The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook

What to Ask Authors Who’ve Recently Published with Your Target Presses

Prestige aside, from the outside, it might seem like all university presses (and editors) are identical. You write your book, it goes through peer review, you revise it, and eventually it’s published. This broad schema, though, elides small but significant differences between presses’ and editors’ working styles that can significantly impact your book (and, in […]

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On Revising a Journal Article into a Book Chapter

If you’ve published a journal-article-length version of one (or more) of your book chapters you’re probably wondering one thing: just how different does my book chapter really need to be from its journal article counterpart? You might, for instance, think that adding a new case study or section is the quickest way to show that

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How much material to pre-publish for an academic book

Pre-Publishing Material from Your Book: How Much, Why, and What to Choose

You might have heard that it’s a good idea to publish journal article versions of one or more of your book chapters but been warned that publishing too much from the book can jeopardize your book’s chances with university presses. Both are true. In this post, I outline why you definitely should publish some of

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The Top Resources for Writing Your First Academic Book

Discover the top resources that will help you understand the publishing process, produce a strong manuscript, develop solid productivity habits, and navigate the critical proposal stage.

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Writing author response letter academic book

Responding to Peer Reviews of Your Book Manuscript or Proposal

When I was writing my own first monograph, most of the steps were fairly evident. I knew I’d need to find a publisher, submit proposals, and prepare the manuscript. One step, though, caught me totally off guard: I somehow didn’t know that I’d need to write a formal author response letter upon receiving my book’s

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What Can You Negotiate in Your Academic Book Contract?

When you’re writing your first academic book, your main focus is ensuring its content is compelling. So, negotiating an academic book contract is probably only barely on your radar. Especially if you’re on the tenure track, receiving a book contract is already a major victory, and you might hesitate to negotiate for fear of alienating

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Academic Book Series: All Your Questions, Answered

Whether you have no clue what series exist in your field(s) or have more targeted questions about evaluating potential series for your book, this post’s got you covered. Specifically, I’ll cover:

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All About Academic Book Indexing for Authors of First Monographs

You’ve probably used book indexes before, but never thought about how they’re created. Guess what? Preparing an academic book’s index is the author’s responsibility. Whether you choose to do it yourself (I did), or hire someone to do it for you (at your expense), this post outlines the basics on academic book indexes and assembles

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Want to Include Images or Copyrighted Material in Your Book? What You Need to Know.

Most authors of first books rightly spend their time focusing on preparing and perfecting their prose, assuming that obtaining image permissions will be relatively straightforward. It’s something you don’t need to deal with until the manuscript is finalized, right? Not so fast. Not only could including images in your book cost you more money than

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What Does “A Book” Mean for Tenure? Don’t Assume You Know!

Most humanities scholars at research-intensive institutions know that “a book,” published with a university press, is the centerpiece of a successful tenure and promotion research profile. But did you know that different departments–or even different faculty in the same department–can mean very different things when they say “a book”? In the context of (incredibly slow)

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