Publish your book with LAB and Practical Action Publishing

Do you strive to create a well-researched, readable book that will make a difference? Do you want to share your research with the public in an accessible, engaging way, but feel constrained by academic publishing? Do you want to publish a literary text that tackles social and environmental issues in Latin America? This is what we do: the Latin America Bureau has been publishing since 1977. 

LAB publishes books that amplify complex issues in readable ways. We provide editing, translation, proofreading and publishing services. We can support you in disseminating and promoting your book, finding endorsers, designing a cover, and developing a media campaign. With LAB’s imprint, in partnership with Practical Action Publishing, your book will be significantly more affordable than an academic publication.  

If you want research participants’ own voices to be amplified and benefit them as well as the researchers and the wider public; if you want policymakers to easily assimilate complex content and draw on research; if you want journalists to access robust findings and share them with the public – a LAB book is a an ideal medium. We publish literature too, so feel free to send us fiction and literary non-fiction proposals.

Digital presence

LAB books are embedded into our widely-visited website (alongside online references and bibliography, and further context where relevant); our social media presence supports engagement and impact activities like talks and film screenings; and we raise author profiles through related articles and podcasts.

On publication, your book will automatically become part of our digital library platform as well as being added to third party digital ebook providers’ lists such as JSTOR, EBSCO, and Proquest; a Kindle version will also be made available on Amazon. Your ebook can then be purchased by individuals via our platform or on Amazon Kindle for a single user price, or by institutional libraries at a higher price for multiple users, directly from our platform or via our third-party providers.

As well as publishing in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats, we can make your book Open Access – that is, free to all in its PDF format.

Distribution

The bibliographic information of your book is disseminated automatically from our industry standard system to central book data repositories prior to publication (namely Nielsen in the UK and Bowker in the US) but also directly to selective trade wholesalers and booksellers. Globally, other book traders have access to these central data repositories so are kept regularly informed of new and forthcoming publications.

Booksellers can purchase print copies of your book directly from us via our global distributors Ingram International (warehoused in the UK and the US) or our online e-commerce website practicalactionpublishing.com and via these two routes will get better trade discounts on their purchases. Online booksellers such as Amazon or The Book Depository also buy in stock from our distributors Ingram.

We also run a print on demand programme which allows us to sell your book to harder-to-reach locations, making for a cost and time efficient method of distribution. Currently we use facilities servicing the UK, Europe, the US and Latin America, Australia, Africa, and most recently Indian regional markets.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your book idea: contactlab@lab.org.uk

If you are an academic, you will find a number of innovative ways you can publish your research with LAB here.