What is a literary agent and why would a scholarly author want/need to get one?

Lots of misconceptions about this out there so here’s some info: A literary agent is someone who represents an author to a publishing house. They do the work of submitting a book proposal, communicating with the editor, and negotiating any offers/contracts. They sometimes (not always) help edit/develop the proposal before submission

It’s 2023 and I know a lot of ppl who are trying to finish books & get contracts this year.

Can I share the 10 most common issues I’ve seen in scholarly book manuscripts as a developmental editor?

Feel free to use them as a checklist as you’re editing yr own book this year ✍️ First, a caveat: this isn’t based on a scientific survey of book manuscripts—these are based on what I’ve seen in the books I’ve happened to edit (I work w/ PhDs writing monographs in the humanities & social sciences).

Counting down from roughly the 10th most common to the 1st:

Hi! I’m offering something new in January! The Book Proposal Sprint will be 5 days of online coworking and live Q&A sessions with me to get momentum on your scholarly book proposal draft.

Everyone who has ever registered for my Book Proposal Shortcut program is eligible to participate.

I am begging people who want to make sweeping pronouncements about academic publishing & book pricing to learn that there are major differences between huge commercial publishers, huge university presses (of which there are 2), and smaller UPs I can’t put much stock in an “analysis” of the academic publishing industry that hasn’t even bothered to understand the differences across that industry

Starting the week by donating $100 in solidarity with the UC Academic Workers strike fund ✊

I also pledge to contribute 20% of all enrollment fees in my programs for the next week.

Give here if you’re able: givebutter.com/uc-uaw My programs are listed here: courses.manuscriptworks.com

I’m going to reopen my Write an Outstanding Book Proposal workshop recording for a limited time.

20% of the fee for that and my Book Proposal Shortcut program will go straight to the strike fund (thru Tuesday 11/22)

If you finished a dissertation this year, congratulations! 🎉

I hope you’ve been able to celebrate and rest. 😴

If you hope to publish a book from the diss, you might be tempted to begin revising right away, but here are 6 things I think you should do instead: 1. Start a new project 🧐

Exploring a new topic can bring fresh clarity on the ?s that really interested you in yr diss research.

Those can become stronger through-lines in your book manuscript and will be key to communicate when it's time to propose your book to a publisher

If you aren’t sure how to work with a developmental editor, or you’ve worked with one and the experience wasn’t what you’d hoped, I have a couple (free) resources that may help This podcast episode of @AcademicLifeNBN was a great convo with @ChristinaGessl2 that covered expectations & norms:

newbooksnetwork.com/do-you-need-a-…

There are different types of book publishers.

Scholarly writers often don’t know the difference between the types (bc no one teaches them).

But it’s helpful to understand the distinctions so you can make the right decision abt where yr book belongs.

Here’s a rough breakdown: 1. University presses. You know these. They’re non-profit and mission driven. They put every book through peer review. They often carry the most prestige for academic career and reputation purposes (which may or may not matter to you)

6 things you should be able to explain about your scholarly book project:

1. An example or story from your research that illustrates the main point you want your book to make 2. A summary of the argument that drives the book from beginning to end. Not just the topic of the book, but rather what your specific take is on the topic. The idea that will change what ppl know or believe about your topic.

It’s the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere 🍂🍁 so let me tell you about my two fall webinars coming up (both free to attend!)

October 12: How to Land a Book Contract

November 9: How to Publish a Book from Your Dissertation How to Land a Book Contract will demystify all the phases of the publishing process that lead up to you getting an offer:

Finding the right presses
Talking to editors
Figuring out the right timing to approach
Deciding whether to submit to multiple presses or not
Peer review, etc

If you talk to acquisitions editors about your book project and get the feedback that it’s not publishable because the argument isn’t “portable” enough, here’s what you need to do: Explain more clearly how the findings of your project and the argument you’ve constructed from them could apply more broadly beyond the specific case you examined.

This explanation can become part of your elevator pitch and should definitely go into your book proposal

My job is to help academics get their books published. But sometimes that involves helping people think through whether it’s even worth sinking a bunch of time & effort into a book project.

Here are some questions to ask yourself if you’re grappling with this rn: Is writing a book one of your life-long goals?

If so, you’ll probably get a lot of satisfaction out of finishing it and getting it published. The experience of becoming a published author may not be exactly what you expected but it’s still worth going for

I get a lot of questions about sample chapters and how to decide what to include with your book proposal submission (talking scholarly books & presses here)

These are the most common ?s + my answers: Q1: If a publisher asks for sample chapter(s) with a proposal submission, which chapter(s) are best to send?

A1: Send the chapter(s) that best represent the manuscript you intend to write in terms of the style you write in, the types of evidence you are analyzing, and +

I’ve been going through the developmental editing letters I’ve written for my academic author clients, and advice on restructuring their introduction chapters comes up a lot.

I came up with a template after giving similar restructuring tips many times: Here’s the template if you want to bookmark it for when you need it

I’ll give a run-down in this 🧵 too

manuscriptworks.com/blog/intro-tem…

The Book Proposal Book is one year old today! 🥂

I’m so grateful to every person who has helped spread the word about this resource and to @PrincetonUPress for a great publishing experience.

If you’re at all curious how a book like this gets made, here’s a behind-the-scenes 🧵:

https://twitter.com/lportwoodstacer/status/1414940726891216897

Where the idea for the book came from & how I got early interest from publishers (it all started with my developmental editing clients and a Word doc called “Book proposal feedback compiled.doc”)

manuscriptworks.com/blog/idea-to-m…

Trying to figure out how to summarize your book chapters for your book proposal or for the little outline that comes at the end of your intro chapter?

Here’s my post on how to do this effectively ⬇️

manuscriptworks.com/blog/chapter-s… Describing what your chapter is nominally about (its topic or research objects/site) is not usually the hard part.

What a lot of people miss is:
-the point of the chapter (what it’s arguing)
-how that point serves the book as a whole
-why the ch appears where it does in the book

I’ve seen some tweets from people wanting to write a scholarly book proposal but not knowing where to begin.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking abt this + teaching ppl how to do it, so I thought I’d share a 🧵 of the main steps & my recommended order 1️⃣ Come up with some target presses. Publishers who’ve put out recent books you’re in conversation with. Get to know their catalogs & submission requirements.

Articulate for yrself why you’d fit there. This will help the proposal process feel real & targeted from the start

If you’re a scholar interested in a topic, you’re probably going to read more than one book about that topic right?

Don’t panic or get depressed if you find out other people are writing books in a similar vein as yours.

There’s room for multiple approaches and voices Here’s a story from my own experience:

When an editor first asked me if I’d thought abt writing a book about publishing, I said sure, but that there were already good books out there

Him: yeah, but don’t underestimate demand. Ppl always want more bks & you have a unique voice

Hi, I’m crowdsourcing a list of funding sources for authors of scholarly books, especially those specifically intended to support authors of color. So far I’ve got programs from @PrincetonUPress, @mitpress, and @ucpress (I’ll link these in the thread).

What else is out there? @PrincetonUPress’s Supporting Diverse Voices Book Proposal Development Grants press.princeton.edu/book-proposal-…

What’s the quickest way to get your book proposal rejected by a scholarly publisher?

Sending it to an editor who doesn’t think your book is a good fit w/ their press’s “list”

How do you save yourself ⏱ & 💔 in the submission process? Get the fit right in advance

(thread) You can have a brilliant project that an editor believes would make a great book. But if the editor doesn’t believe their press is the right place to publish that book, they are going to let it go.

Why?

It has everything to do w/ marketing strengths & finite resources

Let’s talk about why book proposals get rejected by scholarly publishers

(thread) Yes, sometimes the scholarship just isn’t solid enough (yet) and an editor doesn’t think a strong case can be made for publication / the project won’t make it through peer review in its present form