Questions
Our FAQ questions are listed below. If your question(s) is not listed, please contact Customer Care at 888-457-7970, Monday through Friday, during our business hours 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST.
FAQs
Our custom publishing expert is trained to assist you in building the most effective customized text for your class.
Call our representative at 888-457-7970 or send an email to info@professorschoice.com.
Professor’s Choice generates a unique “item number” for each of your custom-developed books. Professor’s Choice books have no ISBN number. Upon completing your Professor’s Choice book, you will receive an e-mail confirmation that provides you all the specific details your representative or bookstore will need to place an order for student copies. When ordering student copies, simply provide the title of the book, your name as the compiler, and the unique item number provided to you from Professor’s Choice. Provide your school representative or bookstore with the expected course enrollment and your customized texts will be printed from our Print-On-Demand center and shipped directly to the school or organization. As custom product, no returns are accepted.
Most orders ship within 48 hours during normal business hours, or up to 72 hours during the late-summer busy season, with transit time dependent on your location and the shipping method you select. Most orders ship by United Parcel Service (UPS) unless otherwise specified. You may track your order shipment through the UPS link at http://www.ups.com/. On the UPS website, select the button “Transit Times,” then select “U.S. Group Maps” and enter 55987, the Professor’s Choice zip code. You can also select “World-Wide Delivery Times” for options on rush orders or foreign orders.
A Professor’s Choice custom book is cost-effective, convenient, and customized by you for your classroom. You include only the material you want to use in your course, and you control the price of the book for your students.
Once you submit your list of copyrighted materials to us, we forward that list to our permissions department. This step is necessary in order to comply with the Copyright Act of 1976, which bans the reproduction of any “original works of authorship” without the direct permission of the author(s) or publisher.
Permissions department staff members use every resource available in their effort to contact the appropriate rights holder for each copyrighted item. Once these rights holders are contacted, we request permission on your behalf to use copyrighted materials in your custom text and then work diligently to provide you with timely copyright clearance. Once clearance is received, all information is stored for quick and easy resubmission in future semesters.
The academic community takes the Copyright Act very seriously. However, users in an academic setting may overlook the impropriety of unauthorized copying or may misunderstand the copyright law, including the application and limitations of “fair use.” Unauthorized copying can violate the rights of the author(s) or publisher and put high schools, universities and colleges, as well as their faculty members, copy centers, and bookstores, at legal risk.
To get started, simply complete the form we provide for you to list content from specific published works you know you would like to include. If you are seeking sources for particular topics, we can make recommendations and provide samples that cover indicated topics. Professor’s Choice will build the book for you, have you select a cover and binding option, and send you a review copy for final approval prior to printing or creating a digital copy.
The impressive list of participating publishers continues to grow and currently includes: America, Anselm Academic, Augsburg-Fortress, Baylor University Press, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Commonweal, Costello Publishing, Council of Foreign Relations, Crossroads – Herder & Herder, Darton – Longman & Todd, Fordham University Press, Franciscan Media, Georgetown University Press, Gorgias Press, The Holy See, Internet Sacred Text Archive, IVP Academic, Judson Press, Liguori Publications, Liturgical Press, National Pastoral Life Center, New American Bible, New City Press, New World Library, Novalis, Orbis, Paulist Press, Saint Mary’s Press, Servant Books, St. Anthony Messenger, Swedenborg Foundation, Templeton Press, Twenty-Third Publications, US Catholic, USCCB Publishing, Wm B Eerdmans, YogaVidya, and Zondervan.
If you include materials from one of our participating publishers, publishing rights have already been cleared. Once finalized, your book will be shipped within five business days of the day you place the order. If permissions need to be cleared on third-party material, we handle that for you. Please allow 4-6 weeks for Professor’s Choice to secure the necessary permissions and build your text prior to shipment.
Students can order their custom book directly from Professor’s Choice by clicking the Order tab at the top of the main page. There is an alphabetical listing of Universities and High Schools that have created a customized text for a current course. Each text is listed under the name of the school and is linked to an order page for easy purchase.
Shortly after you approve your Professor’s Choice custom text, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with a unique item number to reference for ordering purposes. This unique item number will be on the copyright page immediately underneath the copyright notice in your custom text. A complimentary desk copy is shipped to you at the same time this e-mail confirmation is sent or a digital access code in cases where a digital book is ordered.
Professor’s Choice gives you a variety of options for building your unique book. You can choose specific chapters from books published by a long list of distinguished publishers, or select from a variety of academic articles from these same publishers. You can add maps, charts, or other images, plus definitions to make your own targeted glossary in the book.
In addition, you can add your own course material or notes and any other content for which you have secured rights and permissions to use.
Finally, you can opt to include material to which you do not have rights or permission to use, and Professor’s Choice will work to obtain permissions for you. Once rights are secured, the material is placed in the customized work.
Most Web content is protected by US Copyright Law and using it in the classroom without permission could constitute copyright infringement. Professor’s Choice adds value by delivering all of the content legally, in one attractive, bound print book or digital edition.
No. A course pack is a compilation of material that you gather yourself. In creating a course pack, you do all of the work: You choose the content and supply it to the facility that provides the copies. You apply and pay for copyrights, and then generally scan the material yourself or pay for this service. The facility copies the pages and either 3-hole punches them or binds them together with a cover that you generally also supply.
A true custom published book from Professor’s Choice is exactly that—a completely professional book. Read the final FAQ to see how your custom book from Professor’s Choice is put together to get a clearer idea of the differences between a course pack and a Professor’s Choice custom book.
Professor’s Choice is a custom publishing service specializing in theology, ethics, religious studies, social justice and philosophy content. Custom publishing is the process of building a unique book that meets an instructor’s specific course needs. You, the instructor, are given the opportunity to review and select all content for the book you wish to build.