How I Got My (Academic) Book Published and What Happened After
I have been talking to fellow academics lately about publication and the steps I took to get my book published. While part of it may have been luck, there was also a good bit of persistence and networking involved. Before you read on, understand that I am writing from the perspective of an academic who sought publication through an academic press, not a general publishing house.
First, a little background on me, my doctoral degree is in American history, and I specialized in the history of technology, energy, and the environment. My dissertation represented the culmination of my research into the history of electrification in the U.S. and how this intangible and invisible energy source affected social views towards energy. Since I was writing and researching on a subject that was of current social interest, I had the advantage of a relevant topic, and I decided early on that I was going to attempt to turn the work into a book.
From what I know now about academic publishing, relevancy is critical. Books have to sell, so writing something relating to climate change or politics is going to be more attractive to publishers than a more obscure subject, e.g., the death of the family farm in the 1950s. Topics that relate to current issues in society are going to get more attention from publishers than those that appeal to a limited audience. What is and isn’t of interest to various publishers varies, if your work is cutting edge and you find the right publisher, they’ll take a look, but some appeal to the lay public is usually helpful.
One thing that I learned early on is if the book manuscript you are submitting was derived from your dissertation, you will likely be rejected and quickly. Dissertations are submitted to publishers all the time, so academic publishing houses make it quite clear to not send in a chapter of your graduate thesis for consideration. It became apparent to me that university press editors can detect the slightest scent of a dissertation, so it is important to get rid of anything to do with research design or methodology. The literature review should also be either eliminated or at least substantially pared back — a summary of significant works related to your book is acceptable — but limit it to mainstream works or sources that are well known and have credibility. Like anything else, what you leave in and take out is highly dependent upon the specific project — one size does not fit all, I’m just passing along what I learned from my own experience.
As with any other written work, you should have a well-developed work that contributes to the field, and there is also a length consideration, my book turned out to be 250 pages which is about 82,000 words. There is no widely agreed-upon ideal page count, although I have seen numerous posts online that claim somewhere between 250 and 300 pages is the sweet spot. I have heard many a colleague tout the fact that their work is an epic 500+ page masterpiece, which may be acceptable in some cases, but it is not the norm, these days it seems that shorter is better.
While the relevancy and writing of your work are essential considerations, perhaps more critical is making contacts. I’m convinced that the publication of my work would not have happened without the connections I made in the field. I was a full-time working student who was not able to travel to many conferences, but during the few that I did attend, I spent time at the book tables and made contacts with publisher reps. Conference contacts were vital because they helped me identify which university publishers were looking for works in my field and I came home with a pocket full of business cards which were a huge help when I began to submit proposals.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to proposal submissions; a colleague of mine who has more than a half-dozen books published uses a shotgun approach, sending out her proposals to many publishers at once. Another colleague used a more focused approach, only sending proposals to presses that are well-known in his field — to this day, he is not published. I favor the shotgun approach, and it is what worked for me, most everything in life is about batting averages after all.
In addition to publisher reps, the other vital contacts to cultivate are scholars in your field, and at the few conferences I did attend, I made sure I was present at presentations and sessions by those well-known in my area of study. Once again, I came home with several business cards, and this was helpful when my eventual publisher asked me for peer reviewer suggestions for the manuscript — I don’t believe I would have gotten anywhere without one or two well-known peer reviewers who were willing to look over my work.
After I had prepared my manuscript and had a list of publishers in hand, I went to their various websites (or in a few cases I directly contacted individuals that I had met) and started submitting my proposals. I was fortunate that a well known academic press responded to me early, especially considering they were one of the primary publishers in my field. I did eventually receive letters of interest back from other publishers, but I had already made a decision to go with the first offer and never looked back. One of the things I learned that might seem obvious is that a simple search of the latest books from a publishing house is invaluable; there were several publishers with book series on energy and environmental history, and since this is where my work fit, they were the primary targets on my submission list.
Once I received a contract, I had numerous friends — a few of them attorneys — suggest that I ask for contract changes; there was no way I was going to demand anything, I had a contract in hand and no desire to rock the boat. I was honestly in disbelief that I had a contract, and at this point, I wasn’t worried about royalties or rights, I thought publication would lead me into bigger and better things, and there was no way I was going to risk stopping or holding up publication. In hindsight, it is amazing to me how many suggestions I received regarding contracts from colleagues who seemed to be experts on publishing yet were themselves not published. As I moved forward with my publisher, I made most of the changes to my manuscript that they asked for — even some I didn’t entirely agree with, I did not want to put anything in jeopardy. Once again, I wanted this book to be published and did not want to risk anything by taking a stand on content that in the big picture was not critical.
One of the best and most humbling experiences for me was working with a professional copy editor — this is nothing like working with your faculty advisors in graduate school — the copy editor I worked with was comprehensive and extremely helpful in fine-tuning the work. You learn what you don’t know about writing and composition from a good copy editor; it was one of the most eye-opening processes I had ever experienced. I addition to editing, I was faced with indexing; this is a task that you won’t think about unless you go through it. My advice here is don’t do it yourself, it cost me about $500 to have a professional do it, and it is well worth it. Next time you look in the back of a book at the index, don’t take it for granted, pulling out the essential names and topics and getting the pagination correct is an art form best left to a professional.
I’ll never forget the day that the publisher contacted me to review cover art, seeing my name on a book cover mockup suddenly made everything seem real. I kept thinking that this book was going to be the springboard to an entirely new chapter in my life, chalk it up to delusions of grandeur; royalties, fame, and fortune.
After an extremely long wait, the first copies finally arrived in the mail. I remember proudly toting copies around and strategically placing a stack on my desk. My ego was somewhat reasonable, yet but to be honest, I did enjoy dropping off copies to some of my cockier colleagues. I have to admit; it was a good feeling, I felt like the book was going to be a ticket for me, it validated my work and helped lessen the symptoms of imposter syndrome, a common malady that is chronic in academia.
In the end, the book didn’t significantly change my life. I did receive a few royalty checks in the past year, totaling in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. The work was published as a paperback and as a Kindle ebook and has sold just fewer than a thousand copies over the past year. I didn’t get rich or famous, but that’s not the point of academic publishing, it served as a valuable entry on my CV and has allowed me to present my work in various academic settings.
I have received a few reviews in peer juried academic journals, none too critical, and I have since been contacted to write reviews for other books in my field. I’ve also been cited in a few other works, which is always a thrill, it’s a little thing, but it means a lot to know that other scholars are referencing your work. As far as publication leading to better academic job opportunities, I have applied, interviewed, and have had some offers, none of which were right at this point in my career.
I am fortunate that I was published, overall I’m proud of the work and grateful for the opportunities that publication has brought. The most gratifying benefit for me is helping others, especially those in graduate school who are thinking about their projects. Thinking about relevancy and publication early in one’s graduate career is important. There is no shortage of articles and opinions out there that claim that a dissertation is not the basis for a book project, and I disagree. It is no easy task to research and write a book, and it’s even harder after graduation when the challenge of finding work is upon you. Perseverance, relevance, and networking are important considerations, when it comes to writing and publication think of the old adage, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.
If you have any questions or I can help you in anyway with your publication, especially with encouragement (free!), please comment or contact me.
