Lexington Books?

[brooklynmili]

Has anyone heard good or evil of Lexington Books?  A non-LJ friend got an offer from them, but is suspicious in part because of the 2-week turnaround from proposal to acceptance.  My library system has bunch of books from them, but that's all I have on data. Thanks in advance.

Comments

[posthumanthony]

My wife published her first book through Lexington.

The good:

-- Very friendly & helpful
-- quality finished product.

The bad:

-- She had to make the manuscript camera ready ... meaning she was responsible for all typesetting. They gave her the values to plug into MS Word, and she had to send them an electronic version of the book that would basically go straight to press. Copy editors oversaw the process, but she did the grunt work.

-- They ran her book in hardcover only, making it very cost-prohibitive. In its typeset form, her book was 108 pages, total. The list price is $65.

Ultimately, though, it was her first book and she was happy to have it published at all ... in other words, beggars can't be choosers. The only thing she regrets is the hard-cover only run. But she really didn't have a choice. She's working on her second book now, and is being courted by 2 presses; by her own choice, neither of them is Lexington.

[thoughtwoman]

You never said anything about this being a tenure book. That makes a big difference. If this publication is for tenure, then Lexington Books would not be good. Maybe a small, no name school would accept such a publication, but most research-1 schools want a university press. Also, is it a vanity press? If so, then the book won't work for tenure.