Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
Friendly reviewers
Published 7 days ago • 4 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Dear Reader,
I have a free workshop coming up next week! It's the next installment of my Publishing Unpacked series, and this one is called Surviving Peer Review. I'll be giving my best tips for getting your scholarly book through the peer review process (mostly) unscathed, drawing on my experience helping hundreds of academics land book contracts with university presses and other scholarly publishers.
In the lead-up to the release of my next book, Make Your Manuscript Work: A Guide to Developmental Editing for Scholarly Writers (coming August 5), I'll be devoting one newsletter a month to sharing reading recommendations with you. In the process of creating a new academic writing guide, I became intimately familiar with most of the existing guides out there. My book will offer something that doesn't exist yet, but it also cites many of those previous books as complementary resources for authors. While we wait for my book to become available, I'd like to point you to some of my favorite resources that you can check out in the meantime.
Today's recommended title is The Scientist's Guide to Writing, by Stephen B. Heard. This book appears in Princeton University Press's Skills for Scholars series (just like my new book and The Book Proposal Book). Although the book is written by a scientist for scientists, I recommend it for all scholarly writers, because it has several good tools and concepts that all writers can benefit from.
One of my favorite chapters in Heard's book is the one where he coins the term "friendly reviewers" to refer to expert readers an author might gather to comment on their work before or after it goes through the formal peer review process. These friendly reviewers have expert knowledge on your subject matter—just like peer reviewers—but they specifically want to support you as the author (whereas peer reviewers' duty is to the publisher, not the author). Heard gives solid tips on identifying friendly reviewers and making the best use of their time and expertise.
I also recommend The Scientist's Guide to Writing to all scholars for its guidance on getting writing done. Heard names “common behavioral challenges” and suggests techniques for “encouraging behavioral self-awareness” that may help you approach writing in a different way (22–29). He also offers tips on getting started with a new text (30–41) and keeping up your momentum (42–55). Later, he describes a series of techniques for generating material for an early draft, such as word stacks, concept maps, and outlines (59–75). Later still, he offers methods for line editing your work before submission (157–201). Again, Heard’s tools are beneficial to all writers, even if you aren’t writing in the sciences.
Coincidentally, Steve Heard served as a friendly reviewer for my new book! We didn't know each other previously, but he has a new book coming out this year too, and his co-author Bethann Garramon Merkle replied to one of my newsletters to tell me they were working on it. I suggested we do a labor exchange and comment on each other's manuscripts, which we ended up doing. Steve's perspective was so valuable to me as I was revising my book, because I didn't have a lot of firsthand experience with scientific journal article publication. He was able to tell me where my advice didn't quite ring true for his field, and I could then reframe my manuscript accordingly. In turn, I was able to bring my developmental editor's eye to his manuscript and make some suggestions about chapter organization and signaling.
I hope you find The Scientist's Guide to Writing useful. Feel free to forward this recommendation on if you know someone who needs it, and keep scrolling for more resources for academic authors!
This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing consultant. I help scholarly writers navigate the book publishing process with more ease and agency.
I hope you'll stick around for practical tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book, but if you'd like to adjust your subscription settings, you can do that at the bottom of this message.
Use my time-tested curriculum to bring structure and motivation to your book writing process. The Book Proposal Shortcut takes the guesswork out of writing an outstanding pitch for university presses and other academic publishers.
Every author who enrolls in the Book Proposal Shortcut also gets complimentary membership in the Manuscript Works Author Support community, a private hub for ongoing support in your scholarly book publishing journey. Inside this community you'll get honest advice about publishers, peer review, offers and contracts, as well as join live Q&A sessions with Laura Portwood-Stacer and your fellow Manuscript Works authors.
If you have a friend, colleague, or student who might enjoy the Manuscript Works Newsletter, could you forward it to them and let them know that they can read back-issues and subscribe at newsletter.manuscriptworks.com? Thank you for reading and sharing!
Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
