<aside> 🚧 This guide remains constantly under construction

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🔥 VAGABONDS is a series of incendiary pamphlets to fan the flames of discontent published by Pluto Press and edited by Max Haiven.

📜 They operate at the intersection of artistic creativity, academic inquiry and activist spirit. VAGABONDS are radical (in dialogue with today's crucial struggles), rigorous (in their writing and development) ****and resonant (joys to read and discover).

⌛ VAGABONDS are short (±25k words or ±130 pages) and to-the-point and aim for a relatively quick production schedule: on average 8-12 months from contract to publication.

📓 VAGABONDS aims to publish 3-4 books per year but is limited in capacity

🤝  VAGAGBONDS books are all peer-reviewed, using an innovative, open, collaborative and generative method

📲 The publication of VAGABONDS books are often accompanied by multimedia (videos, podcasts, online content) and events (online and offline) an an effort to reimagine the book as a platform for new forms of communication, community and solidarity.

Table of Contents

SECTION ONE: Basics

📕 Length, profile, orientation and more

• VAGABONDS are typically around 25,000 words in length and appear as 120-140-page booklets
• All VAGABONDS appear in the house style which features a simple elegant cover without images (you can find examples here). The format is consistently tall and thin: 215mm x 110mm (8.5" x 4.33"). Accordingly, images look best in portrait format.
• In almost all cases, VAGABONDS are published in greyscale. In exceptional expenses colour printing may be considered though the author may be asked to secure funding for the additional expense.
• VAGABONDS are published in book form by Pluto Press and, after 12 months, the content of the book will be posted to the VAGABONDS website and made available freely.

🤑 Contract, honourarium and legalese

• VAGABONDS is a series of books with Pluto Press. Authors sign a standard author's contract with Pluto that sets out the terms of the agreement.
• Standard Pluto contracts typically secure a 7.5% royalty on net sales for authors. At present, VAGABONDS retail at ￡14.99 meaning the author gets roughly ￡1.12 per sale. Pluto is open to negotiation on these terms, but that is between them and the author
• In addition, upon the submission to Pluto of the Revised Draft of the manuscript (after peer review), VAGABONDS will issue the author with a $1,000 CAD (or equivalent) honourarium.
• While authors retain copyright, standard contracts entitle Pluto to act as the sole publisher of the work and also the representative for the author in the negotiation of subsidiary rights (eg. translations, adaptations, etc.)
  • We are working on a copyleft and creative commons language, but it's not ready yet.
• The author also signs a memorandum of understanding with VAGABONDS setting out the scheme for cooperation around multimedia, book events and promotion.

🗓 Production workflow and timeline

• Below you can find a workflow specifying the steps in the publication of a typical VAGABONDS title.
• On average, once contracted, authors could potentially see their title in print within nine months. In general, a book takes 4 months to copyedit, proofread, manufacture and distribute after the “delivery” of the final manuscript (following peer review)
• VAGABONDS publications are limited in flexibility due to Pluto's production and promotion schedules. which is organized around Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter catalogues.
• A tight timeline might be as follows:
  • November/December (-2mo): informal discussions between author and editor.
  • January (1mo): Authors sends a formal proposal.
  • February/March (2mo/3mo): proposal is supported and a contract is issued.
  • May (5mo): an early draft is submitted to the editor.
  • June (6mo): a review draft is sent for peer review.
  • August (8mo): a revised draft is "delivered" to Pluto for production .(including copyediting).
  • October/November (10/11 mo): Publication.

VAGABONDS workflow