by Monika Sziron, Ph.D.
makasana photo/ Shutterstock
Have you been trying to get your academic work and research published? Are you struggling to find a publisher who will turn your manuscript into a published book?
In episode 26 of the HigherEdJobs Podcast Greg Britton, editorial director of Johns Hopkins University Press, shares key insights into getting your academic work published as a book.
What’s the Number One Step You Should Take When Trying to Get a Book Published?
Britton shares, “I think before you contact a publisher, there are a couple of things you should ask yourself […] what do you want to say? […] who do you want to say it to? This question of audience is really key to the work…knowing who that person is or who that group is and what do they need to hear.”
Do Your Homework
Sending your manuscript and proposal to many publishers may seem like the best way to get the word out and increase your chances of publication, but Britton advises otherwise.
“You might broadcast your book proposal around to hundreds of publishers. It would be far more effective to do a little homework and find the five key publishers who publish in your area. Now, how do you do that? One way you can do it is by turning around and looking at the bookshelf behind you, and those are probably the books that are most top of your mind, and those are books that are published in your field. Look at the spines of those books and you’ll start to see a pattern of the publishers who are publishing in your key field.”
Time to Give up Some Control
Writing your manuscript has been a solo mission. You have spent time and effort to get all the words down and now it is time for it to be reviewed. Now is the time to turn that solo mission into a many-handed mission.
“I think by the time a book is published at Hopkins, there are 40 people who have touched that book in some way” Britton states.
There is a level of trust that needs to be established on behalf of the author, “I think the best authors are the ones who understand that just as they are an expert in their field, they are working with a group of experts in their own fields. So, the person who is doing book design knows book design better than that author does […] Where we run into trouble is when the author thinks, this sometimes happens, that they know book design better than the professional.”
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Tune into the full episode to hear more from Britton and other ways to make getting your book published a more enjoyable and transparent process.
Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don’t imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.
