Financing your book
UCL Press was established to further UCL’s commitment to widespread dissemination of scholarly research via open access, and to disrupt the traditional publishing model of high prices and low sales. The open access model is exciting, and our international downloads show that worldwide demand for scholarly content is very strong.
But while the costs of production and promotion remain the same as for print books, open access publications generate relatively little income to pay for them, so funding has to come from elsewhere. UCL Press meets all publication costs for authors and editors based at UCL, as well as for their collaborators, and we offer a BPC waiver scheme for a number of projects written by non-UCL authors every year. In instances where we can’t fund publication, we’re committed to keeping our book processing charge (BPC) as low as possible while offering the full spread of our services.
This approach to funding enables us to publish the work of authors from all over the world, to the point where now nearly half of UCL Press authors and editors are based outside UCL.
Free open access publication
We’re able to offer full funding to:
- authors and editors who work at UCL
- non-UCL co-authors and co-editors working with UCL-based collaborators
- non-UCL contributors to edited volumes where an editor is based at UCL
- non-UCL authors and editors who qualify for the waiver scheme
- non-UCL authors whose books are published in a book series managed by a UCL series editor
BPC waiver scheme
Publishing open access can pose a challenge to academics who cannot meet the BPC from their funder or their institution. To offer authors and editors in this position the opportunity to publish in open access form with UCL Press, we cover the publication costs of up to five non-UCL projects each year.
To be eligible for this scheme, projects must:
- be of exceptional quality
- offer a distinct voice
- have the potential to make an impact
- be written in an engaging and accessible tone
If you’d like to be considered for the scheme, please let your commissioning editor know when you introduce your project to them. We ask applicants to the scheme to demonstrate they’ve tried to find funding to cover the BPC.
Book publication charge (BPC)
If you’re a non-UCL author who’s received funding to publish in open access form, we’re delighted to offer a full service at a fraction of the cost asked by many commercial publishers.
Our BPC is on a rising scale, depending on book length, and is applied as follows:
- up to 100,000 words - £5000
- 100,000 to 150,000 words - £6000
- 150,000 to 200,000 words - £7000
(Please add £1,000 to all BPCs for colour printing.)
Note that UK Value Added Tax (VAT) will be added to the fee, where applicable.
If you have any queries on the above, please do contact one of our commissioning editors.