I've just received a publishing agreement for my book. This is all happening unexpectedly fast. I'm very happy, people!
I can't believe I might have a book of my own soon. It will have a color picture of me on the back cover (which is extremely important.)
Yay!
11 comments:
Congratulations!
V.
Congratulations.
Takes work and luck to get published. And now the real work begins. But it's surely something you're looking forward to doing. Anyway, Congratulations again.
Thanks, guys!!!
I'm so happy for you!
You showed them spousal hires!
Unbelievably fast! You are so awesome! Which publishing house? This is also important.
Thank you, my friends!
Now, however, my former thesis advisor is saying I should publish in a different publishing house and reject this contract. :-( This is sad. I so wanted to be done with the Bildungsroman, at least for a while.
"Which publishing house? This is also important."
-Why would you say it's important? I never thought of it this way, that's why I ask.
In the extent that you want to disseminate your ideas as an intellectual, choosing your publishing house is important. Not all universities have the outstanding ressources of an Ivy league. My guess is that many smaller universities/colleges buy books from, say, U of California P more likely than from Flin Flon UP. You want to reach as many people as possible and it that sense you may want to consider your choice of publishing house as an important matter.
You may argue that people who are interested in your topic will reach you anyways, that they will request your book of buy it on Amazon. True, but only to some extent. As an undergraduate, I discovered many books for myself looking on the shelves of my not-so-prestigious university. My alma mater library had many books from Uof California P, not much from Flin Flon UP. Maybe I missed crucial ideas that were published with Flin Flon UP then? I may be a tad exagerating, but I think about unreachable books all the time.
And how about professional book reviews? My master advisor published her thesis in an obscure university press, and no one cared about her book.
For me, it boils down to the following: a scholar knows when his or her thesis is actually an important contribution. If it is, I would go from U of Cal. P, if not, then Flin Flon UP is just fine?
As you can see, my reasons for considering the publishing house an important factor has nothing to do with that "what will my tenure committee think" jeremiad. What do you think?
That being said, more important than anything is a good colour picture of my persona on the back cover of my book.
What a great comment!! Thank you so much. I guess my problem is that I no absolutely nothing about different presses and which are disseminated and which aren't. Also, which are getting their books reviewed (as you say, this is crucial).
Why does nobody give us workshops on this subject when we are graduate students??? How is a person supposed to know these things?
I guess it is the same with journals. When we submit an essay for publication, we consider if it is good enough to send to a prestigious journal, right? Or is it my own understanding of how publishing works?
Some workshops could have come handy.
My attitude nowadays is a little different, actually. There is something I submitted to a prestigious journal several months ago and then more recently I sent a shorter piece to a much less prestigious place, simply because it is distributed online and has a wider cirulation. The prestigious journal hasn't answered in 4 months, which is very frustrating. So my goal is to get things out in any way I can, so that they can circulate.
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