Publishing Your Music Therapy Manuscript with AMTA

In addition to research journals and newsletters, AMTA publishes a variety of books, monographs, and textbooks and has a library of texts on different aspects of music therapy and the music therapy profession. AMTA is not a publishing house, but does welcomes proposals for new publications and accepts a small number each year for projects that benefit the organization and are consistent with our mission, to advance public awareness of the benefits of music therapy and increase access to quality music therapy services in a rapidly changing world.

AMTA's complete publications catalog can be found in the AMTA online store.  Simply hover over the "Bookstore" menu item above and select "Visit the Bookstore."  Then, under "Shop for," choose "Merchandise" and "Select Category," choose "Publications" and click "Go."  You'll find a list of all books and publications AMTA offers or click this link to go directly there.

Book Proposals

Music therapy professionals and academics are encouraged to consider donating manuscripts for publication consideration with AMTA. A proposal template and outline is available at this link:

AMTA Book Proposal Submission Form

Instructions:  All proposals must be typed and submitted electronically using the above application form (MSWord document).  Please download/save this form to your computer, then save it as a new file, using the words "PubProposal," the name of the principal author, and the date of submission.  Example:  If principal author is John Smith, submitting on June 1, 2018, the filename should be PubProposal_Smith_John_060118.doc.  To enter required information in the Word document, click on the gray boxes and type in your text.  Please provide information for all fields. Don’t forget to save your work! 

The completed form may be sent to the AMTA office at publications@musictherapy.org

Considerations for Potential Editors and Authors

Authoring or editing a book is an important and time-consuming task which is not as simple as writing down ideas or collecting chapters from other writers. Before attempting to write or edit a book, much thought and planning need to go into what the finished product should contribute to the music therapy profession and its body of work. Editors of a multi-contributor volume must spend a great deal of time planning and organizing the chapters, even before potential contributors are contacted. Authors bear all the responsibility for writing and editing the work themselves before sending it to the copy editor and typesetter. Those interested in submitting manuscripts or working on texts for possible publication should read and consider all of the following Guidelines for Book Editors and Authors when considering submitting a manuscript to AMTA for publication.

Guidelines for Book Editors and Authors