Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Writers and publishers depend on one another, but it often seems as if they speak two different languages. Getting It Published is a lively, insider's guide to academic publishing - a book that will tell you not only how publishing works, but how you can make it work for you. Written by a veteran editor with experience in both the university press and commercial worlds, the book fields the big questions in a scholar's life. Why do editors choose some books and decline others? How does a writer decide where to submit a project? How does the review process work, and why is it necessary? What can an author expect from a publishing house - before, during, and after publication? William Germano answers these questions and more, and along the way, offers encouragement, tips, and warnings."--BOOK JACKET.
SYNOPSIS
Writers and publishers depend on one another, but it often seems as if they speak two different languages. Getting It Published is a lively, insider's guide to academic publishing—a book that will tell you not only how publishing works, but how you can make it work for you. Written by a veteran editor with experience in both the university press and commercial worlds, the book fields the big questions in a scholar's life. Why do editors choose some books and decline others? How does a writer decide where to submit a project? How does the review process work, and why is it necessary? What can an author expect from a publishing house—before, during, and after publication? William German answers these questions and more, and along the way, offers encouragement, tips, and warnings.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Addressing scholars seeking to publish nonfiction, former humanities editor Germano (VP, Routledge) assumes no knowledge on the part of his audience beyond their academic specialties. Suggesting that authors keep publishing procedures in mind while writing, he includes tips on editing, getting permissions for anthologies, and delivering the manuscript. Intended as ready reference (an index is promised), the book is brief enough to skim, which might prove fruitful in other ways. Unfortunately, the book lacks an appendix listing current university presses. Compared with the many overly long how-to-get-published guides for aspiring novelists, this is a concise and readable text with minimal fluff. Strongly recommended for academic and public libraries. Robert Moore, ITWorld.com, Southboro, MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Germano's short volume is filled with useful advice drawn from a career as editor at an academic press (formerly editor-in-chief and humanities editor at Columbia UP, he's now vice president and publishing director at Routledge) and written in an admirably direct style that preserves a personal tone that will appeal to the recent PhD's and new authors who will be his best audience. The gamut of publishing is covered, from basics on publishers and their duties, to the details of writing, editing, and presenting a proposal; surviving the review process; the details of contracts; writing for collections and anthologies; and how to present the finished manuscript. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Catharine R. Stimpson
Bill Germano is a legendary editor. His manual for serious writers is a marvel witty, lucid, and really useful. I have spent years around university publishing and still learned from it. May I predict that it, too, will become a legend. — (Catherine R. Stimpson, New York University)
This witty and indispensable book provides tag-lines pieces of advice everyone will remember—a scholarly book for anybody is a scholarly book for nobody; if it doesn't work in the first fifty pages, it's out—and a huge fund of information every would-be author will need. The chapters on 'What a Contract Means' and 'How to Deliver a Manuscript' will take you by the hand and lead you to where you want to go; but the book never loses sight of why you might want to go there and is itself a celebration of academic publishing even as it equips you to negotiate its minefields. — (Stanley Fish, University of Illinois at Chicago)
Finally, a superb book on scholarly publishing that provides all the essential information for serious critics, young and old! I can think of no other editor in publishing better suited to provide sound and honest advice about all aspects of preparing and producing an academic book than Bill Germano. I am convinced that Getting It Published will become the standard handbook for all young scholars interested in publishing their first book, and it will also give new insights to those critics who have already had contact with the publishing world. — (Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota)
ACCREDITATION
William Germano is vice president and publishing director at Routledge. He has been editor in chief at Columbia University Press, where he also served as humanities editor.
Home
