Why Publish with NUS Press

NUS Press is the scholarly publishing arm of the National University of Singapore. We publish books that are important contributions to scholarship, and we tend to favour work that bridges or expands academic disciplines, that brings scholarly work to broader publics, and which highlights authors from outside the main Anglo-American circuits in the social sciences and humanities disciplines. Geographically, our primary focus is Southeast Asia, though we also publish on East Asia, and are interested in books that link South Asia with our home region.

Quality scholarship & public impact
Books published by NUS Press go through a rigorous peer review process based on reports from senior scholars, who are selected on a worldwide basis for their expertise in the subject concerned. Manuscripts are accepted for publication based on these reports and an assessment of the market appeal of the topic. NUS Press publishes first books, but we only consider polished first book proposals, not thesis submissions.

NUS Press books have won or have been shortlisted in a number of Southeast Asian studies-focused awards, including the awards given out by the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). Recently, we have also made an impact in prizes not based in Southeast Asia or focused on Southeast Asian studies. Our books continue to perform well in the local Singaporean book awards.

To see a list of our recent awards, click here.

Production
During the publication process, authors work closely with our team of production editors, copyeditors, indexers, and typesetters. We are committed to producing aesthetically pleasing, high quality publications. An experienced designer works in-house to develop appealing book covers and illustrated books.

Marketing and publicity
In addition to traditional marketing channels – printed catalogues, conference displays, flyers, reviews, and our own website – our marketing team promotes NUS Press publications on social media. However, the most effective salesperson for a book is always the author. We provide support for public talks by authors, and offer suggestions to help their books reach a wide readership.

Our marketing department has good relations with media editors throughout Southeast Asia, and in recent years our authors and their books have been featured in the main English newspapers in the region, and in publications like the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. Not every book we publish is newsworthy, but we work with authors to think through the media potential of their books.

We also routinely send 20 to 25 review copies to academic journals, and we exhibit at major Asian Studies conferences, including those of the US Association for Asian Studies, the International Convention of Asia Scholars, the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies, AAS-in-Asia, and the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Our distribution partners show our titles at discipline-focused meetings and smaller area studies meetings around the world.

Affordable and available internationally
As a university press, we consider it important to make academic work affordable for individual buyers, and we set retail prices accordingly. We also keep books in print longer than most commercial publishers. Our books are stocked by the leading English-language bookshops in Southeast Asia, and reach global markets through a network of distributors working with online booksellers and library suppliers. The University of Chicago Press represents us in North America, Eurospan in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, B.K. Norton and Everest International Publishing Services in Greater China, and MHM Books in Japan.

We supply books to libraries in print and electronic form. For books with general or trade appeal, we produce e-book versions for the Amazon Kindle Store, Apple store and other consumer e-book platforms. Journals published by NUS Press are available in digital form in academic libraries through the Project Muse consortium run by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Co-publication
We actively seek co-publication arrangements with other scholarly publishers, particularly academic presses in North America and Japan. Some of the co-edition partners we've worked with in the past include Yale University Press, Cornell University Press, Kyoto University Press, the University of Hawaii Press, Stanford University Press, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, and New South Books of Australia.

Recently we've increased our emphasis on co-publishing books in Asian languages, and we have placed translations of our titles with presses in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.