Publishing

APM's production process

APM publications aim to advance and broaden the knowledge of professional project management. An overview of how APM’s publishing process works is shown below:

1. Fill out a proposal form
2. Sign a publishing agreement
3. Write and review copy
4. Pass to production
5. Publish

Submitting your book proposal to APM

APM welcomes publishing proposals from potential authors with content ideas relating to advancing the art and science of project management. If you have an idea you’d like to share, please fill in and return our publishing proposal form. The form includes the key information we need regarding content type, scope and audience to consider your idea for publication.

Advice on preparing your proposal 

We recommend you keep the following in mind when preparing your proposal:

• Your reason for writing. Does your proposal plug a gap in APM’s current content offering, does it support a key APM theme or strategic objective, and does it explore a current trend in the profession, one that will ultimately benefit members?
• Your intended audience. Tailoring the content and features from the outset to address the needs of a particular audience or a gap in APM knowledge will help to make it a success.
• Competing resources. How does your proposal differ from the competition? Responding to the strengths and weaknesses of rival publications will help us to position your proposal clearly for our reviewers and customers.
• Proposed content. Help our reviewers to better understand your proposal by including a detailed content plan (including key headings and chapter titles) that clearly describes the material you are covering.

Proposal assessment and approval process

Your proposal will be read by a commissioning editor at APM and, where necessary, an external adviser(s) chosen by APM for their specialist and/or market expertise.

• Editorial review – an APM editor will consider the content and timeliness of your idea, as well as its fit with APM’s publishing programme.
• External review – feedback by experts and potential readers is sought on proposals of interest to validate the market for the idea and gather input on content and structure.

Sign a publishing agreement

Once your proposal has been approved, a publishing agreement will be issued for either:

• Commissioned works – work commissioned by APM, typically in response to customer demand or to deliver another customer benefit.
• Author originated works – work conceived by the author, or a group of authors such as an APM Interest Network.

The agreement may include details such as final delivery date for your manuscript, payment of royalties and content specifications, e.g. target word count or diagrams. It also ensures that APM is able to publish and sell the work and that any third party permissions have been cleared.

Writing and content development

APM brand guidelines offer advice on all aspects of writing and preparing your draft content, including how the text should be presented. For all types of work we prefer to work with a complete manuscript, presented as a single Word document.

Review process

APM will look to review everything it publishes using one of the methods listed below:

• Moderation and editing – where a moderator or editor assesses contributions predominantly for consistency, brand and style appropriate for the media and audience. This includes the online community and Project journal.
• User/reader reviews – a review that aims to assess the likely response to a publication from its intended audience.
• Peer reviews – professional validation of content by accepted experts in their field. This includes contributions to the APM Body of Knowledge and other published works.

Production times

APM’s publishing team will work with approved suppliers to coordinate copy editing, typesetting of the text and design of pages, proofreading of the typeset pages, indexing and printing the finished book. They will also produce an accurate production schedule for the planned publication.

Authors are asked to answer queries from the copy editor and check proofs to confirm that the material has been presented as intended and identify any errors that may have been introduced during typesetting.

Publication

Once all the editorial and design work is done, a final, approved file will be sent to print and/or uploaded to the APM website as a downloadable PDF. Other ebook versions may also be created.

APM Body of Knowledge 7^th edition

The APM Body of Knowledge 7^th edition is a foundational resource providing the concepts, functions and activities that make up professional project management. It reflects the developing profession, recognising project-based working at all levels, and across all sectors for influencers, decision makers, project professionals and their teams.