Sarah Morris faces a problem: After working for decades with one publishing company, she’s reassigned to work with lesser responsibilities. Instead of editing books, she’s merely tagging them – boring, repetitive work. Unfortunately, this reassignment corresponds to a weakening of the country’s economy and of the wider publishing industry. She has no way to go; she’s trapped. Her friends with whom she has labored in the trenches for years are now losing their jobs. Most…
For any scientist, communication is a central part of the game. Yet most scientists did not major in English, nor did they receive great educational training about the field. Usually, they were focusing on their science. To compound matters, most graduate programs not at top research centers provide sparse resources to educate researchers. To supplement such a linguistic shortcoming, this book, laudably in its ninth edition, seeks to introduce the field to the scientific community.…
This book’s intended audience encompasses graduate students who are first learning to write and publish papers. It starts with the scenario in which a graduate student wrote a work for a class and needs to revise it for publication in an academic journal. It walks through a twelve-week process to spruce it up for publication. Its approach leans heavily towards the humanities and social sciences, but it attempts to address those of us in the…
In the social sciences and the humanities, publishing scholarly books is the name of the game for career advancement. Yes, teaching within an academic setting is crucial, but traction for tenure in these fields mainly comes through the pen. Most academics master how to please their advisors, peers, and mentors; few take the step of mastering the industry of publishing. William Germano’s book, laudably in its third edition from the University of Chicago Press, fills…
Since the advent of Amazon and self-publishing via the Kindle, the business of writing has become much more complex. Many can put their own book out to the public directly through self-publishing, but professional editors can still prove their worth through focused skills. Though not wonder-workers, editors can bring a text from good to very good or from very good to great. Peter Ginna’s anthology highlights precisely these skillsets through dozens of guest writers who…