Handbook for Academic Authors: How to Navigate the Publishing Process

Whether you are a faculty member, a librarian, an independent scholar, the junior member of a research team, or a writer outside academia, Handbook for Academic Authors will help you select the right publisher, submit a winning proposal, negotiate a favorable contract, and work with your editor to ensure your research reaches the largest possible audience. The book provides advice on writing for different audiences and managing the mechanics of authorship, including manuscript preparation, acquiring illustrations, proofreading, and indexing. To address the major changes in scholarly publishing over the last decade, the sixth edition has been revised and updated to include discussions about open access and digital publishing, the use of social media as a marketing tool, changes within academia, and concerns of new entrants into academia. Written in a personalized, accessible style, Handbook for Academic Authors offers sound advice and encouragement to a wide range of aspiring academic authors.

Table of Contents:
1. Being an Author; 2. Journal articles; 3. Revising a dissertation; 4. Finding a publisher for a scholarly book; 5. Working with your publisher; 6. Multiauthor books and anthologies; 7. Finding a publisher for a college textbook; 8. Working with your textbook publisher; 9. Books for general readers; 10. The mechanics of authorship; 11. Costs and prices; 12. Being a digital Author; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Beth Luey is the founding director emerita of the Scholarly Publishing Program at Arizona State University. She has more than thirty years' experience working in scholarly editing and publishing, having edited books for many university presses and textbook publishers and conducted publishing workshops for doctoral students and faculty members across numerous college campuses. In addition to Handbook for Academic Authors, now in its sixth edition, Luey is the author of Expanding the American Mind: Books and the Popularization of Knowledge and Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors.

Review :
'To new and experienced authors, publishing can seem mysterious. In this classic handbook, Beth Luey is your tour guide to the sometimes-arcane world of how ideas become books. It is essential for all serious authors and those who hope to become one.' Greg Britton, Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University 'Any book that achieves a sixth edition merits mention, but the publication of the sixth edition of Beth Luey's Handbook for Academic Authors calls for celebration. As fresh in perspective as it is sound and sensible in prescription, Luey's book will serve as an invaluable guide for the upcoming generation of scholars and beyond.' Peter J. Dougherty, Editor at Large, Princeton University Press 'This new edition of Handbook is for Academic Authors is simultaneously encouraging and practical. Luey is upbeat while honest about the conditions academic writers face in an imperfect publishing world. She provides experience-informed advice and a set of constructive tools that make it possible, even pleasurable, for a broad academic audience to successfully advance a manuscript from inspiration to publication.' Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Center for Teaching and Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst 'The Handbook for Academic Authors is a comprehensive resource that expertly guides writers through all aspects of the publishing process. Substantial updates in this new edition lay out current publishing practices and processes for journal articles, monographs, textbooks, and more. Candid, informative, and encouraging, Beth Luey offers insights that authors at any stage of their writing career will appreciate.' Dawn Durante, Editor-in-Chief of the University of Texas Press 'Beth Luey's Handbook for Academic Authors is the most comprehensive resource on scholarly publishing available. Academics of all levels—and those who mentor them—will want to keep a copy close at hand. I'll be widely recommending this edition to prospective authors, particularly its practical discussions of publisher types, contracts, subventions, textbooks and edited volumes, manuscript preparation, and digital publication. Nowhere else is this information presented so cohesively and concisely.' Laura Portwood-Stacer, Publishing Consultant and Editor for Academic Authors, Manuscript Works 'This readable, up-to-date book will be of value to those beginning academic careers and those interested in publishing for an academic audience … Recommended.' D. E. Williams, Choice '… an excellent resource, continuing to be an ideal vehicle to showcase Luey's knowledge of academic writing.' Jocelyn Hargrave, Publishing Research Quarterly