Inappropriate Icon Is Inappropriate

[ajnabieh]

I love this icon; it isn't true; I can't bear to give it up. Sniff.

***

Recs needed: blog posts, articles, books, ANYTHING on:

1) How to choose a publisher to pitch your dissertation-book (or any academic book) to;
2) What the structural differences are between a dissertation and a book (which I struggle with, because I see 275 pages of prose and think "book," yes?)'
3) How to write a book proposal (apart from "to the tastes of the particular press/editor you're pitching to").

Guess what my summer project is.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, on academic publishing.

Also take a look at Transformative Works and Cultures and ask some of the writers there for advice. The acafans there are generally quite helpful and approachable. They have a blog, too, called Symposium.

Also, are your advisers at your school of any help? They'd be front and center for this.

I know McFarland publishes fan/cultural studies books.

[ajnabieh]

Unfortunately, though fandom studies in my hobby, my dissertation is in the much less sexy field of ethnic politics & migration studies. Well. I think it's sexy. :)

The TWC folks are super super nice--I've been a reviewer for them, and actually have an article going through the revise-and-resubmit process at the moment. I wish I had an easily accessible scholarly community like that in my main field; it's a bit of work to build one, particularly when (like me) you go to a graduate school where not a high percentage of the students go on to academic careers--many go to work in policy or nonprofits--or leave the US to teach (often to return to their home countries). So. Yeah. My advisors are being helpful. but I like casting a superwide net, lol.

[princessofgeeks]

oops! sorry -- i made an assumption about your subject matter!

in any case, good luck!

[sheddingkhawatir.blogspot.com]

When you find this out, please share, because this is my summer project too!

[ajnabieh]

Dr. K has good advice for us. OMG, I can't believe you're almost done. *cheers for you*

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, what happened with the icon? What was the problem?

Every academic (and non-academic) publishing house is a little different in terms of the works it seeks. Start pounding the digital pavement to see who is looking for what. Have a look at the books you have found most inspiring and citable in your own work, and see who published them. That'll do for a start. Once you've done that, spend some time combing each press' catalog to get a sense of what they publish within your field of knowledge.

As for the diss-to-book business, the best advice I've gotten was from Dr. Crazy, who recommended From Dissertation to Book, by William Germano. It's well worth a read, especially when you're at the point of "275 pages...prose...must be a book, amirite??"

Book proposals are a little tougher, since they're discipline-bound, to a degree. Hit up your colleagues in your native discipline for models to work from. I can send you mine, if you like, but of course I'm still gunning for a contract myself, so I won't pretend it's a reliable model.

[ajnabieh]

...you do realize we aren't grad students any more, right? WE'RE NOT IN SCHOOL ANY MORE. THERE IS NO MORE SCHOOL. *commence panic attack*

All I can think of is the line from The Simpsons: "Bart, don't tease the grad students. They just made terrible life choices."

[loveanddisdain.blogspot.com]

Correct: there is no more school. When I say "your colleagues," I mean other professors, since it is now they and not so much grad students who are your colleagues. Go crazy, right? :D

*resume panic attack*

[jae]

1. I turned my dissertation into articles, so I don't have any advice on looking for publishers for dissertation books specifically. But for the books I wrote/edited as a more senior academic, I essentially chose by looking at which publishers were marketing their books to the audience I wanted to read mine, and pitched it to them.

3. I asked someone else who'd pitched their book successfully to the same press to show me his. ;)

-J

[ajnabieh]

3. Well, that's one solution! :)

1. I'm waffling on the book/article question--well, no. There's no monograph on Arabs in New York City in existence; there's one really, really good literary nonfiction book (seriously, worth reading--Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does It Feel To Be A Problem), and one kind of crap edited collection, and one book that uses a national survey of Arabs and Muslims but a lot of NYC-specific examples (because the authors are in New York). There's a hole that needs plugging. But what goes into the book, and what goes into journals, and how much repetition I want to allow...that's a question I need to figure out.

First I need to decide which book is emerging from this diss, though...*vague flaily hands*

[loveanddisdain.blogspot.com]

Long story short, have a look at Dr. Crazy's advice to me, when I asked similar questions about the diss-to-book process.

http://loveanddisdain.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-cant-get-started.html

[ajnabieh]

Sweet. PS, I unscreened your other comments. Oh, why am I writing this, I'm going to email you anyway...