Publisher analysis
About the publisher
Name: Facet Publishing
Website: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/
Purpose, objective, or mission: Facet Publishing is “Facet Publishing, the commercial publishing and bookselling arm of CILIP: the library and information association, is the leading publisher of books for library, information and heritage professionals worldwide.” 1
Target audience: “We publish a range of titles for practitioners, researchers and students with authorship from some of the leading minds in the field.” 2
Owner: CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. 3
Are published books peer reviewed? “All new book proposals undergo a full single blind peer review process in order to fully evaluate and develop the content we commission.” 4
Types of books published: LIS professional books, textbooks, series and eBooks.
Medium: Print and electronic, though not all titles are available in both formats.
Topics covered: Over thirty LIS subjects are published by Facet, including subject headings such as Archives, e-Learning, Research Data Management, and Copyright, Information Law, and Ethics. 5
Number of titles published per year: According to Facet Publishing’s 2020-2021 Catalogue, they published almost 20 new products in 2020 and will be publishing another 11 in 2021, along with numerous new editions of older works. 6
About the publisher’s submission guidelines
Location of submission guidelines: https://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/authors/
Types of submissions accepted: “We welcome new book proposals for textbooks, professional books and monographs in LIS, knowledge management, data science, archives, cultural heritage and digital humanities.” 7
Submission and review process: Click HERE to go to the Authors Resources page, where you can download “Book Proposal Form”. You will need to complete the form as completely as possible, including details about the book, intended audience, subject areas, and a biography. Send completed form to: info@facetpublishing.co.uk
Editorial tone: None listed, but consider that Facet publishes for students and professionals already well versed in the LIS field.
Style guide used: Use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 16th edition, as your primary style guide. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
Click this link to find style guide information: How to Supply your Book to Facet Publishing
Style tips
- Abbreviations & Acronyms: spell out the full name at first use, followed by the
acronym/abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the acronym/abbreviation
will suffice. Do not begin a sentence with an acronym/abbreviation.
i.e. and e.g. should not be followed by a comma. - Apostrophes: Master’s not Masters.
- Symbols: Ampersands (&) may be used in company names and are correct in
some journals but should not be used in running text. - Percentages: use the % symbol.
- Bulleted/Numbered lists: bulleted lists are used for short points and do not
require punctuation at the end of each line. Ensure the list agrees grammatically
with the preceding sentence. Consider numbered lists for longer points. - Capitalisation: use initial capitals for proper nouns only. It is not necessary to
capitalise ‘library’ and ‘librarian’ unless a particular library or librarian is referred
to, e.g. Bodley’s Librarian or The London Library. - Quotations: use single quotation marks, with double quotation marks for
quotations within quotations. Quotations of more than 60 words should start
on a new line and be indented. Do not alter quotations to house style.
Reference to appear at the end of the quote in brackets: (Smith, 1998). - Numbers: use words for numbers one to ten and figures thereafter.
- Dates: 9 March 2016; tenth century; 21st century; 1981–5 but 1914–18; 1990s.
- Punctuation: no punctuation at the end of subheadings, figure captions or
table captions. No oxford comma before final ‘and’ or ‘or’ in lists. - UK ‘s’ spellings: ‘ise’
Bibliographic references (for more information see our Guide to Referencing)
- Chicago ‘Author Date’ style is preferred. We also accept Harvard style. If you
wish to use any other style please discuss this with your commissioning editor. - Footnotes should not be used. Notes should be collated at book-end for
monographs and chapter-end for contributed volumes. - In-text references: the author’s name, date of publication (and page reference
if necessary) should be given in the text e.g. (Smith, 1998, 34–8). - List of references: references should be organised alphabetically by author’s
surname at the end of a monograph before the index, or at the end of each
chapter in a contributed volume. 8
Conclusion: Evaluation of publisher’s potential for LIS authors
Facet publishes across a wide array of LIS topics, making them a publisher to strongly consider no matter what your subject field may be. Potential authors should keep in mind that Facet requests very detailed information from each book proposal, so authors should have a clear idea of their marketability and relevance. Authors should be sure to carefully read the book submission guidelines to ensure that all questions have been addressed.
Audience analysis
About the publisher’s readers
Publication circulation: Based in the United Kingdom, but Facet has agents and representatives around the world. “Our business has a long-standing global profile. We market and sell books all over the world and the Facet brand is recognised as the home of quality content for the information professions.” 9
Audience location and language or cultural considerations: Facet is the bookseller for CILIP, a library and science information association in the U.K., though they emphasize that their publications extend into the international LIS world. They have representatives and agents in countries all over the world, making publications available to a world wide audience.
Reader characteristics: Readers of Facet publications are information professionals. Facet’s bestselling publications include titles such as Managing Records: A handbook of principles and practice and Practical Cataloging, so it can be assumed that their readers have more than a casual knowledge of LIS subject matter.
Knowledge of LIS subject matter: Readers are students, academics and professionals with a strong knowledge or strong interest in LIS subject matter.
Conclusion: Analysis of reader characteristics and their potential impact on authors
Facet publishes for an audience in and outside of the United Kingdom. Their works range from LIS textbooks to simple ‘No-nonsense’ guides about topics such as archives and legal issues in Web 2.0, showing that Facet’s readers vary in their knowledge on contemporary LIS topics. This span in readership could make Facet a viable publisher for potential authors across many different subjects.
Last updated: March 1, 2021
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