles.

• Description of the Book
  In about 200 words, describe the book that you are proposing. What is the nature, focus, purpose, or argument of the book? What is its thesis? Imagine that you are writing the description for the publisher's catalog.

• Table of Contents/Outline
  Provide a tentative table of contents of the book. Beneath each chapter title, give a brief outline of the chapter and a brief summary of its contents. This summary should explain the focus and development of the chapter and indicate how the chapter advances the argument of the whole book.

• Outstanding Features
  Briefly indicate what you consider to be the outstanding, distinctive, or unique features of the work. For example, do you plan any illustrations or other graphic materials? Do you envision it including digital or Web-based content? What would attract a potential reader to this particular book?

• Readership
  For what audience, specifically, is the book written? Professors? Seminary or graduate school students? College students? Pastors or other religious professionals?

• Textbook Potential
  Does the book have potential for textbook adoption? If so, in what courses? (Please be as specific as possible.) What features would you propose to include that would make it more useful in classroom settings (for example, case studies, glossaries, bibliographies, references, appendices, instructor's manual, student study guide, premade tests with answers, or other material)?

• Alternatives Currently Available
  List books in the same genre and subject, including publisher and retail price. What does your book offer that these books do not? How will your book be superior to or different from them?

• Possible Reviewers
  Indicate the names and contact information of three or four possible reviewers of your proposal whom Fortress Press may want to contact.

• Manuscript Length
  Please estimate a word count for the manuscript (based on 250 words/manuscript page).

• Date of Completion
  Indicate the date by which you expect to submit a completed manuscript.

• Multiple Submission
  Fortress Press accepts multiple submissions, but if you are submitting this proposal to other publishers, please let us know.

• Sample Pages
  Enclose a sample of 15 to 25 pages, perhaps of the introduction or first chapter,  that illustrates your writing style in the book. These should be pages typical of the book as a whole, especially critical to your argument, potentially controversial, or that give a good overview of the book.

Please address your submission to the editor you feel is most appropriate and send it to booksub@augsburgfortress.org.

Neil Elliott: Bible; Early Judaism and Christianity
David Lott: Theology and Ethics; Christian Ministry
Ross Miller: Introductory textbooks for Religious Studies, World Religions, and Ethics
Susan Johnson: Managing Editor
Will Bergkamp: Publisher

Thank you for your interest in publishing with Fortress Press. We look forward to reviewing your materials and will make every effort to respond to your proposal within 45 days.