A slew of April events
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Hi Manuscript Workers,
Today’s newsletter is a straightforward one to let you know about some upcoming (free) events that may interest you if you’re a scholarly author or editor. These are all happening in April, except the last one which is happening today. Read to the end for that one.
April 3: Academic Editing Book Club
A week from Monday, I’ll be a guest of the Academic Editing Book Club, hosted by the Editorial Freelancers Association and Editors Canada. I’ll be discussing The Book Proposal Book in conversation with author and editor Jana Riess.
This event is geared toward editors who work with academic authors—if that’s you, you can register here. If you’re not an editor but an author, please keep reading as the rest of the events listed are for you!
April 12: How to Publish Your First Scholarly Book
There’s so much about the book publishing process that authors can’t control.
My aim is to help academic writers understand what they *can* make choices about to increase their chances of a smooth publication process.
Here are some things you get a say in as a scholarly author:
Which publishers you approach and how many
When and how you approach them
How you communicate with your editor about peer review and other aspects of the process
But most authors have never been taught the ins and outs of these processes.
My free webinar on April 12, How to Publish Your First Scholarly Book, will demystify scholarly book publishing so that you’ll understand what the expectations are and won’t waste time guessing.
You’ve spent years on your research, and you deserve to feel some agency over your own publishing process!
This webinar isn’t just for first-time authors (despite the title). If you’ve already published a scholarly book, you probably know how much about the process still feels like a mystery. So please join if you’d like to feel more in control next time around.
I regularly give this webinar privately to institutions. But I know that not everyone works at a well-resourced institution that can pay for professional development workshops. So I try to make it available once a year to anyone, for free. This is that time.
A recording and supporting handouts will be provided to everyone who registers in advance.
You’ll be able to download them and keep them forever as long as you’re registered by April 12.
FYI: You must enter a first and last name to complete registration.
April 24–28: Find the Perfect-Fit Publisher for Your Scholarly Book
This free 5-day challenge will build on the above webinar to guide participants step by step through researching publishers and deciding which ones will be most promising to submit to. The purpose is to increase your chances of acceptance by helping you pick the right presses and understand how to show a press—convincingly—that your book would be at home in their next catalog. I’ll say more about this one in a couple weeks but you can go ahead and sign up here if you like. Over 800 authors have been through this challenge before and their success stories are heartwarming!
Today (March 22): WriteSPACE Skills for Scholars special event
Helen Sword (writing coach and author of Stylish Academic Writing and the new book Writing with Pleasure) is hosting a free event today to introduce writers to Princeton University Press’s Skills for Scholars series.
You’ll hear from me, Betty Lai (author of The Grant Writing Guide and Manuscript Works Book Proposal Accelerator alum!), Martha Coven (author of Writing on the Job), and commissioning editor for the series Matt Rohal.
Get more info about the event and register here.
If you know someone who would benefit from any of these events, please do forward this newsletter along.
In next week’s newsletter I will hopefully have some exciting news to share (fingers crossed). See you then and have a great week in the meantime!