Happy Saturday, Manuscript Workers. Just popping in with two brief announcements.

First, the next cycle of Princeton University Press’s Book Proposal Development Grants opens on Monday (August 2nd). This time around, PUP is seeking applications from BIPOC scholars in economics, sociology, politics & international relations, anthropology, and urban studies. You don’t need to be trained or based in these specific fields but your book project should be a good fit for PUP’s lists in these fields, i.e. appeal to readers who are interested in these areas.

When you apply, you can request to work with one of the partnering book coaches, one of whom is me! Authors who end up selected for a grant by PUP and paired with me will get free enrollment and a reserved spot in my next Book Proposal Accelerator (running in January). PUP editors will then consider your completed proposal and have right of first refusal to publish your book.

Check out the Book Proposal Development Grants program here. The application form will go live on August 2. Any questions about the program should be directed to PUP director Christie Henry, whose email is linked on the application page. (If you have questions about the Book Proposal Accelerator, feel free to send those my way.)

Second, I’ll be selecting recipients for my book promo giveaways on Monday, so you have until the end of the weekend to get your in-situ posts of The Book Proposal Book up on Twitter and Instagram. I’ve been touched by all the great posts so far — I will go look at this whole thread next time I need some pepping up. (If you’ve posted but don’t see your tweet in the thread, please DM or tag me so I can see your post and add it!)

On Monday, I’ll be randomly selecting 6 posters for 6 “prizes”:

• Free registration for my Outstanding Academic Book Proposals workshop happening on August 20, 2021.

• Free registration for my Set Up for Publishing Success workshop happening on September 24, 2021.

• Free enrollment in my self-paced Book Proposal Shortcut for Busy Scholars online program which will be launching in late August.

• Free enrollment and a reserved spot in my Book Proposal Accelerator running January–February 2022. (The June–July 2021 session filled up 40 minutes after enrollment opened, so the reserved spot is a good get.)

• A private one hour Q&A session with me for you and up to 5 of your friends. You can ask me anything you want to know about book proposals, book publishing, developmental editing, knitting, what it’s like behind the scenes at Jeopardy!—whatever you want. (The only limitation is that the session will have to take place on a weekday between 9am and 4pm Pacific US time.)

• A bespoke knitted object to coordinate with your favorite book cover. It can be your own book or any other book cover you pick. I get to decide the object and pattern, but I’ll do my best to match your colors and make the object something fun. If you pick this prize, you just need to be able to receive the object at a US mailing address and let me know what cover you pick by the end of 2021.

Your post has to include a photo of your physical copy of the book or a screenshot if you bought an ebook or audiobook edition. (If you haven’t received your book yet, don’t worry, I’ll try to do another round of giveaways later in the year.) Be sure to tag me @lportwoodstacer on Twitter and @manuscriptworks on Instagram so I can see and bookmark your post before the drawing.

That’s it for me right now. I’ll just be going back to worrying about the Delta variant. Stay safe out there, and I’ll see you later in the week for a Q&A about what to do when a publisher approaches you and says they want to see a revision of your dissertation ASAP!