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A Publishing Resource for Geographers |
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A Publishing Resource for Geographers |
Other types of publishing: books, reports, popular press
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Writing a book is a major undertaking. In general, it takes between one and two years to complete a manuscript, even if it is an edited collection, and in many cases takes substantially longer. As such, it is probably wise to seek a publisher before starting work to ensure that such efforts are not in vain.
1. Drafting a book proposal 2. Choosing a publisher 3. Submitting a proposal 4. Negotiating a contract 5. The Production Process
In advance of approaching a publisher it is important to draft a book proposal that will allow the publisher to evaluate the academic and commercial value of the proposed text. The proposal will need to consist of several parts that concisely sets out what the book will be about and why the publisher should be interested in publishing it. Publishers provide guidelines as to what a proposal should contain, these are often published on their websites. In general, all will ask for the following:
Preliminaries
At the start of the proposal should be the proposed book title and subtitle if there is one, along with your name and institutional affiliation. Choosing a title is an important process. Preferably you want a title that gives a clear idea about the book's foci, and is catchy and attractive. Many books try to combine these qualities through the use of a title and sub-title, where the main title aims to grab the browser's attention and the sub-title details specifically the book's foci.
Overview
This section is a short (200-400 word) summary of the book’s aims and scope. It should set out clearly what the book will be about, its principal arguments, and specify why the publisher should want to publish the book (e.g. it will fill a significant gap in the market, or it will significantly advance the field). You should state whether your book will be a research monograph, supplementary reading, a core textbook, or a book for general readers.
Contents
Here, you expand the brief synopsis to provide a more detailed outline of the book's contents, detailing the anticipated structure of the book and summarising the content of each chapter into a short paragraph. If the book is an edited collection, you should state who will be writing each chapter giving their institutional affiliation and a short biography.
Format and style
In this section you detail how you envisage the formatting of the book: whether there will be any plates, diagrams and tables and, if so, how many; whether there will need to be unusual features such as colour plates or fold-outs. You will also need to state the anticipated 'level' of the text: will it be written for a non-specialist audience; an undergraduate audience, if so, for what year; a postgraduate audience; or for experts. Finally, you need to estimate approximately the length of the finished manuscript. Most publishers anticipate texts between 75,000 and 100,000 words unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Readership and Market
Here, you need to detail who you believe the intended reader is and the extent of the book's market. Here, you should be careful to think about whether the book will have utility to readers in other disciplines and to what extent the book might appeal to an international audience. If the book is intended as a course companion you should detail the types of courses the book might be used on as both a core and supplemental text. While you want to try and sell your book to the publisher, you should be careful not to overstate your case. Commissioning editors have a good idea as to the likely audience of a proposed book. As one commissioning editor puts it:
'If the author has written a very clever book on the connection between cyborg culture, Lefebvrean space and the spatiality of coffee consumption they should look at their own proposal honestly and not suggest that the book would be ideal for Geography 101 students.'
Competition
Most books are not the first in their field. In this section you should detail the other books about the same topic, highlighting how yours will differ in emphasis, style and quality.
Timetable
Here you should state when you think is a realistic date for delivery of the completed manuscript. You should be careful to give yourself enough time to complete the task.
About the authors
This section should provide a brief synopsis of your career and detail your key publications (including any previous books or editorial experience). It should not be your complete CV - if the publisher is interested they will ask for this document separately.
Length
In general a book proposal should be no more than 8-10 pages. It is should be long enough to sell effectively your idea and short enough to read and digest quickly. An overly long or badly written or structured proposal will look unprofessional and will lead to rejection.
Example Proposals
Hubbard, P., Kitchin, R., Bartley, B. and Fuller, D. (2002) Thinking Geographically. Continuum Press, London and New York. Kitchin, R. and Kneale, J. (Eds) (2002) Lost in Space: Geographies of Science Fiction. Continuum Press, London and New York.
It is important to remember that the proposal will need to be tailored for the type of publisher you envisage publishing your text.
The first step in choosing a publisher is to study the list of books presently published by different presses. This will give you an initial idea as to whether a publisher might be interested in a book on your chosen topic. There are three types of press, each of which tends to specialise in particular kinds of books.
Commercial academic presses
Commercial academic presses tend to specialise in publishing textbooks and to a lesser extent monographs and edited collections. In regards to monographs, they tend to publish texts that they think will have wide appeal or are by writers with established reputations and audience. Again with edited collections, they will only commission the book if they think it will have wide commercial appeal. Often monographs and edited collections are chaneled through book series.
University presses
The university presses have a different brief to the commercial publishers. They tend to concentrate on high-quality monographs and edited collections with intrinsic academic worth (rather than commercial potential). That said, a university press will not commission a book if it has no commercial viability (remember university presses need to be profitable to be sustainable).
Popular presses
Popular presses are aimed at a general, lay readership. As a result they are not interested in academic work unless it is written specifically for a non-specialist audience (e.g. popular science).
N.B. It is important to note that commercial and popular presses are generally not interested in publishing a PhD thesis. Further, university presses are usually only interested if the thesis is exceptional and makes a significant contribution to a field. Even then the text will probably require substantial revisions in order to make it of interest to a sufficiently large audience that it has commercial viability.
Once you have drafted a proposal and chosen a suitable publisher you need to submit the proposal to either a book series editor or a commissioning editor. A book series editor is usually an academic who has been commissioned by a publisher to create a series of books on a related topic. If the book series editor is interested in your book they will approach their commissioning editor. A commissioning editor is someone who evaluates proposals and manages the list of titles published by a press.
The commissioning editor will read your proposal carefully and make an initial judgement on the proposal's potential based upon their own experience and knowledge of the types of books their company publishes. If they feel your proposal is weak or more suited to another publisher they will inform you of their decision. If they are interested in the proposal they will send it out to a panel of usually two or three experts to ask their opinion as to the merits of the book envisaged. The panel is usually asked to judge the proposal on its academic and commercial merits (whether there might be a market) and to comment on whether you as an author have the ability to write the text proposed. This process usually takes a couple of months, but may take longer if the publisher has difficulty finding suitable reviewers willing to undertake the task.
If the panel's reviews are positive, the commissioning editor will compute the estimated production costs and potential revenue, and along with your proposal and the reviewer's comments, present this package to an editorial board. This board usually consists of a senior editor, subject editors, marketing and sales managers. On the basis of the evidence presented to them they will either approve or reject the proposal. Sometimes they might approve the proposal subject to revisions in foci, content or style.
Once the editorial board has approved the proposal, the publisher will issue you with a standard contract.
Any contract issued by a publisher should be read very carefully so that you are aware of the exact terms and conditions to which you are agreeing. The contract usually consists of several parts detailing both the publisher's and your obligations and the penalties for non-compliance. These include:
Grants: the rights the contract grants to the publisher
Publisher's warranty: what the publisher agrees to comply with
Author's warranty: what the author agrees to comply with
Copyright: who retains copyright of the published work
Moral rights: protects your right to be identified as the author of the text
Permissions: who pays for permission to reproduce copyrighted material
Delivery and condition of manuscript: the terms under which you will deliver the manuscript
Royalties: the percentage of the net sale price you will receive for each book sold
Subsidiary rights: what you will receive if the book is translated or reproduced in another format
Statements and payments: details when the publisher will provide you with statements and royalty payments
Tax: how the publisher will deal with the tax relating to monies earnt by the author
Author's copies: how many free copies of the book you are entitled to, plus any author discount on purchasing further copies
New editions: details the obligations to with regard to updating and revising the text
Option: a clause that means that you will have to give first refusal of your next book to the publisher
Termination: The terms under which the contract can be terminated
Infringement action: what the publisher will do if your rights as an author are infringed by a third party
Notices: the means by which official communication between publisher and author must be undertaken
Arbitration: the process by which a disagreement between author and publisher will be arbitrated
Legal jurisdiction: the jurisdiction under which the contract is valid and can be contested
In terms of royalties, rates vary slightly between publishers but are generally between 7.5 and 12 percent of the net income for an authored text and between 3 and 7.5 percent for an edited collection. The rate might rise after a certain number of copies have been sold. Sometimes there is a difference in the rate between paperback and hardbook editions. You should note that royalties are calculated on net receipts rather than sale price. So 10 percent net receipts means 10 percent after the bookseller has taken their slice (about 35-40% in the UK and 38-45% outside). Also, you should note that even if a contract specifies paperback royalties this does not mean a paperback will be published. You should ask the editor directly if a paperback version will be published.
While experienced (and successful) authors often have latitude to negotiate the terms of their contract - for example asking for an advance - it is fair to say that this will be more difficult for first time authors. That said, if there is any clause you are unhappy with or want to query you should contact the commissioning editor.
If you remain dissatisfied with the contract you are under no obligation to sign. One option here might be to withdraw the proposal and approach another publisher. If you do this though, it is unlikely that the first publisher will entertain publishing the book if you are unsuccessful finding a new publisher.
Once the contract has been signed you need to actually write the book! Remember, if you want to use pictures or tables from other texts you will need to secure copyright permission.
Once the book has been written and delivered, you will be assigned a desk editor. The desk editor is responsible for taking your manuscript through the production process. This generally consists of two phases: copy-editing and proofing (see dealing with copyedits and proofs). The proofing is the same as with a journal article, except it involves another task - creating an index. This can be a demanding task and many publishers will employ a professional indexer to do the compiling (you will be charged for this service from your royalties). If you wish to do the index yourself, the publisher will issue you with full guidelines. In addition, you will be asked to complete an author and book questionnaire to help the publisher market and sell your book. Here, you will be expected to detail the books strengths, identify journals that might wish to review the book, and recommend potential places to advertise the book's publication.
The book cover is usually designed by either an in-house designer or a commissioned designer. You are entitled to make suggestions. If you want to use a particular picture you might need to secure copyright permission. The publisher covers the cost of producing the cover and they might veto your idea if it is too expensive. Always ask to see the draft cover when it is being designed to check that you like it and that all the details are correct. Some publishers do not do this automatically and many authors first see the cover when they get bound copies.
Remember, as a contracted author you have rights. If you are not happy with the production process you should talk to either the commissioning editor or the desk editor.
From delivery until the book hits the bookshop shelves is usually around 40 weeks.
A report is usually aimed at a wider audience than a journal article. You should pitch the level and style dependent on the intended audience. If that audience is largely non-academic, then the writing needs to prepared for a lay reader. See writing tips for general guidance on the preparation of manuscripts.
A working paper is document that details initial ideas about a topic or findings from a study. Writing a working paper allows the authors to publish material quickly, by-passing the time it might take for the work to pass through the reviewing and publication process of a journal. As such, working papers are often not subject to the usual refereeing process. They are usually published as part of a series, most often sponsored by a professional organisation or a research institute or centre. In most cases the paper is generally a draft of an article intended for submission to a journal. See writing tips for general guidance on the preparation of manuscripts.
If you feel that your work has particular salience or want to reach a wider audience then one you might want to consider publicising your research through the media.
Newspapers
Newspapers are generally only interested in publishing 'news-worthy' stories, something that the editor thinks will interest the general public. If you want to try and attract newspaper coverage the first step is to prepare a press release. If your university has media relations staff they will be able to help with drafting a release and suggesting potential journalists.
Preparing a press release
- Press releases should be word processed and double-spaced. They should be concise - no more than two pages.
- The story should be written for a reading age of 12-14 years old
- Make sure that the date of release is stated clearly at the top, along with full contact details.
- Next type in capital letters a working title. This title should provide the essence of the story.
- Start by asking yourself a question: 'How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?'
- The first paragraph of your press release should contain all the salient elements of your story. It must contain the hook - this paragraph will decide if the editor reads on. Use the basics of journalism: who, what, when, where, why, how. If possible use a common question (e.g. Have you ever wondered ...) or an anecdote (e.g. Joe Bloggs was often ...).
- The body of the text should be written with the most important information and quotes first.
- At the end of the release, sum up the essence of your argument or findings and indicate from whom further information is available.
- If you want to enclose photographs, figures or tables, do so using a paper clip (not using staples or tape). They must be of sufficient quality to reproduce.
- Target the papers most likely to be interested in your story. Generally, national press will not be interested in local news.
- Make sure you know the story deadline of weekly and daily newspapers so that you can ensure that your news will arrive in time for publication.
For links to over 17,000 newspapers and news sources see abyznewslinks
If a newspaper contacts you about a possible story based on your work, you need to think carefully how to proceed. If their intended story is a critique of your research, it is usually best to try and co-operate in some way - especially if they are going to run the story regardless. If your university has media relations staff contact them for help. If the press ring you up cold, it is useful to ask what it is they are interested in, say that you are busy, but that you will ring them back in twenty minutes. This gives you time to collect your thoughts and to think about what you want to say. One way to try and control what is written is to offer to draft a piece yourself. Journalists will often take up this offer as they are short of time and trying to meet deadlines.
Magazines
Magazines are more open to offers of features. Like newspapers, they have to fill issues on a regular basis and if they think your work is topical they will gladly except a piece for publication. You should contact the editor prior to drafting a submission to see if they are interested. Make sure you confirm length and if they require images or other illustrative material. Remember, a magazine article is very different in style to an academic paper. It needs to catch a reader's attention quickly, state the main arguments or findings clearly and early in the article. Also, you need to pitch the article at the right level for the audience (e.g. is the magazine specialist or generalist in nature). Some magazines will pay for contributions.
 Seven articles from start
to end |
Good
practice in presenting papers |
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| Site maintained by Rob Kitchin and Duncan Fuller |
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Copyright (c) 2003 |
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| Last updated: January 2003 | |||
