Submission guidelines

Considering sending us a proposal or manuscript?

We publish a range of non-fiction and poetry, but do not currently publish fiction.Please browse our website to make sure yours is the kind of book we publish.

Non-fiction submissions

Whether you are submitting a proposal or a finished manuscript, we need the following:

• A contents page, an overall synopsis AND a brief chapter-by-chapter synopsis.
• Two sample chapters OR the full manuscript text if available; OR other writing samples if no chapters have yet been finished.
• A proposal document/covering letter telling us about the manuscript: what it aims to do; how it fits in with the existing literature on the topic; who the audience is; whether there will be illustrations/photos; your proposed timeline if writing is still underway.
• An up-to-date CV.

Acquisition decisions are made by our Editorial Board. The board sends promising manuscripts out to readers/peer reviewers. We will acknowledge receipt of your material immediately, but the assessment process can take time.

The deadlines for submission of material for consideration by the Editorial Board are:

• 2023
  9 November
• 2024
  18 January
  14 March
  16 May
  4 July
  29 August
  31 October

Poetry submissions

We publish only four or five poetry manuscripts a year. You are welcome to submit a manuscript in the knowledge that it is a highly competitive process.

There are four submission deadlines a year for poetry: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October.

If you submit outside these dates, your manuscript will be considered on the next due date.

Please send us the following:

• A full manuscript. (Note that we publish full-length books only, minimum 72pp).
• An up-to-date CV.

Points to note about submissions

• We do not accept submissions that are submitted simultaneously to multiple publishers.
• Your newly completed thesis is unlikely to be publishable as a book without substantial revision. For some tips on how to approach this, you might like to check out the following link:    

  Turning your thesis into a book

We do not accept hard copy submissions. Please make your submission by email, including documents as attachments, to: oup.submissions@otago.ac.nz

If you have any queries that are not answered above, please email oup.submissions@otago.ac.nz

Click to download our House Style Guide (PDF) or Manuscript Preparation Guide (PDF)