Bibliography
Oct. 22nd, 2009 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyGetting it Published - William Germano
Having found myself a bit over-wibbled by Germano's other book, From Dissertation to Book, you might be wondering why I picked up something that seems to address the same themes. I was wondering that myself, but thankfully this felt a lot less - well, panick-inducing. Germano basically walks you through the steps of getting something published from beginning to end, including explaining what it is publishers actually do and the various varieties of publishing houses. He talks through picking a publisher, targeting a proposal to make it attractive, important mistakes not to make, the various stages of readers' reports and copy-editing and so on and so forth, right up until the publicity stage when the thing is actually in print.
First of all, a run all the way through the process is quite helpful; if you're anything like me, you'll have a vague idea of how it all fits together, but actually being clued into the process is a bit of relief. He also has quite a good chapter on putting a proposal together, which is helpful, and an overview of issues concerned with copyright and republishing and so forth. If nothing else, this book has convinced me that editing a collected volume is A Very Bad Idea for the foreseeable future, which I guess should have been obvious, but really isn't until somebody lists all the work you, as editor, have to put in.
There is some thoughtful meditation on the problems and advantages of electronic publishing, in which Germano actually articulates a very real problem with the e-book phenomenon for scholars - you are tempted to do a keyword search for Stuff That's Useful, rather than read the book as a whole. Which means that you don't read the bit that acts as a springboard that takes you off in a totally different direction but you'd never look for because it comes from somewhere completely unexpected. We've all had those research moments, and a utilitarian approach that e-books seem to encourage won't encourage them. He also has an excellent section on gaining permissions for reproducing things, although most of it isn't of much use to the sort of work I'm doing at the moment - but it could be.
Anyway - a very useful, practical, hands-on sort of book that demystifies the process - there's still no Foolproof Way to get your book published, but who said there would be? Definitely worth a read for clueing up on the realities of these things, which are shockingly easy to ignore and pretend aren't a problem for the academic author.
Having found myself a bit over-wibbled by Germano's other book, From Dissertation to Book, you might be wondering why I picked up something that seems to address the same themes. I was wondering that myself, but thankfully this felt a lot less - well, panick-inducing. Germano basically walks you through the steps of getting something published from beginning to end, including explaining what it is publishers actually do and the various varieties of publishing houses. He talks through picking a publisher, targeting a proposal to make it attractive, important mistakes not to make, the various stages of readers' reports and copy-editing and so on and so forth, right up until the publicity stage when the thing is actually in print.
First of all, a run all the way through the process is quite helpful; if you're anything like me, you'll have a vague idea of how it all fits together, but actually being clued into the process is a bit of relief. He also has quite a good chapter on putting a proposal together, which is helpful, and an overview of issues concerned with copyright and republishing and so forth. If nothing else, this book has convinced me that editing a collected volume is A Very Bad Idea for the foreseeable future, which I guess should have been obvious, but really isn't until somebody lists all the work you, as editor, have to put in.
There is some thoughtful meditation on the problems and advantages of electronic publishing, in which Germano actually articulates a very real problem with the e-book phenomenon for scholars - you are tempted to do a keyword search for Stuff That's Useful, rather than read the book as a whole. Which means that you don't read the bit that acts as a springboard that takes you off in a totally different direction but you'd never look for because it comes from somewhere completely unexpected. We've all had those research moments, and a utilitarian approach that e-books seem to encourage won't encourage them. He also has an excellent section on gaining permissions for reproducing things, although most of it isn't of much use to the sort of work I'm doing at the moment - but it could be.
Anyway - a very useful, practical, hands-on sort of book that demystifies the process - there's still no Foolproof Way to get your book published, but who said there would be? Definitely worth a read for clueing up on the realities of these things, which are shockingly easy to ignore and pretend aren't a problem for the academic author.
