Writing & Publishing Resources

A collection of critiques and advice, these guides encourage you to think about your readers and what kind(s) of prose would best serve their needs, as well as the needs of your project.

• Ask UP: Authors Seeking Knowledge from University Presses
• “7 Ways That List-Making Helps You Produce Scholarly Work”
• “10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly”
•  Are You Writing? series
• “Book Breaking and Book Mending”
• Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing
• From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies that Everyone Can Read
• A Guide to Writing Good Academic Prose
• “The Habits of Highly Productive Writers”
• “Here Come the Prose Police: Why Academic Writing Gets a Bad Rap”
• “How to Learn to Write Like a Machine”
• “Lessons on the Craft of Scholarly Reading”
• “My Little Bag of Writing Tricks: How I Translate Grammar Directives into Moves I Can Use to Make My Sentences Better”
• “PhDs Are Still Writing Poorly,” Part One and Part Two
• Scholars Talk Writing series
• “The ‘So What?’ Question” and other articles from Theresa MacPhail
• “Tell the Story: How to Write for American Ethnologist”
• “Why Academics Stink at Writing,” Part One and Part Two
• “Why Writing Will Make You a Better Person”

These guides offer instructions on how to frame and write a book proposal that will get the attention of the right publisher for your book.

• “Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal”
• “How to Write a Book Proposal”
• “Lessons Learned from ‘Shark Tank’ on Writing Book Proposals”
• “On Writing the Book Proposal: An Interview with Dawn Durante”
• “What to Say (and Not to Say) in Query Letters to Book Editors”
• “Why It’s Important to Write a Proposal for an Academic Book”

A dissertation is not a book, and these resources will help you to make the leap from one to the other.

• From Dissertation to Book
• “How to Turn Your Dissertation into a Book,” organized by the Graduate Writing Lab
• “Online Dissertations”
• “Revising Humanities Dissertations for Publication”

If you have questions about how scholarly publishing works, these websites and articles will give you more information about the different stages of the process.

• “Asking the Editors” part 1 (Junior Prof shares advice from two leading university press editors about first-time book authorship) and part 2 (Junior Prof continues her conversation with two leading university press editors who offer specific advice on networking and meeting with editors)
• AuthorAID: A Global Network of Researchers
• “Editing Is at the Heart of Scholarly Publishing”
• “Emerging Trends in the Academic Publishing Lifecycle”
• Finding a Publisher, Association of University Presses
• “Getting Published by a University Press”
• “How Traditional Publishing Works”
• “It’s Not Scary: The Art of Getting Published with a Scholarly Press”
• “Life Cycle of a Book,” University Press of Florida
• “Publishing without Perishing: Pro Tips from a Publishing Insider”
• “Scholarly E-Books and University Presses,” part 1 and part 2
• “Scholars Talk Writing: How Does a Book Editor Find Projects?”
• “Seven Things Every Researcher Should Know about Scholarly Publishing”
• “Suggesting Reviewers”
• “Things You Should Know before Publishing a Book”
• “University Presses Are Thriving, Not Broken”

As funders and scholars turn toward open access, traditional models for scholarly publishing are changing. Learn more about the available options from these resources.

• American Historical Association Ontology of Open Access Panel
• NEH Fellowships Open Book Program
• OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit
• SHMP: The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot
• TOME: Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem
• Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible
• University Libraries at Virginia Tech Open Access Overview

Understanding permissions and copyright can be difficult, but these resources give you a place to start.

• Author’s Permission Guidelines, University of Chicago Press
• Copyright Overview, Copyright & Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries
• Permissions FAQ: Author Responsibilities and Copyright Guidelines, Association of University Presses
• “Rights, Permissions, and Copyright Administration,” The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., chapter 4

Knowing what constitutes fair use and when you need permission to use other people’s words and images is an important part of the publishing process.

• Codes of Best Practices, Center for Media & Social Impact
• Fair Use, Ohio State University Libraries
• Fair Use Checklist, Columbia University Libraries

Publicity is an integral part of the publishing process and one to which you should contribute to ensure the success of your book.

• “Making the Most of Your Research Promotion Team”
• “Writing a Book or Article? Now’s the Time to Create Your ‘Author Platform’”

Editors appreciate and depend on manuscript reviews, and learning how to write thorough reviews is a skill that will serve you and the field you’re working to advance.

• “The Art of Manuscript Reviewing: Learning from the Example of Peggy Pascoe”
• “Editorial Director Ken Wissoker on Why He Loves Peer Review”
• Feeding the Elephant Podcase, Episode 1: “Advice for First-Time Peer Reviewers”
• “Generous, Generative Peer Review”
• “What to Do about Reviewer #2: Advice for Handling a Difficult Peer Review”

If you’re interested in sharing your work with a wider audience, these guides will show you how to get started.

• “10 Questions Every Academic Should Ask before Writing for the Public” in The Public Writing Life series
• “How to Write an Essay: A Guide for Anthropologists”
• The Op-Ed Project

SCHOLARLY WRITING

• “Scholars Talk Writing: Advice from an Editor”
• “PhDs Are Still Writing Poorly, Part 1”
• “PhDs Are Still Writing Poorly, Part 2”
• “My Little Bag of Writing Tricks: How I Translate Grammar Directives into Moves I Can Use to Make My Sentences Better”
• “Why Academics Stink at Writing”, Part One and Part Two
• From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies that Everyone Can Read
• Other works from the Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing

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DISSERTATION TO BOOK

• “How to Turn Your Dissertation into a Book,” organized by the Graduate Writing Lab
• From Dissertation to Book

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BOOK PROPOSALS

• “Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal”
• “On Writing the Book Proposal: An Interview with Dawn Durante”
• “How to Write a Book Proposal”

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SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING

• “Seven Things Every Researcher Should Know about Scholarly Publishing”
• “Things You Should Know before Publishing a Book”