The Procedure
First, send us an email briefly describing your proposal. We’ll then let you know if we’re interested.
Second, if we’ve answered affirmatively, snail mail us the following materials. (Let’s assume here it is a translation of a Sanskrit text, although we are looking for other types of books as well.)
1) A complete and up-to-date curriculum vitae (aka résumé or biodata). Even if we know who you are, we’ll need this information to promote your book.
2) A description of the text.
3) Why you think it is worthy of publication.
4) At least ten verses of both the source text and your translation.
5) If it has been translated before, include previous translations for the same sample you translated. Explain how both your source text and translation are better than previously published versions.
6) A brief note on where the project stands and when it might be completed.
Third, if we accept your work for publication, we’ll then begin communicating about permissions, schedules, fonts, file formats, contracts, photography, etc.
All communication with us should be in English. Don’t send us your only copy of anything. Include an SASE if you want your materials returned, otherwise they will be recycled.
Submissions FAQs
Q. Do I need a PhD from an American university?
Do I need to occupy an endowed chair at a prestigious institution?
Do I need recommendations from distinguished colleagues?
A. No. You merely need the commitment and capability to produce outstanding work.
Q. Do I need to be a great yogi?
Do I need to be enlightened?
Do I need to be double jointed?
A. No. You merely need the commitment and capability to produce outstanding work.
Q. Do I have to be an Indian?
Do I have to be a Hindu?
Do I have to be a Brahmin?
A. No. You merely need the commitment and capability to produce outstanding work.
Q. Do I need to supply a subvention?
Do I need to retain a literary agent?
Do I need to be previously published?
A. No. You merely need the commitment and capability to produce outstanding work.
Q. Why so much emphasis on quality work?
A. We are all drowning in information. We don’t need to add to the junk pile.
Q. Are you interested in publishing books on related Indian philosophies—Mimamsa, Vedanta, Sankhya?
A. Probably not. The work would have to be recognizable as a book about Yoga.
Q. Are you interested in publishing books on South Asian languages—Sanskrit grammars, Bengali primers, Telugu dictionaries?
A. No.
Q. Are you interested in publishing books on other religions or mystical traditions—Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism?
A. No.
Q. Are you interested in producing Indic software—fonts, keyboards, browsers?
A. No.
Q. You mention Sanskrit a lot. Are you anti-Tamil? Anti-Dravidian?
A. Not at all! The focus of this company is Yoga, not Sanskrit. If you have a worthy Yoga text, we are interested in publishing it regardless of source language.
Q. Anything else?
A. Your book has to be about Yoga and it has to be written for a general audience. Those are the only two hard-and-fast requirements.
Q. Should I prepare a critical edition of the source text?
A. You are entirely welcome to do so. Even if you don’t prepare a critical edition, you are encouraged to utilize as many versions of the source text—both printed and manuscript—as you can lay your hands on. It also doesn’t hurt to have colleagues look at your work.
Q. What would be a solid foundation for a book?
A. The classical texts and their commentaries, twenty-first-century science, your personal experience. (Preferably two out of three.) Sole reliance on secondary sources is a weak foundation. Do not base it on nineteenth-century science, bad science, pseudoscience, or faulty humanistic scholarship.
Q. Will my book ever go out of print?
A. No.
Q. Will my book be affordable?
A. Yes.
Q. Will my book be available internationally?
A. The print editions are manufactured in more than a dozen countries and shipped worldwide (or printed in minutes by an Espresso Book Machine). The ebook editions are available to everyone everywhere.
Q. Are you publishing ebooks now?
A. Yes. Your book will be published as a hardcover, paperback, and ebook simultaneously.
Q. Can I help promote my book?
A. Absolutely.
Q. Will publication by YogaVidya.com help me get tenure?
A. Probably. Check with your department’s relevant committee.
Q. How much will you pay me?
A. That depends almost entirely on how many copies we sell.
Q. Okay, I’m set to start! What’s the next step?
A. Keep the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style at hand. Two other useful books are the Handbook for Academic Authors and The Elements of Style.