Dropping the ball

What to do when you've lost touch with a publisher and want to pick up the conversation again

Hello Manuscript Workers,

Can I tell you one of my favorite parts of my job? It’s doing live Q&As with prospective authors.

Years ago, the idea of a live Q&A about scholarly book publishing made me a little nervous — what if everyone asks me questions I don’t know how to answer? Well, after eight years of fielding author questions, I’ve learned that the same questions tend to come up again and again. I now relish being able to quickly offer someone reassurance or give them straightforward tips on how to handle a situation they’ve been privately stressing out about for months or years.

I also value Q&As because they help me keep my finger on the pulse of author concerns. Having served thousands of scholarly authors in my online programs and workshops, I get to see which issues are causing anxiety right now as well as which ones seem to be perennial sources of worry. I can then keep my ear out for answers about how things are working in scholarly publishing these days and pass that knowledge on to my authors.

In today’s newsletter I want to address one of those issues that has come up frequently in the past few years, which is what to do when you had a good connection with a publisher who seemed interested in your book, but you let the conversation drop due to various urgent matters that pulled your attention away from your book project.

For a lot of people, Covid threw a huge wrench in their publishing plans in 2020 (and 2021, 2022, and 2023…). Even without an ongoing pandemic, many prospective authors find themselves turning their attention to care obligations, or needing to push out journal articles for promotion, or organizing around labor issues at their university, or any number of other things that could come up that aren’t “working on your book.”

While I can’t guarantee that every publishing opportunity that was on the table before you got pulled away from your book will still be on the table, I can hopefully offer reassurance that you’re not alone (by a long shot) and that publishers are very accustomed to long timelines when it comes to scholarly books.

If you’ve found yourself in a situation like this — say you had a great meeting with an acquiring editor a couple years ago and planned to send them a proposal within a few months but then life happened and you didn’t send it — please check out my blog post, Following Up With Publishers in the Covid Era.

In the post, I also address what to do if it’s the publisher who seems to have dropped the ball. Maybe you sent an editor something and didn’t get a response back. Or the publisher said they would do something with your submission and now it’s been six months and you have no idea if they did it because they’ve stopped communicating with you. These are very frustrating scenarios, but hopefully the blog post helps you figure out what you should be doing on your end (which is all you really have control over).

Read this blog post on Following Up with Publishers in the Covid Era if you need some tips on picking up the conversation again

I also have a post on what to do if you think you’ve missed a deadline with a publisher. In it I talk about which “deadlines” are really more like vague suggestions and which are more serious and important to abide by.

Running late? Read this blog post on What Happens if You Miss a Publishing Deadline

If you have questions related to scholarly book publishing that aren’t answered in these posts, or you have a super specific situation that you’d like some outside perspective on, I encourage you to join me for one of my upcoming Q&As.

I will be hosting five live Q&As with aspiring authors next week as part of my Book Proposal Sprint. The Sprint is a week of online coworking and conversation happening every day from Monday, August 21st to Friday, August 25th. You’re welcome to join every day or to just come on the days that work for you.

The Book proposal Sprint is for people who have a book idea but haven’t started writing a proposal yet because they feel lost or stuck or intimidated by the publishing process. It’s also for people who have been sitting on a proposal draft but have been putting off sending it out because they’re not sure if it’s in good enough shape yet or they don’t know how to reach out to editors.

When you sign up for the Sprint, you get immediate access to my structured online course that shows you how to write a stellar book proposal that will stand out in the eyes of scholarly publishers. Then during the Sprint itself, you’ll be able to meet other scholars who are at the same stage as you and ask me direct questions about your publishing plan.

I’m not currently available for individual editing or consulting, so the Sprint is your opportunity to talk to me directly about your project and the steps you should be taking to get your book published. I’ve worked with hundreds of scholarly authors to write and pitch their book proposals, which means I can offer practical perspective on most publishing situations that come up. If that sounds helpful to you right now, I’d love to have you on board.

You can find out more information about the Book Proposal Sprint here, including dates and times, cost, and everything that comes with the program.

I offer a discount for those enrolling without institutional funding, and I will be donating 20% of all sales this month to the mutual aid fund of Unite Here Local 11, the union of hotel workers that is currently on strike (and has asked the American Political Science Association to cancel their conference in Los Angeles later this month).

If you can’t make it to the Sprint next week, you can still sign up for the Book Proposal Shortcut course. You’ll have indefinite access to the course materials and can post your questions in the online platform at any time. You’ll also get to see the recordings of all past Q&As I’ve held for program participants (including the ones happening next week during the Sprint).

Questions about the Book Proposal Sprint or any of my other programs? Shoot me an email any time.

And can I ask a quick favor while you’re here? If you have a colleague, mentee, or friend who has been stressing out about their book proposal or approaching publishers, will you please tell them about this newsletter and the resources I offer? My mission is to demystify scholarly publishing for as many aspiring authors as possible and your word-of-mouth is always greatly appreciated.

Hope you have a great week!