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.
What acquiring editors want
Published about 15 hours ago • 6 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Hello Manuscript Workers!
What's in this edition:
What acquiring editor Michelle Chen wants you to know about writing your book proposal
As always, if you have a question or suggestion for a future newsletter, you can reply directly to this message. Thanks for reading!
This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing advisor. 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.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, I want to use this newsletter to connect you with the human side of writing and publishing scholarly books. I believe writing and publishing still are—and still should be—human endeavors that help us develop original and valuable ideas and share them with other people who genuinely care about the same.
To that end, I want to spotlight the stories and perspectives of real people who write and publish scholarly books. This week, I bring you a conversation with acquiring editor Michelle Chen. I've personally admired the relatable (and often humorous) perspective Michelle brings to social media, and I was delighted to find out she's just as charming in person when I met her at the Association of University Presses conference earlier this year.
In our conversation below, I particularly appreciate that Michelle demystifies how acquiring editors use book proposals and which parts of the proposal can cement an editor's interest in working with an author. Read on to learn more!
And if you could use expert support in getting your own book proposal finished and off to publishers this semester, check out my Book Proposal Accelerator which starts on Tuesday!
Laura Portwood-Stacer:Who are you, where do you work, and what kinds of books do you acquire?
Michelle Chen here! I am a Senior Editor at the University Press of Colorado. We are a nonprofit cooperative publishing enterprise supporting four distinct imprints: Utah State University Press, University of Alaska Press, University of Wyoming Press, and of course, our namesake, University Press of Colorado. Yes, it’s kind of confusing. We’re a bit like four presses in one! I commission books across two of these imprints: Utah State and Alaska. My acquisitions focus for Utah State is Composition & Rhetoric and Folklore, whereas for Alaska it is Alaska Native Studies, History, and Polar Studies—though I also acquire a very limited number of fiction and poetry titles per year via the Alaska Literary Series. I am mostly interested in publishing scholarly monographs, edited collections, and academic-trade crossover titles, but I welcome submissions across all formats (textbooks, reference, practitioner, etc.). If you think you have a good idea that makes sense for the press, let’s have a conversation!
Previously I’ve worked in the fields of politics, music, and media studies at Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, and Bloomsbury Academic.
LPS: What’s your top green flag when you are contacted by a prospective author that tells you “I could definitely be interested in working with this person?”
Michelle Chen: I immediately take a well-formatted, well-organized, and well-copyedited proposal more seriously. On the flip side, proposals that come across as slap-dash (full of typos, no clear headers or subheaders, zero references, extremely cursory chapter descriptions) give me pause. You may think that your manuscript speaks for itself, but a good book proposal showcases your ability to articulate why your manuscript matters, and if you don’t take that seriously, editors are going to wonder if you are able to do this well in the book itself. Remember that your book proposal is also a writing sample, so put your best foot forward.
I’m also impressed by authors who take the marketing section of the proposal seriously. That means meaningfully situating their book within existing published discourse in the field and displaying a nuanced understanding of intended readership and audience, two considerations that are crucial to the success of a scholarly book. Nothing irks me more than a proposal that says something like “there are no competing/complementary books because my book is the first of its kind” or that “my book is for all readers.” In my experience, authors who can define a specific audience for their book and who have a realistic perspective on where their work fits into the broader literature tend to have stronger, more focused manuscripts because they know exactly who they are writing for, and why. I know it’s tempting to skip or skimp on this section, but don’t do it! It’s there for a reason.
[Note from Laura: If you have no idea how to write compelling marketing info for your book proposal—understandable if no one ever taught you this—my Book Proposal Accelerator explains exactly how to do it in a way that academic publishers will love]
LPS: What’s your superpower as an editor?
Michelle Chen: I’d like to think I’m a very author-centric editor, in that I take author preferences very seriously. While I do stand by my editorial opinions and will side with peer reviewers if I think they make important critiques, I also believe very strongly in authorial autonomy. In fact, I will respect you more if you stand up for your decisions. A common misconception is that you have to do everything your editor or the peer reviewers tell you to do, and that’s simply not true. At the end of the day, it needs to remain your book and your voice. The purpose of feedback is to make the manuscript better through collaborative back and forth. I enjoy working with authors who are open to suggestions but will also challenge me/the peer reviewers if they feel passionately about something. In cases where an author has meaningfully addressed feedback in a non-defensive way and made a strong case for keeping something as is, I’ll likely respect the author’s choice. Ultimately, I believe the job of an editor is to help you improve your book, not rewrite it.
LPS: If you were meeting with an author at a conference and not talking shop, what would you love to chat with someone about human-to-human?
Michelle Chen: It’s funny because my educational background is in Dead White Men (aka Transatlantic High Modernism), which is not at all what I work on now, but I’ll admit that I’m always down to have a conversation about T. S. Eliot, or twentieth century poetry in general. I also studied Latin for many years and have a special place in my heart for the Aeneid (seriously, Homer gets a lot of play, but we don’t talk about Virgil enough). Ask me nicely over drinks and I’ll recite some choice portions to you. One of my favorite parts is when the priest Laocoön very reasonably points out that this whole wooden horse thing seems extremely shady, and then proceeds to be devoured by sea serpents—which is, again, extremely shady, since Poseidon is very clearly on the side of the Greeks? But no, the Trojans go ahead and take the horse into the city anyway. There’s also a very cool thing that happens with the dactylic hexameter in this section of the poem. Yes, I am a Latin nerd.
LPS: Is there any other advice you’d like to leave authors with?
Michelle Chen: My biggest piece of advice to authors is to ask questions through every step of the publishing process. The more you know about what decisions your publisher is making and why, the better. Do you feel like you should be getting more in royalties? Ask your publisher to give you a breakdown of the book budget so you can better understand how they came up with the number they’re offering you. Were you hoping for more journals to review your book? Ask exactly how the review process works at your press and what you can do to help. Don’t suffer in silence. I find that authors who are publishing savvy tend to have better relationships with their publishers. Not only are they better equipped to advocate for themselves, but they also have more realistic expectations and are less likely to be disappointed in the publishing process. Remember: a publisher wants your book to succeed just as much as you do. Open and honest communication gets us all on the same page.
LPS: If an author wants to reach out about a book project they’re working on, how should they contact you?
Michelle Chen: Email me! You don’t need an introduction; I’m not that fancy of an editor. I always enjoy hearing about what folks are working on. I can be reached at michelle@upcolorado.com or, if you’re feeling sassy, DM me on Bluesky @michellechn.bsky.social
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.