Introductory comments
Questions, answers, and comments
Dear H-Education subscribers,
Welcome to our inaugural Guest Discussion, a new format to promote richer exchanges between the 800+ members of the H-Education network.
For the next three days (Tuesday May 30th to Thursday
June 1st), all postings on H-Education will focus on book publishing for
educational historians.
Here's our discussion topic: Publishing a book in
educational history can be a mysterious process. How does the process work from
the perspective of different authors and editors? And what advice can you offer
to prospective authors seeking to navigate their way through it?
We're very pleased to introduce our Guest Discussants (see
below), who have written their initial postings on the topic. Their short
introductions and responses will be sent immediately after this email, and the
guest discussants will respond to general questions and themes raised over the
next few days….
Guest Discussants:
Carlos Blanton, Department of History at Texas A&M,
and author of The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in
Amanda Johnson, Acquisition Editor at
Palgrave Macmillan
Alan Sadovnik, Rutgers University-Newark, and Susan Semel, City College of New York, co-editors of the History of Schools and Schooling Series at Peter Lang Publishing Group.
Kim Tolley, School of Education and Leadership at Notre Dame de Namur University, California, and author of The Science Education of American Girls: A Historical Perspective (Routledge 2003), co-editor of Chartered Schools (Routledge 2002), and editor of Transformations in Schooling: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, in press).
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Hello. My name is
Carlos Blanton and I am an Assistant Professor of History at
That year I had begun the awkward duty of chatting up various university presses at conferences. Though I highly recommend this activity, it can be daunting for graduate students who have published little to introduce themselves and discuss book ideas to editors.
Just know that there are great ones out there who are
wonderful at listening to young scholars and providing sage advice. (My own editor, Mary Lenn Dixon at Texas
A&M Press, is the best!) Graduate
students and junior scholars actually have an advantage in this process: the Ph.D.
guarantees some sort of manuscript at the end of the road. Between 1999 and 2001, I met with my editor
several times to discuss turning my dissertation into a scholarly book; I
submitted a proposal and it was accepted.
The advance contract meant that I committed to submitting the manuscript
to A&M Press by a certain date and then they would promise to evaluate
it. This did limit my options without a
binding promise from the press to publish, but it was an official statement of
interest and worth. It was very helpful
not only in my annual reviews, but also in my reentry into the job market.
I can think of some general tips and lessons from my own experience and the experiences of others.
Talk about the impact or significance of your work constantly. When in the thick of a topic it is helpful to get fresh insights. Informally talking to editors and colleagues at meetings is a valuable exercise.
It helps to do homework. Investigate the strengths of one's targeted presses and couch the proposals to those strengths (theory, region, subject area, etc.).
Book proposals are hard work. I found it difficult to give a broad overview of my book, summarize each chapter, discuss its status, and outline the work plan all in four or five pages. Also, know that many presses have large boards and numerous editors that review each proposal. Given such a potentially large audience the proposal should be tightly written and pack a punch, much like a grant application.
I found getting permissions to use photographs for my book to be a nightmare—navigating photographic imagery copyright law must be in a circle of Hell that Dante missed. Budget some time for it.
Most presses operate under tight deadlines. They can be the difference in a book coming out in time for one's tenure decision or not.
Remember your audience. When we write dissertations, the audience is our advisor and however many other people are on the committee. However, if your press speaks to you about your manuscript having potential for course adoption or for other audiences, then by all means keep this in mind as you reshape your dissertation into a book.
Trust your editors. They are professionals and have done this
before. This collaborative process made
my work better.
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I'm Amanda Johnson, the Editor of the religion, psychology, and education trade and scholarly lists at Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming titles on my education list for the trade include Building Blocks by former New York Times education reporter Gene Maeroff, about the future of early childhood education; and Color and Money, the inside look at the story behind affirmative action in college admissions by Peter Schmidt, Deputy Editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education. Recent books include Our School, the inspiring story of a successful charter school in California, by award-winning journalist Joanne Jacobs, Declining by Degrees, a PBS tie-in book on the state of higher education, edited by Richard Hersh and Emmy nominee John Merrow, including a foreword by Tom Wolfe, and James Paul Gee's What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. Books on the academic list include The American State Normal School by Christine Ogren, Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840 by Margaret Nash, Latino Education in United States History by Victoria Maria MacDonald, Founding Mothers and Others edited by Alan Sadovnik and Susan Semel, Urban Education in the United States edited by John Rury, Scientists in the Classroom by John Rudolph, and Educational Partnerships edited by Barry Franklin, Thomas Popkewitz, and Marianne Bloch.
I've been at Palgrave Macmillan for over six years, and have a particular interest in the history of education, current events in education, and education and media. Several books on my list have received awards from AESA and HES, and have received strong media attention.
Palgrave Macmillan, as you may know, is a cross-market global publisher specializing in quality trade non-fiction and cutting edge academic titles. As such, we value books that are important contributions to the literature, will create interesting debates and discussion, and will contribute to our international audience.
One of the most important steps of the publication process is the initial proposal that you send to an editor. I look for a proposal that quickly shows me what is new about your book: what makes it unique and sets it apart from the competition? It's also very important to be as informed as possible about your target readership. Spend a good amount of time researching comparable titles and see how they are published and who is buying them - are they monographs that are primarily geared to libraries? Are they trade titles (meaning books for the general readerships at Borders or Barnes & Noble)? Or do you have an introductory level text which is really for a course with a large enrollment? Every editor works differently, but for me, I like to hear from a potential author via email (please only send attachments if requested to do so). A potential author should be able to boil down their project into a one or two sentence description - it's difficult, I know, but is extremely helpful to editors, and also helps us communicate the overall themes of your project to our team quickly and effectively. If your project sounds intriguing, I will send you our guidelines and ask you to submit a project via email attachment. Feel free to send along several ideas for potential external readers of your project - we will often consider your suggestions in our review search, and it also helps us get a sense of your intended market for the book.
These are just a few suggestions, but I look forward to hearing your
questions and helping out!
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My name is Kim Tolley, from the School of Education and Leadership at Notre Dame de Namur University in California. I'm the author of The Science Education of American Girls: A Historical Perspective (Routledge 2003), co-editor of Chartered Schools (Routledge 2002), and editor of Transformations in Schooling: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (Palgrave/Macmillan, in press).
Prospective authors can use several strategies to successfully navigate the book publication process. I’ve published two trade books with Addison-Wesley and two academic books with Routledge. Currently, I have a third academic book in press at Palgrave/Macmillan. From my perspective, the publishing process in the trade and academic markets is similar, but academic book publishing poses distinct challenges.
Successful publication involves strategic choices in the following areas: 1) topic; 2) publisher; 3) market. It helps to select a relevant and interesting topic. Because publishers carve out particular niche areas in which to publish, a manuscript has a far better chance of avoiding the slush pile when it complements other books in a publisher’s lineup. Publishers like manuscripts they can market and sell. Fourteen years ago, these strategies helped me find a publisher for my first trade book. When I started looking, I narrowed my choices down to three publishers that produced books similar to the one I wanted to write. I developed a two or three- page proposal that emphasized how my manuscript would enhance the publisher’s existing lineup and described the potential market and target audience. It paid to be tactfully persistent. I heard nothing back from my first mailing, so after several months, I called the editors at each publishing house. Addison-Wesley had just completed a merger with one of the other publishers, so the education editor there had received two of my three book proposals. After a brief conversation, I heard nothing back for a couple of months. I called again and arranged a face-to-face meeting with him on the West Coast, and as a result of that conversation, he offered a contract. Because the first book sold very well, Addison-Wesley solicited a second book, which I wrote, and a third which I declined. Published under my full name, Kimberley Tolley, these two little volumes remain in print through Pearson.
From my perspective, the greatest difference between academic and trade publishing involves the peer review process. Trade publishing is fairly straightforward: either the publisher will see a market for your book or not. In contrast, navigating academic publishing is like crossing a field of land mines. The peer review process has both strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths include the opportunity for one’s academic peers to provide multiple perspectives and suggestions for improving the manuscript. Personally, I’ve found that going through this process always helps to improve my research and writing. On the other hand, having been a reviewer myself for a number of years as well as a judge of academic prizes, I can identify a number of significant weaknesses. Reviewers are not always knowledgeable about all of the topics covered in the manuscript, despite the best efforts of publishers to round up experts for the review process. Reviewers are not always objective. If the manuscript challenges the findings of one of the reviewers, that individual may allow personal bias to color his or her judgment. Out of a pool of three reviewers, one individual strongly opposed to publication can create a formidable roadblock, one that may be impossible to overcome, whether that individual’s objections are justifiable or not.
My first experience with the academic review process in book publishing illustrates some of these issues. My dissertation won several academic prizes, so after graduation from Berkeley in 1996, I undertook revisions and quickly sent it off to five academic publishers. Although four of the five did not see a good fit with their existing line-ups, the University of North Carolina Press gave the manuscript a very enthusiastic reception. The history of science editor there asked me for a list of potential reviewers, so I provided the names of the top scholars working in my area, including Margaret Rossiter and Sally Gregory Kohlsted. Three months later, I received disappointing news. Apparently the editor had sent the manuscript to only one reviewer. That person had given the manuscript a lukewarm review, noting “this work has been done before.” As the editor pointed out, those words crushed all hope of publishing the manuscript through UNC Press. At the time, I believed the reviewer to have been an expert in my field. Puzzled and discouraged, I shelved the manuscript and worked on other projects over the next two years. Several years later, after Routledge published the manuscript, Margaret Rossiter wrote a glowing review of the book in the American Journal of Education, and Sally Gregory Kohlsted wrote a wonderful review in the premier history of science journal Isis. Neither of them had initially reviewed the manuscript. In fact, UNC Press did not send the manuscript to any of the scholars on the list I provided; instead, the editor sent it to someone in a related field. Today, I believe that the reader for UNC Press had been thinking of my own prior research, published in article form, when he or she wrote that the “work has been done before.” What I have concluded from this experience, is that an enormous amount of luck runs through the academic publishing process.
What kinds of individuals are lucky in publishing? The April 2006 issue of Scientific American reported on the research of experimental psychologist Richard Wiseman, who has studied the experiences of so- called lucky people. Wiseman discovered that “Lucky people expect good things to happen, and when they do they embrace them…even in the face of adversity, lucky people turn bad breaks into good fortune” (Shermer, 35). To some extent, we each make our own luck. My advice to prospective authors is to pay attention to topic selection, choice of publisher, and market; more importantly, expect to encounter both good breaks and bad breaks. When faced with a bad break, persevere; send the manuscript elsewhere; work on another project; collaborate with a colleague on an issue of interest; move on to the next opportunity.
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We began publishing separately in the history (Susan) and
sociology
Since 1995, our History of Schools and Schooling series
at Lang has published over 30 books in the history of education. We currently
also edit the Palgrave Series on Urban Education at Palgrave/MacMillan, where
we work closely with Amanda Johnson. During this period we have continued to
publish separately and together, with two co-edited edited books in the history
of education, "School of Tomorrow," Schools of Today: What Happened
to Progressive Education (Lang, 1999) and Founding Mothers and
We are responding to the discussion topic from the
perspective of authors, as a current chair (Semel) and former chair and Dean
(Sadovnik) but primarily as series editors. The process of publishing a book
need not be mysterious. We did an AERA Division F Mentoring session in April
for Graduate Students and new Assistant Professors and were mildly surprised to
see how many did not know much about the process. So here is some advice:
A dissertation is not a book. You will need to revise your Dissertation substantially to publish it as a book, unless you have written it as such already (this is easier in history of education than in sociology or the other social sciences). Unlike most dissertations, books do not have a chapter devoted to a literature review and another to research methods. In a book, the literature review is integrated into a chapter introducing your thesis and becomes part of the supporting documentation for your argument. Your research methodology will be included briefly (if at all) and perhaps in more detail in an appendix. Introductions and conclusions at the beginning and end of each chapter are eschewed; you do not need to tell the reader what you will do and then what you did; to paraphrase Nike, you just need to do it.
You should do careful research on which publishers are most appropriate for your book: look at their lists to determine who is publishing what types of books with respect to topic and format (monographs vs. broader topics). Large Annual Meetings, especially AERA, AHA, ASA, etc. are the best places to shop your manuscript or prospectus. Each publisher has one or more acquisitions editors there to discuss projects with authors. After such a conversation, if the editor expresses interest, you should submit a prospectus (the format is usually available on each publisher’s website). You should also research who the editors are of book series at different publishers. They are also available to discuss your project at the Annual Meetings and/or via email.
With
respect to the type of publisher you choose, sometimes this will
With
respect to textbooks and edited books and joint authorship, this
Although
multiple submissions (to more than one publisher) are no
We hope these initial words of advice are helpful and we look forward in participating in the discussion.
Alan Sadovnik is Professor of Education and Sociology and
Director of The Ph.D. Program in Urban Educational Policy at Rutgers
University-Newark.
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I just defended a dissertation that can be defined as
educational history but in reality is much more an intellectual and political
history of
My goal is to publish with a press that would cross-list
it in educational and general
Which presses best suit such ambitions? Which presses are interested in
"mainstreaming" educational history?
Thanks.
Andrew Hartman
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Hello Andrew,
Thanks for your message. This is an important question. The publishing
business has changed over the years, and it has become even more important
for potential projects to communicate their intended markets. Sometimes a
project has one true home and one true market, and it's not always a good
idea to place a book in dozens of categories (if a book is placed in twelve
categories, for example, no one feels like it's really for them and it never
finds a true, primary home which is essential to the book's success). You
always want to think about a primary market for your book, and then consider
any secondary markets. In addition, you'll want to research similar books on
the market, see how they have been published, and who has published them.
Keep in mind that a mainstream book at Random House is different from a
mainstream book at some university presses and their intended target
audiences are quite different as well.
Some publishers (like Palgrave) can crosslist a book in several subject
catalogs and have a book pop up in various searches on their websites. This
is usually determined by the editor and the marketing managers. Some presses
specialize in a particular genre, or a particular subject - you want to make
sure that the press you send your proposal to has lists that your book would
fit in with. For example, here at Palgrave we have a seasonal catalog (every
new book goes into the seasonal, in every subject, and this goes out to
thousands), and we have subject catalogs in most disciplines. The history of
education books on my list have the opportunity to be cataloged in the
history catalog as well as the education catalog (and often other catalogs
as well). This can increase your potential market and makes sure that your
book gets the attention it deserves. Think about your true home as a writer
as well. Some people can write for an academic audience and others can only
write for the trade. We have a trade list - these are more general books
that are promoted to the academic audience, and have a scholarly backbone,
but in addition to this, they are very accessible to a general reader
walking into Borders or Barnes & Noble, have several media and promotion
plans in place, are timely topics (ie a new look at intelligent design and
evolution in the classroom, affirmative action, immigration and education),
and often create national/international debate and discussion.
The best thing you can do is to visit publisher websites and take a look
through their catalogs. In addition, make sure to play up your markets in
the proposal and be able to back this up with thoughts on how your book
would work in various settings.
Amanda
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Andrew,
I feel that I have something to add to your question from my own experience. My work was clearly an education history; it was also just as much a political, intellectual, and social history. While half my dissertation was a broad reading of national historiography and issues, I focused the other half of the dissertation on a single-state case study of Texas from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1990s. Texas A&M Press had published some education history before with success, but it was usually in a regional/state context. Given the press interest in my work and its publishing background, I made a strategic decision to reorient my dissertation of a national topic with a considerable state case study to a book manuscript that would more readily fit within state (Texas) and regional (Southwest) history. This was a big part of the 200+ pages I had to cut out. Most of that was national context and discussion. It made sense.
The case study contained the bulk of primary research and the national discussion was much more a "reading" of the national context that relied heavily on secondary sources. The state study component was much more conducive to a monograph and the national stuff to background notes and separate articles that I carved out (a PHR article of 2003 and an upcoming chapter in Beatty, Cahan, and Grant's "When Science Encounters the Child" at TC Press, so far). While this, I am positive, somewhat limited my future book in terms of reaching a national audience, it greatly increased the its fit into state and regional markets. It also meant that the book was based almost entirely on primary documents, making my now more tailored argument (that still made constant reference to the national literature and debates) much more potent in the end, I think.
Limiting the scope of the book to fit the press's interests in this case did not keep the book from being recognized in education history (finalist last year for the book prize) and it fit the state/regional field well enough to win the best book competition of the Texas State Historical Association. So limiting and narrowing a broad dissertation to fit a press's more specific interest (region, subfield, methodology, etc.) is not necessarily a bad thing, from my perspective. I would urge you, Andrew, to identify those political/intellectual strengths and pitch the book in that direction as well (as for the specific presses, I will let the editors in this discussion handle that one). In my experience, a proposal stands a better chance of success the more of these major fields it can plug into in an easy, evident way.
And striving for Hofstadter, Cremin, etc. can never be a bad thing!
Carlos
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When is the appropriate time to contact a publisher? While working on the manuscript or when it's done?
Heather Lewis
Hi Heather,
Every publisher works differently and it's best to request proposal guidelines from several publishers to have a sense of what they'll need. For example: I don't require potential authors to submit an entire manuscript, but I do require a few sample chapters. In very rare cases, I will accept a detailed chapter outline but I will always prefer sample chapters. Keep in mind that a publisher is going to send a proposal out for review, and their reviewer needs enough material to comment on. If they don't have enough to work with, you won't receive the thorough review you'll need in order to take the next step with a publisher, and it also doesn't give the publisher much to evaluate either. Sometimes it's easier to write a proposal when you have a good amount of your manuscript complete - it also gives you more choices regarding sample chapters if a publisher only wants a few samples.
I would go ahead and contact editors to get a sense of their preferences - you can always tell them you're at the early stages of creating a proposal and are looking for their proposal guidelines.
Amanda
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Hello,
Thanks to Jack for moderating
and to all of the guest discussants for their
thoughtful opening statements. I know this will be helpful to a lot of
people.
Alan Sadovnik and Susan Semel wrote:
multiple submissions (to more than one publisher) are no longer unacceptable, you must inform editors that you have submitted your prospectus elsewhere.
Here
is my question: if I submit a book proposal to a press or presses, can
I simultaneously submit a modified part of that book project to a journal as
an article (i.e., a shortened/condensed version of one of the book chapters
that distills major themes from the book)? Or, if not, is there a
proper/preferred way to sequence these overlapping publishing goals? I was
wondering if Alan and Susan or anyone else wanted to elaborate on the
protocol of submitting to multiple publishers.
Thanks,
John Spencer
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Hello John,
I know others have supplied you with excellent responses here, so I will just emphasize that publishers rarely go ahead with previously published material. The feeling here is that if material has appeared elsewhere, the value of the book decreases and potential orders (particularly library orders) can be affected. Occasionally, an author will want to publish a book chapter in a journal after publication of the book - publishers may agree to this if they have a guarantee that the journal article will publish several months (or even one year) after book publication. If articles have been significantly revised for a book, this is usually ok (and as long as the majority of the book is new material) but it's always good to note in a book proposal the extent of the revisions.
Thanks!
Amanda
Dear Guest Discussants,
I have several related questions:
First, I am working on but don't yet have a completed manuscript.
When should I shop it around and try to secure a contract? Is it
appropriate to send a letter with a description and chapter outline, or
do I need to draft some chapters before I send out a prospectus?
Second, what should be included in a good prospectus? I understand
from the guest discussants' comments that it may differ by publisher -
is the rule of thumb to identify and tailor the prospectus to each
publisher's requirements?
Finally, on the topic of how to choose which publisher to approach, I
understand that one's institution may help to determine whether to
choose a university press or not, and it seems sensible to look at
book lists to see whether a proposed book fits the list, but I'm still
a little mystified by the "status" question. There seems to be
a
tacit understanding of a hierarchy among presses (university and
otherwise) among scholars, but it's unclear to a newcomer. Can you
help clarify this?
Thanks,
Bethany Rogers
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Bethany Rogers asked whether there exists a status hierarchy among presses. I'll let Alan Sadovnik and Susan Semel address this question, because they raised the issue. What I'd like to add to this thread is a caution for young scholars working toward tenure: find out how your institution's rank and tenure committee views book publishing. Some institutions accord higher status to peer-reviewed articles. If this is the case at your school, then you should concentrate on publishing in top-tier journals and think about publishing your first book after you've earned tenure. Many authors adopt the tactic of publishing articles from their dissertation manuscript before undertaking a thorough revision and rewrite of the material for a later book. John Spencer asked if it was appropriate to undertake both simultaneously. Editors of peer-reviewed journals will not accept material published elsewhere, and book publishers always want to know whether any part of the manuscript has been in print before. It's important to be completely open with your editors. In my opinion, the author will have a far better book manuscript if he first publishes a number of articles from the material, gains meaningful feedback from academic peers, and later completely revises the material into a book manuscript. Sometimes peer reviews will illuminate the need for more research and additional writing, a process that will produce a far better book in the long run.
Kim provided an excellent response to the question about publishing parts of a dissertation as journal articles and also as a book. Journals will not publish previously published material so you must publish in journals first. Although publishers will allow a certain amount of previously published material to appear in a book with permission, the rule of thumb is that you will need to revise substantially from article to book. A book publisher does not want to simply reprint your articles, except if you are a well established "star" with a market for such reprints. As soon as you finish your dissertation, you should develop a plan to publish one or two articles from the dissertation that are narrow enough to fit into 25-30 pages. Then you should conceptualize how you are going to develop a book proposal with the remainder of the dissertation (including a substantial revision of the material used for the article(s)).
With respect to Bethany's question about status hierarchy for publishers. You need to find out from your institution how tenure and promotion committees, deans, etc. view different publishers. We do not want to provide a ranking of publishers, as our own views are subjective and may (will) differ from others. What is important is how each institution ranks publishers, if they do at all. This is probably important only at Research I Universities, where type and quality of publishers often matter. Over the years at Rutgers, for example, some external reviewers have questioned the publication of a book by an academic rather than a University Press. In the end, what mattered is how the tenure committees judged the press. In all cases, it strengthened (or would have strengthened) the case if the candidate(s) had received a clear assessment of the type of press needed prior to publishing. It is important to discuss these matters with your colleagues, Chair and Dean.
With respect to the question on publishing histories of education that are broadly related to political and social history. You should discuss this with individual editors. I know that Amanda is interested in such books as they can be marketed both at History of Education, AERA, AHA, OAH, etc. We are also interested in such books as we define education as did Lawrence Cremin in the broadest possible manner to include all institutions that educate both in an out of schools, as well as the relationship between school and society, broadly defined.
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Greetings to the panel and thanks for all of your detailed and extremely helpful comments. I've got some questions about possible financial cost to authors.
Of course we all pay for our own research and revision costs, but are there any other expenses or requirements that might come an author's way? Some of the authors on the panel have talked about traveling to meet in person with an editor once the process is underway, for example. Should one plan/budget for that? I've also heard of publishers requiring authors to subsidise printing costs in some fields and in some cases. Does that happen in our field(s)? If asked (or required) to, should an author ante up? Seek another publisher?
Yours sincerely,
Kristen D.
Nawrotzki
Roehampton University
London, UK
Dear Kristen,
Thanks for your message. In terms of costs: this all depends on the publisher - every publisher is different. For example, I communicate via email with the majority of the authors on my list. Some authors on my list travel to meet me, or I will travel to meet with them, but for the most part I would say this is not something you need to think about budgeting for.
Some publishers require authors to provide camera ready copy, others do not. Most publishers these days will not pay for indexing, but do have a list of freelance indexers if an author chooses to hire someone. Another item to budget for: permissions costs. Most publishers will not pay for permissions costs, some may be able to help a little or offer an advance which would offset some of your costs. Some journals, for example, will give you permission to reproduce a chapter for free as long as you credit the original source. Others (especially larger journals, magazines, museums for artwork, etc) will charge a permissions fee and often charge per edition of the book and will charge you based on the type of book you're publishing (trade or academic), what the approximate print run will be, and what the cost of the book will be. Some authors tell me that they are able to secure grants specifically designed to help offset permissions-related costs. This is something you may want to look into as well.
You should ask questions at the early stages when you are offered a contract for your work. Publishers may or may not be able to negotiate some points with you, but it's worth asking to make sure you know what your responsibilities are. Publishers are also juggling many expenses per book (production costs, warehousing inventory, labor costs, jacket design, etc) and most publishers look at every book's financials on a case-by-case basis.
Hope this is helpful!
Amanda
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One of the costs that authors are increasingly asked to pick up is that of illustrations. It's always been the case that authors are seen as sources of information on collections of relevant illustrations; but as publishers' own resources decrease and the costs of prints (or scans) and permissions increase, it is far more common to hand not only the finding of images but also the paying for them over to authors.
Request for subsidies is also increasingly common in American university presses. Seeking another publisher may well result only in the same request; and if an author doesn't ask about subsidies up front--before even submitting a manuscript for consideration--then I'm inclined to think that there is some ethical responsibility to a press that has invested time and money in the review process not to pull out over this issue. Publishers will work with authors to find sources of funding if they are needed.
Judy Austin
Boise, Idaho
Greetings to you all,
One possible cost relates to the use of visual images and authors being asked to pay copyright costs.
Jane Martin
Institute of Education, University of London UK
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Financial costs to authors: Increasingly many publishers, including university presses, are asking for what is called a subvention, which is a subsidy toward publishing costs. This occurs when the market for a book is very small and there will be a small initial run and/or the publication costs are high due to many illustrations, photographs, etc. Many Research Universities, including Rutgers, have a competitive grant competition for subvention funds. A subvention should not be confused with what is a payment for publishing with a vanity press. The former is a legitimate contribution to a publisher with peer review; the latter a payment to get your book published often regardless of quality. Do not do the latter. The former is acceptable, but you should always try to get your university to pay the subvention, rather than you personally.
Many presses require that first time authors (this will be almost all new Ph.D.s) submit camera ready copy, as a way of defraying production costs. You can do this yourself, which although time consuming and labor intensive, costs only your own time and labor. Or you can hire a professional to do this, which can be expensive.
Other publishers who do not require camera ready copy, require that authors enter all copyedit changes directly on to their discs. This too, is time consuming and labor intensive. Again, you can hire someone to do this. Finally, most publishers require that you either do your own index or have someone do it for you. Some publishers require that you pay up front for this; others will take it out of royalties.
The key is that you read the contract carefully and have all of this spelled out in the contract. Also, try to negotiate a contract that gives you as the author the least amount of labor intensive work.
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Thank you to the guest discussants for your very interesting comments.
I am interested to learn more about what you do as editors: For example, what does an editor actually do in terms of selecting, shepherding, and editing a manuscript? What are the author's responsibilities in the process? Do these roles (incl. the balance of responsibility) change at different points in the process?
On a related note, for those in the academy, I get the sense that universities tend to value edited volumes less (for tenure) than single author works. How about as a series editor? What are the benefits and drawbacks to taking on the position of a series editor, and to what degree do your respective universities value that work, especially in the tenure process?
Thank you,
Chris Frey
Hokkaido University-Sapporo, Japan/
Indiana University-Bloomington, US
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Chris Frey asked about the roles and responsibilities of an editor and the status of edited books. I do have a lot to say about this, having worked on two edited books! First, an edited book is a work of service. In the status hierarchy of book publishing, it’s below academic articles and single-authored books. This is despite the fact that if you edit and publish a book through an academic press, the manuscript goes through the same peer-review process as a single-authored manuscript. Nevertheless, there are compelling reasons to edit a book. First, the process provides a degree of collaboration with other scholars that is unusual in our field. Second, for some topics, bringing together a group of scholars with a wide range of perspectives will create a far richer book than could be written by one individual alone.
Nancy Beadie and I developed a number of successful strategies when we co-edited Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1727 – 1925. The edited book grew out of a pre-existing project. We had proposed a panel to consider the historical significance of academies for the History of Education Society that included Margaret A. Nash and Bruce Leslie. The panel was so well received that we were invited to submit the papers as a symposium for the History of Education Quarterly. With that symposium in hand, we had a set of good chapters around which to build a book, and we began to contact scholars working in really interesting areas. We wanted a book that would present the full range of institutions, so we invited chapters on early twentieth-century Chinese military academies in the U.S., Cherokee academies, freedmen academies in Mississippi, and so on. Once we had a group of scholars interested in submitting 1-page chapter summaries, we developed a book outline and submitted a proposal to Routledge.
As I worked on Chartered Schools with Nancy, I learned to become a very directive editor. By this, I mean that when authors submitted chapters that were too short, not fully developed, or had other flaws, we did not hesitate to ask for very specific changes. We read through every chapter and edited it thoroughly before sending the final draft to Routledge. We believed that our project was the first to really address the significance of the academy movement in the United States, and we did not want it to end up like other poorly edited books we had seen, in which chapters of very uneven quality exist side by side. Routledge provided excellent copyediting of the manuscript, and we indexed the book ourselves. In the end, the work was well worth it, because that book has received excellent reviews in both history and education journals.
I currently have a second edited book in press: Transformations in Schooling: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. The idea for this book grew out of conversations with scholars from Canada and Australia, all interested in understanding why education systems developed differently in countries with similar colonial origins. In contrast to my experience with the first edited book, I knew immediately that I wanted to do an edited book on this topic. To start, I contacted eight scholars and asked if they’d be interested in the project. When I had a strong group of individuals, I asked for proposals to put together as two panels for AERA. Both panels were accepted in 2004, and we met for dinner in San Diego to consider how to develop the book further. Ultimately, I invited scholars from South Africa, India, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, and the U.S. to participate in this project. One strategy that worked very well was to have two sets of deadlines. I provided the authors with one set of deadlines for submitting final draft manuscripts, and set myself a deadline three months after that to allow ample time for editing and requests for revisions. This project has been a lot of work, but I think the final result will be very worthwhile.
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Chris,
I think this is an excellent question about edited works and tenure. I am not able to speak to it as an editor. However, I am going through the promotion and tenure (p&t) process right now--so these are very fresh issues for me. My initial response is that everything is negotiated and negotiable. If you can sell your dean, your department chair, your p&t committee, and your colleagues on the value of being the editor of a collected works, a translation, or of a series, then there should be no problem.
Now for my longer answer. Not every department, college, etc. is willing to value editing as a scholarly contribution on a par with contributing a scholarly monograph in a university or academic press. The politics of all this is quite local, to paraphrase Tip O'Neill. My first tenure track position was mostly an urban, teaching university in an interdisciplinary program that placed less emphasis on research. Tenure hinged on some peer-reviewed articles, progress toward a future book (monograph or edited volume, it didn't seem to matter), and some serious grant applications...along with consistently good teaching in a heavy load (2-2-2). In my current job I teach less (2-2), but have a much greater emphasis on research to obtain tenure. I am currently at a Research I university that is quite ambitious for itself and for its faculty. Here, there is a hierarchy among types of books, presses, etc. Only a scholarly monograph (along with articles, chapters, and some "concrete" evidence of a second book project --article, grant, etc.) can get one tenure here, though being a principal editor has gotten folks promoted from associate to full professor in the past. In my department being a series editor might be valued at the associate or full level, but at the untenured assistant level it might be seen as an impediment to completing the first book and getting a good start on the second book. Of course, these fault lines are hard to generalize about without specific cases in which to discuss.
And another variable is that at both institutions--my old teaching university and my current research university--the publication demands have been significantly inching upward in the last several years. That is another thing to consider. It was helpful for my department head to forcast for me (during my interview) what the standards might eventually be when I came up. I would love to get involved in editing one of these days, but it is not possible at the moment due, in part, to the tenure and promotion process here.
I'm afraid this is my last posting. I'm off to grade AP exams. Thanks for giving me a platform to share what I know and experienced in my adventure in publishing. This has been a very good discussion and it's been a pleasure to be a part of it.
Carlos Blanton
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Our role as series editors is to acquire manuscripts by working closely with the acquisitions editor at the publisher, to approach authors about potential projects, to read all proposals and manuscripts, to work with the acquisitions editor in the external review process and to make final recommendations to the acquisitions editor on the decision to recommend a contract. Once a contract is signed, we work with the authors on the manuscript throughout the revision and submission stages, as well as in the production and marketing stages. As series editors, we do not make major line by line edits. Rather, we make suggestions based on external reviews and our own review for substantive revisions. Some authors have believed that we should be doing the line by line editing. The publisher will send the manuscript out for copyediting and in most cases this is sufficient. However, there have been a few times that we have required an author to an outside editor, when the task is immense.
At Research Universities and many other colleges and universities, edited books do not count as much as single-authored books and articles toward tenure and promotion. However, they do count. Our advice as always is to consult with your colleagues, chair and dean as to the specifics of your local context. Editing books is as much or more work as writing one alone. Sadovnik and Semel have edited three books and Sadovnik two more. If done well, as discussed by Kim, it requires a great deal of work and effort. It also requires (as does our work as series editors) often telling authors what they do not want to hear: that their work needs significant revision. Most of our authors listen and thank us. A few have vowed never to work with us again. So be it. Any book that comes out in our series or any chapter in one of our edited books is a reflection on us as well as the authors. We read the journal reviews of books in our series as closely as the reviews of our own books and take their praise and criticism seriously.
With respect to how edited books may count toward tenure and promotion, as well as why one should edit a book: Both "Schools of Tomorrow," Schools of Today... and Founding Mothers could not have been written by one or both of us. No one or two people could have researched all of the schools and women featured in these books. They had to be edited collections. Our contribution as editors has been to bring the school histories and biographies of women educators to a wider audience and to contribute new knowledge about them as a group through our concluding chapters. Both books have been recognized as making important contributions to the field by AESA Critics Choice Awards and most recently in a long discussion of the chapters in Founding Mothers in a recent special issue of Pedagogica Historica by Kathleen Weiler. At both of our universities, promotion committees (in both of our cases to Distinguished Professor) would consider these edited books to have an impact on the field, one of the requirements of this rank. In both of our cases, however, in the absence of single authored articles and/or books these edited books would not be sufficient.
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I have a question about digital publishing. Lately, I've noticed that my university library has been purchasing digital copies of new monographs and some trade books through Netlibrary. A hard copy is usually bought to place on the shelf, but not always.
How are these "electronic books" shaping the industry? Is digital publishing making it easier or more difficult for scholars to publish their works? What kinds of problems/benefits are e-books producing for university and other presses as well as authors?
I would appreciate your thoughts.
Many thanks for an excellent discussion, Nancy
Nancy Zey
University of Texas at Austin
Nancy Zey asked about digital publishing. Personally, I think it’s an exciting development, because it widens the potential audience for any work. Many online journals are peer-reviewed, and some journals publish both in hard copy and in digital form. A couple of years ago I submitted a history of education piece to TC Record online. Although I indicated that I wanted it considered solely for the online journal, TC Record eventually published it both online and in hard copy (“A Chartered School in a Free Market: The Case of Raleigh Academy, 1801 - 1823” in Teachers College Record 107 (January 2005): 59 – 88). I found the peer review process to be identical to that for any top tier traditional journal: very rigorous. I would definitely publish online again through a peer-reviewed journal.
We see E books as the same as print books, we own rights to "publication." Right now and in the future, users or readers will be able to prefer how they want to read content with more options. There is no downside to more options for users. Clearly this poses ongoing issues about protecting the author's rights in benefiting from the content they produce, and publishers will play a key role in protecting these rights and the publisher's rights.
Thanks!
Amanda
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I have a couple questions related to a current project of mine. I had one semester in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program three years ago, but decided that a multi-year research program would delay my goal of writing narrative, nonfiction American History for the trade market.
Three years later, I am completing a history of the US common school movement. A major finding is that evangelical Christians and their religious beliefs were central to the foundations of the public school (and I presented a paper on this at the 2004 HES). Because of that finding, publishers seem to be telling my agent and I that evangelical presses (CBA market) are the most promising place to try to place this project. I remain hopeful that those efforts will be successful, but I have thought about an academic or University press.
Anyway, this should give you some background for my questions.
Would an academic or University press consider publishing an author without the Ph.D?
I intend to use the Introduction to expose the reader to some current "hot-button" problems and conflicts in the public schools, focusing on church-state issues. In the Epilogue I plan to apply lessons learned from the history of the common school movement to some of those same current areas of conflict. I am absolutely committed to an intelletually honest account of the common schools, but these two chapters will have a polemic flavor to them. I am passionate about writing these two chapters, but I also think it will add to the market for the project. My question: Would a "polemic" tone in those chapters create a problem for an academic or University press?
Related to question 2 above, I am wary that a political or religious stance, coming from the "right" will create a problem for an academic or University press. Are there precedents that might justify these fears?
Thank you,
Tom Hagedorn
On polemics: We are not clear what is meant by "I am absolutely committed to an intellectually honest account of the common school movement, but these two chapters will have a polemic (al) flavor to them." This is followed up by the worry about whether an academic or university press will be wary of such a "right" perspective.
I cannot answer for specific publishers, but as series editors we are not concerned about different political perspectives, left or right. We do require that there is evidence to support ones claims, even if we disagree with those claims. Both Palgrave and Lang have published both Henry Giroux and Fred Hess, on two opposite sides of the political spectrum. As long as the scholarship is sound, the argument logical and the evidence supports the claims, we do not shy away from controversial political positions. If by polemical, you mean unsubstantiated claims, rhetoric, ideology, all without substantive evidence, we would have problems.
Every press is different and every book is judged on a case-by-case basis. Palgrave, for example, has a trade list and an academic list. For our trade list, the authors range from journalists to professors to scientists-- and even to generals (General Wesley Clark is on our list for example). Some trade authors have their PhDs, and others do not. For our academic list, we rarely publish with someone who does not have a PhD, and we prefer that they have a PhD in the discipline they're writing about (for example, someone with a PhD in anthropology may not be as well known in education circles, and sometimes this can be problematic as we address market and sales questions). Occasionally we will publish someone who works at a research organization or think tank, for example, who may not have their PhD, if we feel that the market is strong enough, the author has a strong reputation, and a solid publishing history.
Thanks!
Amanda
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I am wondering what size of runs publishers print? Is there a standard minimum run that each publishing house has? Or does this vary within house by discipline, subject, author, etc.?
Thanks,
jon. kelland
Curriculum Studies PhD student
University of Illinois at Chicago
Regarding the size of publishing runs, indeed, every publisher is different. There are many variables like the ones mentioned, but I would say that the biggest factor is the market. The target market for the book often determines the right print run. Many publishers also tend to print a small printing to start, and then go back and reprint the book when stock is low and sales are still steady. These days, a print run does not tell you too much, as additional follow-up printings happen on a regular basis.
Thanks!
Amanda
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As a former director of the Academic Writers Project of the National Writers Union (UAW), I found that many college teachers displayed great naïveté in their dealings with book publishers. Writers with savvy (and/or those who retain agents) have no difficulty in conceiving of these dealings as business negotiations. An interested publisher sends a boiler plate contact to academic author who is often delighted to get the contract, virtually any contract. She or he usually does not expect income from book publication; to academics it is the indirect effects that really count -- tenure, promotion, salary increase. Publishers (at least some publishers, especially in the commercial houses) respect an author who has pride in his or her work and recognizes a deficient contract when it arrives in the mail. But most academics think that the initial, unsatisfactory contract is a "final offer," when it should be seen as the publisher's initial negotiating position. You should reply gratefully but firmly asking for better terms: higher royalty rates (12% rather than 10% or the 0% sometimes offered), higher percentage of foreign or book club sales, financial assistance in acquiring illustrations, a promotional budget, a larger cut of foreign sales, etc. (When/if some/all of these are rejected, the fallback position is to ask for doubling the number of authors' copies you receive.) In short. take your book contracts as seriously, or almost as seriously, as salary negotiations with your department chair.
Especially if the publishing house accedes to your contractual requests, the book editors at that house might feel they can make suggestions for revisions in the manuscript. If you have a skilled, experienced editor (one who doesn't think that editing means getting you to conform to her or his literary quirks -- a tendency of young editors fresh out of graduate school) whose intervention might very well make it a better book, it is likely that the work you have invested five or more years into will be recognized more favorably when the reviews come in.
None of what I've said here should be taken as recommendation to authors, especially young authors, to adopt a brash, know-it-all approach to editors, most of whom are serious, capable professionals.
Marvin Gettleman
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It's time for us to extend our gratitude to the guest experts who generously contributed their time and wisdom -- Carlos Blanton, Amanda Johnson, Alan Sadovnik, Susan Semel, Kim Tolley—and also to this month's list editor, Chris Frey, who somehow managed to do all of this while in Japan, several time zones away from our US-based guest discussants. (PS to Chris: You deserve some sleep!)
Why did H-Education sponsor this special discussion—and this new format? Perhaps one reason is that whenever I'm around educational historians, the topic of book publishing—and its many mysteries—inevitably comes up. Not only are there "unwritten rules," but as the publishing market has shifted considerably over the past decade, the rules seem to be changing. To keep up with the trends, we need better communication between prospective authors, recently-published scholars, and experienced editors.
These important conversations don't always occur naturally, so that's why we need to help make them happen. As a free, moderated email list, H-Education can play a special role in opening up dialogue to all 800+ subscribers across the globe (not just those who can afford to attend an academic conference in an expensive, distant location). Maintaining the health of the field of ed history requires everyone to work harder in sharing our collective wisdom—and to avoid the tendency that Robert Putnam describes as "bowling alone." (See more on this theme in Educational Researcher 29 (November 2000): 16-17, available now to those with access to JStor, and at some point in the future at Educational Researcher's archive site).
This Guest Discussion format was the first in what the H-Education team hopes will become a semi-regular series. If you have feedback on this discussion, or suggestions for future topics, please email them to the current editor h-education@h-net.msu.edu, and state whether you wish to have them posted publicly on the list (or forwarded privately to our advisory board & editorial team).
On behalf of
H-Education,
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Jack Dougherty, Trinity College (Hartford CT) jack.dougherty@trincoll.edu
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