The top question I get asked by publishers
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The top question I get asked by publishers
Hello Manuscript Workers!
I hope August is treating you well so far. I’m currently in the thick of five days of coworking and Q&As with authors who are participating in my Book Proposal Sprint (and it’s not too late to join us if you’d like to hop on for the last three days and get access to all the recordings).
I mentioned last week that a big part of my job is answering author questions, but did you know that I get questions from publishers too? Sometimes they reach out for a vibe check on how authors are feeling about a particular issue (e.g. peer review), and sometimes they write to ask if I have a resource they can pass along to an author at their press who needs more support.
One of the most common questions I get from in-house editors is if I have a resource or template on how authors can write their response to peer reviews, and the answer is yes!
If you aren’t yet aware of how the peer review process works for scholarly books, let me fill you in with some quick nuts and bolts. All scholarly publishers require their books to be peer reviewed before they are approved for publication. Sometimes peer review takes place at the proposal stage, with reviewers providing an assessment of the book proposal and sample chapters. Sometimes it takes place after the entire manuscript has been written. In some cases, peer review happens at both stages.
When the peer reviews come back to the press, the acquiring editor will usually ask the author to write a formal response to the peer reviews. This response then gets taken to decision-makers at the press who use it to judge whether the book will be publishable upon completion. If the peer reviews are critical, the author’s response can go a long way toward reassuring a press’s editorial board that the author will take the criticisms seriously and has a sound plan for revising the manuscript as needed. Even if the peer reviews are largely positive, the author’s response is an opportunity to lay out a plan for finalizing the manuscript in light of expert feedback.
The author’s written response to the peer reviews is often an extremely important component of the package that the acquiring editor will take to their colleagues and to the press’s editorial board. It can make or break the final decision as to whether the book will be put under contract or accepted for publication. For this reason, many acquiring editors want to help their authors be as effective as possible in writing their response. And that’s when they sometimes come to me!
If you already have a copy of The Book Proposal Book, you can find my template for responding to peer reviews in Chapter 13. If you don’t have the book handy and want a quick reference, you can also check out the blog post in my archive.
In the post, I dismantle some of the most common misconceptions about peer review and offer step-by-step guidance on crafting your response letter. It’s fine to deviate from my method as needed, but if you’re having trouble figuring out where to start—or just want to make sure your already-written draft is doing everything it needs to do—check out the post.
If you need a little more help with your response, including emotional support and live coaching, you may also want to look into my colleague Jo VanEvery’s course on Dealing with Reviewer Comments.
I hope you’re finding the Manuscript Works newsletter helpful. I want this to be a place where we unpack the hidden or less-frequently-discussed aspects of scholarly book publishing so that you have the best chance of connecting with publishers and helping your ideas land.
If you’re a scholar with a book coming out this year who has used any of my resources to write your book proposal or your book, or to land a publisher, I would love to promote your book in this newsletter. My posts go out to over 10,000 scholars and publishing professionals each week, and I try to keep the information relevant and useful so open rates remain high.
I will be sharing newly released books at the beginning of each month, so if you have a book coming out in September 2023, reply to this message with a link to your publisher’s webpage and a jpg image of your book cover and I’ll be happy to include it in the newsletter next month. If you have a discount code you’d like to share, feel free to include that too.
If your book already came out this year and you’d like to be included in my full 2023 round-up in a few months, you’re welcome to reach out as well.
See you next week!
Quick reminder: my self-study course on Developmental Editing for Academics now open. You can find out more about it here and get a free preview here.