Author: Laura Portwood-Stacer
When attempting to publish an academic book, it can feel as if so many factors are beyond your control. Will an acquiring editor like your book idea? Will it take them forever to get back to you? Will peer reviewers understand and support the intervention you’re trying to make? What if they want you to make significant changes to the manuscript after you’ve already poured years of your life into it? The truth is that you can’t know the answers to these questions in advance, and that’s what makes the process of writing and publishing a book anxiety-provoking for many scholars.
Fortunately, there are some aspects of the process you can control. First and foremost, you can learn what scholarly publishers are really looking for when they consider whether they want to acquire a book. In over a decade of working with scholarly authors as a publishing advisor and developmental editor, I’ve learned that manuscripts really need four key elements to make a positive impression on publishers (and later, readers):
- A compelling argument
- Convincing evidence and analysis
- A well-organized structure
- Consistent style appropriate for the intended readership
I call these elements the four pillars of scholarly writing, and if you ensure that your manuscript has all of these elements before even sending it to a publisher, you’ll greatly increase your chances of making it to the next step.
Producing a manuscript that’s strong in all four pillars is easier said than done, though. What you really need is a system that will enable you to assess your draft, decide how it should be improved in each area, and execute revisions in an efficient way. By following a clear set of steps to arrive at a better manuscript, you’ll feel more confident that you’ve given your project the best shot possible of landing successfully with publishers and peer reviewers.
Another benefit of having a systematic approach to revising your book manuscript is that you can rely on it repeatedly throughout the publication process. Anyone who’s been published before knows that writing an academic manuscript is not a one-and-done thing. You will receive feedback along the way at several points, and it’s expected that your text will evolve—perhaps multiple times—on its way to its final form. With your revision system in place, even extensive suggestions from editors and peer reviewers won’t phase you. You’ll know how to make sense of any criticisms and quickly come up with apt solutions so your revise-and-resubmits don’t extend the process for years on end.
The revision system I teach scholarly book authors isn’t a static checklist. It’s a responsive method that centers your own goals, in recognition of the fact that no two scholars or scholarly books are exactly alike (nor should they be). I teach you how to evaluate your manuscript the way a professional developmental editor would and then identify the changes that will best serve your publication aims. The result will be a book you can feel truly proud of when it finally goes out into the world.