Since its founding in 1979, Camden House has become known as a world leader in publishing on German literary criticism and cultural studies. Scholars in German Studies throughout the world know that there are multiple reasons to publish with us; for the rest, including those in English/American literary and cultural studies who may not yet be as familiar with us, we provide the following:
Origins and Independence
As an imprint of the independent publishing company Boydell & Brewer, we are generally able to respond to proposals and reach decisions quickly. We are also dedicated to being highly responsive to our authors when questions or difficulties come up during the writing or revision processes. Camden House’s origin as a publisher founded by academics who saw a need for increased publishing opportunity in their field (German Studies) gives us considerable insight into the concerns of academic authors, and our thirty-year experience in academic publishing (since 1979) gives us in-depth knowledge of the potential difficulties in the process of readying a manuscript for publication and how to avoid or overcome them to reach timely publication.
Peer Review
Camden House books are subject to a rigorous peer-review process comparable to that provided by university presses. Two anonymous outside readers are employed for each manuscript, and reasonable revisions are required in response to the readers’ reports before acceptance for publication.
Attention to Accuracy and Clarity
At Camden House we devote an uncommon level of attention to the accuracy of our books and to the clarity of the writing in them; this is seen to both by the editorial staff and by the excellent freelance copyeditors we employ. Our books are intended to explicate difficult texts and cultural phenomena in a direct and lucid manner, and thus to be not only a contribution to scholarship, but also a pleasure to read.
Production Values
Camden House books have a reputation as not only aesthetically pleasing in terms of type, design, and graphics, but also as durable and well made. Our production department prides itself in assuring these qualities.
Marketing
Our books are actively marketed throughout the world through our sales and marketing departments and warehouses in the US and UK. We place advertisements in the leading journals in our subject areas and, on a limited basis, in more popular publications such as TLS and The New York Review of Books. We send out a generous number of review copies of each book, asking for the author’s guidance on which review journals should receive them. We also attend and display books at a generous number of scholarly conferences.
Our Related Imprints
Several other imprints under the Boydell & Brewer umbrella provide considerable synergies with Camden House’s publishing efforts: for instance the University of Rochester Press’s Eastman Studies in Music and Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe series overlap with Camden House titles on German music and early modern culture and history, while Boydell Press’s publications in medieval history and D.S. Brewer’s on medieval and early modern English literature are a fitting counterpart to Camden House’s offerings in German medieval and early modern studies. The Hispanic studies imprint, Tamesis, and the French medieval studies imprint, Gallica, are fitting counterparts to Camden House in the Boydell & Brewer family of imprints.
German Studies Series
In German Studies we have three ongoing series:
- Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture is our long-running and general series in German Studies.
- Screen Cultures: German Film and the Visual is a new and burgeoning series edited by Gerd Gemünden of Dartmouth College and Johannes von Moltke of the University of Michigan.
- Literary Criticism in Perspective: German Literature chronicles and analyzes the criticism of a major figure or work in German literature from the time of publication to the present. Series editor is Camden House Editorial Director Jim Walker.
- Other noteworthy series are our Companion volumes and our recently completed Camden House History of German Literature (10 volumes), a monumental and universally acclaimed achievement.
American Studies Series
In American literary and cultural studies we also have three series:
- Literary Criticism in Perspective: American Literature chronicles and analyzes the criticism of a major figure or work in American literature from the time of publication to the present. Edited by Scott Peeples of the College of Charleston.
- European Studies in North American Literature and Culture places particular emphasis on Canadian literature and culture from a European perspective. Edited by Reingard M. Nischik of the University of Constance.
- Mind and American Literature is a new series taking a fresh view of American literature in the contexts of such fields as philosophy, psychology, biology, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Edited by Linda Simon of Skidmore College.
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