Publishing With ACA
Enhance Your Contribution to the Field of Corrections
by Publishing Your Book with the American Correctional Association
For more than 130 years, the American Correctional Association has been serving the needs of corrections
professionals by providing them with the resources, support, and services they need to excel in the fields
of corrections and criminal justice.
Whether you come from a prison, jail, probation, parole, juvenile, or counseling background, our members need
your expertise. We are seeking submissions on topics that would enhance and contribute to the field of corrections.
What better way to contribute your knowledge, research, and insight to this dynamic field than by authoring a
publication which can be used by your colleagues.
Our current titles discuss the following topics:
| Anger Management |
Juvenile Corrections |
| Boot Camps |
Law/Legal Issues |
| Career Development |
Management Issues |
| Cognitive Behavioral |
Therapy Psychology |
| Community Corrections |
Restorative Justice |
| Counseling |
Security |
| Facility Design |
Sex Offenders |
| Female Offenders |
Special Needs Offenders |
| Gangs |
Staff Training and Education |
| Health Care |
Substance Abuse |
| History |
Suicide |
| Issues, Policy and Research |
Women Working in Corrections |
| Jails |
Youthful Offenders |
Where Do I Start?
If you are interested in publishing a book with the American Correctional Association, please contact:
Alice Heiserman
Publications and Research Manager
American Correctional Association
206 N. Washington St., Suite 200
Alexandria, Va 22314
Phone 703-224-0194 Fax 703-224-0179
e-mail: aliceh@aca.org
We are seeking practical, how-to books based on experience. Our audience includes correctional practitioners. We also
have texts suitable for college students taking courses in corrections, criminal justice and social work. If your idea
appears to have potential for inclusion in our publishing program, we will ask you to submit a full proposal. A full proposal
includes an outline and a summary plus one or two sample chapters.
Information About Our Authors
Many of our authors are first-time writers. Others have been published with major publishing houses but choose to work
with ACA because of the personal attention we provide. Other authors choose ACA because they see an opportunity to
make a significant contribution to corrections through our books.
* We do not publish fiction, poetry or materials from offenders.
The Review Process
Your proposal will be reviewed by the core management of ACA. It also will be sent out for a blind review to your peers
for their opinion. If the submission is deemed to have merit, and market potential, we then will ask you to submit your
entire manuscript for review. At this point, you will need to submit one paper copy of the full manuscript plus an electronic
copy in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word format. The review process usually takes four months.
As a result of the review process, ACA may make suggestions for modification of the original manuscript, or we may
accept it as is. If you agree to make the revisions or changes, we will review your changes to see if they meet the recommendations
of the reviewers. If they do, ACA will extend a contract. Once we have your signed contract and your manuscript,
we can begin the processes of editing and typesetting your manuscript into a book. This stage generally takes between
four and seven months.
The ACA Publishing Team
Our editorial department will review your manuscript to ensure that it meets our standards for clarity, punctuation, grammar
and style. We work closely with our authors to insure our books are readable and look inviting. During this time, we
select a title and in conjunction with our graphics team, design the cover and interior pages.
Throughout this process, the marketing department will meet to discuss the format, price and marketing strategies for your
book. We will ask you to complete an Author Questionnaire. This will give us additional information on how and where
to market your book. Marketing will include announcements to the criminal justice media, direct mailings, exposure at
annual and regional ACA meetings, and at other criminal justice conferences and meetings. We are happy to provide you
with materials to self-promote your book.
Additionally, we will look for partnerships outside the organization as ways to promote your book. These may include bulk
sales to bookstores or other organizations that wish to distribute your title. We look forward to your active participation in
the promotion of your book.
