When you send us a proposal, we'll read it in detail and discuss it internally. We will always respond to you, whether we want to proceed with your proposal or not, because we know how much effort you have put into it.

If we like your proposal and want to go ahead with it, the next steps are:

1. We send your our Author Initial Questionnaire ("AQ-1") for you to complete. We use this in three ways:
   1. It gives us a good feel for the content and scope of your book.
   2. It gives us a framework in which we can discuss your book -- with you, and internally -- in more detail.
   3. It's the starting point for developing a plan for marketing your book.

2. When we've evaluated the AQ-1, and you and we are happy with the idea for the book, you send us an estimate of when you will be able to complete some important milestones along the way to the final book. The milestones are typically something like these:
   1. Completed (revised, detailed) outline or table of contents
   2. Sample chapter or chapter(s) that we've agreed with you in the AQ-1 discussions.
   3. First draft of half the book.
   4. First draft of the whole book.
   5. Whole book revised to take account of the suggestions we make during the review process.
   6. Completed book ready for printing, including tbe index. (We'll give you lots of advice and assistance on indexing. Usually you start preliminary indexing when you've written only a couple of chapters. The process is quite straightforward.)
3. We incorporate these milestone dates, with a good allowance for slippage, into a contract, which we send you to sign and return to us.

If we don't think your proposal is suitable for us, we will tell you why. Frequently, we will also be able to tell you how you could change it, so that we would be interested. (This might involve adding or removing content, or addressing a slightly different audience.)