The Director of Graduate Studies for your department has made noises about “the professional turn,” namely, writing for publication and not merely to demonstrate to the professor what you know. While you had a vague idea of what was meant, this is the first indication you have that you may be in the turn. What do you do now?
Your first stop is a meeting with your professor. Ask where it is likely to be publishable. And ask what else needs to be done to the paper to make it able to pass review.
Textbook authors need to be alert for the possible impact on them of the practice among some U.S. textbook publishers of selling books in foreign countries using an “inter-company” transfer price.
U.S.-based publishers generally sell into overseas markets through relationships with foreign publishers based in the destination country. Books sold in this way are sold to the foreign publisher at a discounted price to compensate the foreign publisher for its role in the distribution process. In such a case, the author’s royalty is calculated on the lesser amount received by the U.S. publisher from that sale.
Rejection can certainly be discouraging, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of a project. It is important to move forward after your work is rejected and there are some steps you can take to avoid rejection altogether.
Overcoming disappointment is often one of the first things an academic author must face after a rejection. Dannielle Joy Davis, an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law at Alabama State University and a new co-editor for the journal Learning for Democracy, recommends setting aside a finite amount of time to feel disappointed before moving on and taking steps to resubmit. “I always send [a rejected paper] back out to a refereed venue and do not dwell on disappointment for more than 24 hours,” she said.
Writing a textbook not only has the potential to generate royalties, but is also a great way to advance your career. Karen Morris, author of Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law, has used her textbook to do just that by hosting a “Publication Party” each time a new edition of her book is published.
A “Publication Party” is an event designed to celebrate the accomplishment of completing the book and to remind people that you are an author.
“If you don’t take advantage of this opportunity to promote yourself, in my mind, it is such as wasted opportunity,” said Morris, also distinguished professor at Monroe Community College. “It’s a way to gain publicity and notice, which is part of my goal in writing textbooks.”
It has become increasingly important for academics to create an online presence as a means of networking and marketing your work. One way to do that is to create your own professional website.
To reap the most rewards from your website, John Soares, a freelance writer and author of the popular Productive Writers blog, offers the following advice for each step in the process:
As a professional freelance copy editor, I have the pleasure and honor of working with publishers and authors of scholarly titles. I have known authors who resisted copy editing (or any kind of editing), and publishers who won’t pay for a thorough edit of a manuscript. Sadly, these occurrences generally result in inferior work being published.
You may wonder why you should work with an editor at any stage of your writing. Working with an editor that you hire can help prepare your book for a publisher by making it clearer, effective, and easier to read. Most reputable publishing houses will have copyediting done as part of the process of publishing to clean up your text and make sure it conforms to the publisher’s style.
