The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors

by Laura Portwood-Stacer

Overview

A step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal—and seeing your book through to successful publication

The scholarly book proposal may be academia’s most mysterious genre. You have to write one to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so—and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides prospective authors step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers.

Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors, shows how to select the right presses to target, identify audiences and competing titles, and write a project description that will grab the attention of editors—breaking the entire process into discrete, manageable tasks. The book features over fifty time-tested tips to make your proposal stand out; sample prospectuses, a letter of inquiry, and a response to reader reports from real authors; optional worksheets and checklists; answers to dozens of the most common questions about the scholarly publishing process; and much, much more.

Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why, far from being merely a hurdle to clear, a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691215723
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Series:	Skills for Scholars , #19
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, is a developmental editor and founder of Manuscript Works, a consultancy serving academic authors around the world. She is the author of Lifestyle Politics and Radical Activism and previously taught media and cultural studies at New York University and the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Know the Process: Your Readers and the Importance of Fit 6

Step 1 Identify Your Target Presses 14

Step 2 Research and Evaluate Your Target Presses 15

Step 3 Gather Submission Information for Your Target Presses and Summarize Your Book's Fit 17

2 Write for Publication: What Presses Value in Your Scholarly Book Project 27

Step 4 Generate Raw Material for Your Proposal Package 30

Step 5 Draft a Letter of Inquiry to Introduce Your Project to Editors 30

3 Find Your Place: Competing and Comparable Works 37

Step 6 Collect a List of Comp Titles 39

4 Identify Your Audiences and Market: Who Is Your Book Really For? 44

Step 7 Articulate Your Book's Audience 46

5 Showcase Your Core Thesis: Strong Arguments Make Strong Books 54

Step 8 State Your Book's Thesis 56

Step 9 Distill a One-Liner for Your Project 58

6 Give an Overview: A Template for Project Descriptions 62

Step 10 Draft a Project Description 64

7 Expose the Structure: Effective Chapter Summaries 68

Step 11 Summarize Your Book's Chapters 70

8 Invite Readers In: Book and Chapter Titles 77

Step 12 Come Up with Working Titles for Your Book and Its Chapters 78

9 Put Yourself on the Page: Style and Voice 82

Step 13 Revise Your Proposal Materials for Style and Voice 85

10 Really Put Yourself On the Page: Your Author Biography and CV 89

Step 14 Write an Author Biography 90

Step 15 Create an Author CV from Your Full CV 91

11 Don't Forget the Details: Specs, Status, and Other Elements of a Complete Proposal Package 95

Step 16 Assemble Your Prospectus 99

12 Make the Connection: When and How to Reach Out to Publishers 105

Step 17 Prepare to Connect with Editors 107

Step 18 Submit Your Proposal 109

13 Keep Your Cool: Navigating Reader Reports, Contracts, and Other Decision Points 122

Step 19 Respond to Your Reader Reports 126

14 See It Through: Permissions, Proofs, and Promotion 135

Step 20 Get a Head Start on Your Promotion Efforts 141

Conclusion: Maintaining Perspective 148

Steps to Complete 151

Assessing Your Proposal Materials 153

Sample Documents 157

Suggestions tor Further Reading 177

Bibliography 181

Time-Tested Tips and Frequently Asked Questions by Chapter 183

Index 191

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Laura Portwood-Stacer brings great knowledge, clarity, and compassion to the project of coaching scholars through the book submission process. The result is much more than an exceptional guide to writing a book proposal. It’s a window into the entire publishing process, with advice for authors heading into the labyrinth for the first time, or the tenth. I have added this book to a very short list of titles that I regularly recommend to authors, and I know that many other editors will do the same.”—Gita Manaktala, editorial director of The MIT Press

“Comprehensive yet accessible, Laura Portwood-Stacer’s masterful guide demystifies the ever-daunting book proposal. New and experienced scholars alike will find The Book Proposal Book valuable, as this twenty-step manual carefully instructs aspiring authors from book idea to publication.”—Eddie R. Cole, author of The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom

“Smart, clear, well-organized, and practical, The Book Proposal Book will be a valued resource for scholarly authors seeking publication.”—Peter Ginna, editor of What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing

“Laura Portwood-Stacer has produced one of the finest books for skills development in academia, and one that is sorely needed, despite the wealth of books on how to write scholarly prose and how to develop your own book manuscripts. The Book Proposal Book is a must-have for every aspiring book author in academia.”—Raul Pacheco-Vega, FLACSO Mexico

“Following Portwood-Stacer’s advice will not only create a better book proposal; it will create a better book.”—Beth Luey, author of Handbook for Academic Authors

“Extraordinarily helpful, this is a book that scholars will wish they had had when pitching their first (and second and third) books. Portwood-Stacer distills years of experience into a handbook that is easy to read and implement.”—Lee Skallerup Bessette, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, Georgetown University

Editorial Reviews

"Scholarly publishing is indeed opaque, and it need not be. In crafting this guide for authors, Portwood-Stacer has done a tremendous service for both the academy and for the community of scholarly publishers. Better book proposals, it turns out, make for better books."

Publishing Research Quarterly ​​​​​​​

"Superb: practical, accessible, deeply savvy. . . . I truly believe that if you want to understand how books can be made in the 2020s, you should read Anne [Trubek] Laura [Portwood-Stacer] and… basically no one else!"—-Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

"There is so much in this little book to recommend to the bewildered or intimidated potential author that it is hard to imagine navigating the territory of scholarly publishing without it. . . . In crafting this guide for authors, Portwood-Stacer has done a tremendous service for both the academy and for the community of scholarly publishers."—-Gregory M. Britton, Publishing Research Quarterly

"I’m working my way through [The Book Proposal Book] and while I would like to rush right through it, I’m trying to read slowly because it’s truly so instructive—not only for authors, but also for editors how to communicate better with their authors."—-Alison Syring, University of Illinois Press

"By bringing clarity to topics that are seldom explicitly taught, The Book Proposal Book offers a vital resource, especially for scholars who lack the resources to work with a freelance editor or attend a publishing workshop. . . . The Book Proposal Book can help authors to feel less alone through the daunting process of proposal writing. . . . I recommend this book not only for authors who are currently working on book proposals, but for all readers who share Portwood-Stacer’s commitment to helping scholarly writers feel hopeful, powerful, and supported."—-Sara Saylor, Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy

From the Publisher