With the recent influx of authors submitting their manuscripts to the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) for publication, the editorial team has developed guidelines for aspiring authors to ensure that their submission packages are successful, and their manuscript moves on to publication.

“It’s definitely inspiring to see that a positive outcome of the stay-at home orders due to Covid-19 have resulted in a marked increase in the number of submissions we have received lately. This indicates that people are focusing on nurturing their literary talents in their spare time at home,” said Jameela Sultan al-Mass al-Jassem, Arabic editor at HBKU Press.

HBKU Press receives submissions across a wide range of genres, including fiction and non-fiction titles, for children, young adults, and adults. In addition, HBKU Press’ academic department receives peer-reviewed, scholarly content and research in the natural and social sciences that it publishes as academic books, open access reference materials, and conference proceedings.

Though the criteria for submissions can be found on the HBKU Press website (www.hbkupress.com), with the large number of incoming submissions, there are certain factors that make some submission packages stand out from the crowd. These include a synopsis to get the editorial committee interested; the author’s biography including a self-introduction, the motivation for writing as well as the target audience of the writer and a well written copy of the manuscript.

At HBKU Press, our aim as a publisher differs from that of other publishing houses, both locally and globally. We are committed to promoting literacy as the key to knowledge development and human potential and as a means to participate fully in the community and wider society.

What that means is that if you can show us potential through a strong submission package, even if an author’s manuscript isn’t quite ready to be published, our team is available to provide feedback and will sometimes work with the author to bring their level of writing to the standard it needs to be at to be published,” concluded al-Jassem.

Source : Gulf Times

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