Why and how to publish your book with WEA Books

The WEA has in 2015 launched a digital-age book publishing project, WEA Books. This new platform offers academic economics books larger readerships than they now usually have. It also enables their publication and distribution within a few weeks of submission. The details are explained below.

Why publish with WEA Books?

• Because it is highly improbable that for your academic book you will find another publisher who can offer you a readership as large as you will have with WEA Books. Why?
  • Because your book will be priced at $20. This is a small fraction of the prices now normally charged for academic books, whose marketing is increasingly aimed only at libraries and mainly to those in high-income countries.
  • Because your book will be advertised with a photo of its cover and with a direct digital link to its purchasing page in emails to 13,000 economists.
  • Because all WEA members who pay a voluntary membership fee will be able to download your book for free.
  • Because the academic book market will soon be predominately digital.
• Because you will be helping the WEA and all it represents.
• Because you will be helping to breakdown the current publishing system that charges exorbitant prices to taxpayer financed libraries.
• Because the decision to publish or not to publish your book will not be made by a marketing department.

Beginning from February 2015 WEA Books will accept economics books for publication on the following basis.

• As e-books.
• Copyrights will remain with authors.
• At any time 5 months after WEA publication, authors may, with a month’s notice, withdraw their books from the WEA list, if they wish to make other publishing arrangements.
• No royalties will be paid.
• All proceeds will remain with the WEA. Amazon will receive nothing.
• Initially all books will be priced at $20.
• They will be sold exclusively from the redesigned WEA website.
• They will be heavily advertised through the WEA email membership list, including direct links to their individual purchase pages and photos of their covers.
• They will also be advertised on WEA webpages.
• Beginning February 2015, WEA one-year voluntary membership fees will include free downloads of WEA e-books. The standard $50 membership will allow free downloading of 7 books; the $25 dollar membership 3 books, and the $150 membership 22 books.  These free downloads can be made at any time with one year of the membership payment date. In 2015 we anticipate publishing 25 books.
• You may email your submission to books@worldeconomicsassociation.org

The submission, acceptance, formatting and marketing processes for your book will be as follows.

• Because with e-books size is not a significant cost factor, we will publish books of any length above 20,000 words.
• The author must provide at least one recommendation for their book’s publication from an affiliated economist, including an endorsement for promotion. The author must also provide a short summary (300 to 500 words) of their book suitable for their book’s WEA Books webpage.
• The manuscript must be submitted as a Word file and formatted according to the guidelines shown on this webpage.
• The managing editor will send the manuscript to an academic editor for review.
• If approved, a cover will be designed by in-house staff and the formatting finalized.
• The final document will then be converted to one or more e-book formats, including the major e-book formats: PDF, EPUB and MOBI, which covers the majority of e-book reader formats (Kindle, iPad, Kobo Reader, etc.)
• A special web page in the WEA Bookstore will be created for your book. The book will also be listed with an image of its cover on the general list pages.
• This submission to publication process will on average take one month.
• Every two months a special WEA Bookstore email will be sent to the WEA’s global membership (13,000). This email will feature each of the new books – descriptions, images of their covers and links to their purchase pages. Each book will also be link-listed in at least one subsequent bi-monthly email.
• We will, through our arrangement with College Publications, consider paperback publication of e-books that sell especially well.

Send submissions to books@worldeconomicsassociation.org