Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC How to Get Published, or Great Book Proposals and Where They Come From Mila Steele Senior Commissioning Editor

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Agenda: How do I get turn a PhD into a book? Part I ●What’s been happening in publishing ●What happened to monographs ●What publishers want and how they are different Part II ●What is a good PhD, a good book and a good proposal ●Transforming your PhD ●Finding a publisher

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The publishing industry

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Who are Publishers? ●Trade (Random House, Penguin) ●Textbook (McGraw-Hill, Pearson) ●Commercial academic (SAGE, Routledge, Blackwell, Palgrave) ●University presses (OUP, CUP, Duke) ●Boutique (Peter Lang, Intellect, Polity, Ashgate, Paradigm) ●Electronic (Ebury) ●OA initiatives: Open Humanities Press, Open Book Publishers ●Vanity publishers: VDM Verlag

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Where does research get published?

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC So many kinds of books, so many kinds of readers, how many sales? ●Monographs ●‘Big think’ books ●‘Shorts’ ●Journalism ●Trade books ●Textbooks

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC New Directions: ●New formats: Palgrave Pivots, Springer Shorts, SAGE Swifts ●E-only OA monographs ●Collections, subscriptions, searchability

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC What publishers want ●Buyership: not just readership ●Market knowledge: evidence of what works ●Audience: know the reader’s needs ●A business model: how to pay for it all ●A publishing strategy: volume, curation, courses ●Sustainability: change, but the right change, so we’re all here in two years

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Where does a PhD fit in…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC What makes a good PhD?

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC What makes a good book? ●Introduction: in at the shallow end ●Imagines the reader ●Does not presume too much knowledge ●Evenly structured ●Easy to navigate ●Leaves the reader satisfied ●Not too long ●A pleasure to read

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC PhD vs Books: PhD fulfills an academic requirement; Book fulfills a desire to speak broadly. PhD rehearses scholarship in the field; Book has absorbed that scholarship and transmits or teaches it. PhD suppresses an authorial voice; Book creates and sustains one. PhD stops; a book concludes. PhD is for an audience of 4; a book is for thousands around the world. PhD is assessed and archived; a book is sold.

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Transforming your research ●Stop thinking of it as your PhD ●Start with a book proposal ●Remember what the publisher wants... ●Academic conventions no longer relevant ●Be ready to re-write every line ●Imagine what kind of book, not just ‘any’ book ●Understand who is your new reader?

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Transforming your research for student readers ●Explain and illustrate ●Teach through case studies ●Doesn’t have to be dry and formulaic ●Authoritative and engaging ●Make the sophisticated clear and lucid ●Relevant for a course ●The author has had fun writing.

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC De-PhD-ing ●It will be shorter: think 80,000 words ●It may be re-written line by line: thinking of a new kind of reader ●Drop the lit review and methodology ●Ditch the footnotes ●Lessen the empirical detail ●Draw out international implications

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Writing proposals that work…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal A synopsis of the book and its argument/approach A rationale A common mistake! ‘I need to be totally original.’

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal The ‘edge’ Explain why a reader will buy your book and not another. Describe the USP’s (unique selling point).

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal An extended table of contents: ●Chapter titles ●Paragraph on coverage ●Subheadings to map each chapter This is the part of the proposal I, peer review and the Editorial Board read first

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal The market It is ‘buyership’ not ‘readership’ that a publisher is really interested in Detail will never be wasted on this section.

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC ‘But you guys are the market experts, not me…’

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal Remember! A publisher is just as interested in your interpretation of the market and the competition as they are in the proposed contents of the book.

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Elements of the proposal The competition ●3 – 4 books ●Strengths and weaknesses ●How your book will compare

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC A publisher won’t want another book on popular music…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC ‘My book is unique. There is no competition.’

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Do ●Make it personal – address the editor by name ●Write concisely – 6 – 7 pages ●Show awareness of the market ●Check out the publisher’s proposal guidelines ●Give clear idea of the book’s structure ●Mention if you blog, tweet, podcast, vodcast, teach...

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Don’t ●Write a 30 page proposal ●Use clever puns or double entendres in the title ●Assume a longer book is a smarter book ●Send an entire manuscript

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC What publishers will do with your proposal and how they will judge it…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Editor’s review Immediate rejection by the editor This most likely means you have misjudged the match of the book idea to the publisher and its targeted markets

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The review process It gets sent out for review Assessed for: suitability of content for the intended market market need for the book suitability of writing style intellectual merit

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The review process You will get to see the reviews and may be asked to revise your proposal in light of reviewers’ comments. Your proposal may also get rejected at this point.

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The editorial meeting It gets presented at the editorial board meeting Your editor presents a ‘pitch’ for your proposal to representatives of the publisher for evaluation and approval to issue a contract

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The editorial meeting The pitch will include : ●your proposal ●the editor’s comments, sales estimates and market research ●the reviews ●a P&L

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC The editorial meeting A decision is made to: Offer you contract now Offer you a contract later following revisions Decline the proposal

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Choosing a publisher…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Choosing a publisher ●Publisher’s reputation in subject area ●Market experience and data ●Colleague recommendation: ●Expertise of editorial staff ●Author support ●Relationship with an editor ●International marketing and distribution

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Choosing a publisher ●Books you read ●Physical quality of publication ●Size of publishing company ●Location of publishing company ●Conferences attended ●Legitimacy: watch out for vanity publishers

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC What marketing counts Counts: ●International marketing ●Rich data – do they market to you? ●Conferences Doesn’t count: ●Launches (have your own) ●Newspaper reviews ●Conference inserts

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Getting to know your future publisher ●Think about your market ●Don’t go in cold ●Don’t tell publishers it will be one of a kind – even if it’s true (remember it’s no longer your PhD, it’s your book) ●What else can you offer? ●Career strategy beyond the book

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC Building a relationship with your publisher…

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC How do I find authors? ●Recommendations ●An incredibly lucid peer review ●Journal citations ●An introduction at a conference ●Social media profile ●A surprise proposal

Insert your presentation title here Los Angeles | London | New Delhi Singapore | Washington DC How can you get involved? ●Submit to journals ●Special issue ideas ●Send in book proposals ●Say yes to reviewing proposals ●Write reviews well! ●Introduce yourself to an editor at a conference ●Say yes to an editor coming to visit ●Build your social media profile ●Understand a little about publishing...