Legacy publishers, particularly those who are keenly interested in preserving a scholarly reputation, function as academic “gatekeepers.” They certify quality. However, they are always concerned about marketability unless they receive a subvention for publishing a given title. A great many titles of scholarly merit go unpublished. Lifetimes of research pass unnoticed. SASA Books works as a gatekeeper within this niche of quality work with limited mass market potential. We operate as a 100% volunteer organization. Services normally performed by a publisher are assumed by the author. We do not offer contracts for proposed projects, provide advances or consider incomplete manuscripts. Only projects related to South Asian Studies that are in or nearly in penultimate form are considered, i.e., we do not provide editorial services. Our primary concern is strengthening the reputation of our imprint and thereby our value to our authors.

Before acceptance, all manuscripts must pass our extensive double-blind peer review process. Once a publishing contract has been offered we expect the author to work with us to bring the manuscript out as rapidly as possible. We reserve the right to cancel a contract should the project drag on for more than six months beyond signing.

Cathleen Cummings, editor: Associate Professor of Art History, University of Alabama, Birmingham

Chandrika Kaul, editor: Lecturer in Modern History, University of St. Andrews

The SASA Books advisory board performs all manner of pro bono services — peer review, editorial services, graphic arts. layout, production, etc. Peer review is the heart of the process. It ensures that our books represent the best of contemporary scholarship. If one is known by the company he/she keeps, our authors are in very good company, indeed. SASA Books in indebeted to the following reviewers (and others who have asked to remain anonymous):

• F. King Alexander, California State University, Long Beach

• Adam Bowles, University of Queensland

• Cathleen Cummings, University of Alabama

• Alexander Dubyanskiy, University of Moscow

• Paun Hanson, California Lutheran University

• Phyllis Herman, California State University, Northridge

• Veena Howard, University of Oregon

• Sanford M. Shapero, City of Hope National Medical Center

• Deepak Shimkhada, Claremont Graduate University

• William Vanderbok, South Asian Studies Association

• Archana Venkatesan, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Dominik Wujastyk, Universität Wien, Austria

• Katherine Young, McGill University (emeritus)

• Both American and British English are acceptable — just be consistent, except in the case of edited volumes in which case the consistency rule applies to individual contributors, not the volume overall.

• Endnotes are preferred over footnotes. Either the current MLA or Chicago Manual of Style formatting are acceptable. Consistency is key.

• Font selection should be serif and glyph rich so as to accommodate transliteration from South Asian scripts. The best choice, available as a free download, is TeXGyrePagella. For Devanāgarī type faces, visit this site for suggestions. Check with the editors concerning your font choice because different sources implement with critical but seemingly minor differences.

• At the present time we publish soft cover only. Grayscale images present no problem. If even a single color image (beyond the front and back covers) is used the final price of a manuscript is approximately doubled.

• Initial submission may be in either the Microsoft Word or PDF format. The final product must be in the Word format.

Ingram can take several weeks to fully index a title through its multiple services.  If you can not find the title you wish there, two other ways for bookstores to order SASA books are:

Use or initiate a CreateSpace.com vendor account to order a title.

Call 1-866-356-2154 and have the ISBN number available.