McFarland & Company Inc. is an academic and nonfiction publisher that markets primarily to libraries. They have much more expensive cover prices because of this, and do not have good distribution in brick-and-mortar bookstores, but are widely available at libraries throughout North America. They also have a good reputation among librarians, which is a plus.
Their focus is to publish scholarly books on topics of popular appeal, including sports, military, history, true crime, and literature, among many others. You can get a better idea of what they publish by visiting their website here.
They do not offer advances, which is more unusual for nonfiction publishers. They work primarily directly for authors and as such have a lot more resources for authors than the average publisher. Their FAQ page is a good place to start.
They seem upfront about how they do business and even share a sample contract. However, I’ve heard from a direct source and seen proof that they are not in any way open to negotiating or changing that contract, even in minor ways. Usually if a company has that approach they state that when offering the contract or while sending it. McFarland does not do either of these things. Please review the contract carefully, if you are not comfortable with the contract (and a few of their terms are not ideal for authors), do not submit to them, because they have shown they are not willing to negotiate.
They accept book proposals, and you can learn more about what they expect in proposals by scrolling down here to the section entitled Sending a Proposal. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting.
All proposals should be submitted via email.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
