I’ve been listening to interviews on the New Books Network—a podcast with specific channels in practically every discipline (French, Literary Studies, Philosophy, History, Popular Culture, etc.)–since before my first book was published. I’ve long thought that listening to them was one of my secret weapons for writing my book and getting it published.

If you are publishing your first academic book for tenure and promotion purposes, you know you are on a deadline. And yet most resources for first-time academic book authors don’t discuss time at all. In short, nothing prepares you answer one of your most pressing questions: “How long does publishing an academic book take?”

From the outside, publishing your first academic book seems both straightforward and mysterious. Most first-time book authors associate one key moment–the book proposal–with the entire process. Do it right? You’re good! But publishing your first academic book is much more than the proposal alone. This post breaks the journey down into the  seven stages of