Handbook for Academic Authors

by Beth Luey

Are you trying to publish an article or monograph, revise a dissertation, create a new textbook, compile an anthology, or write a trade book? Should you sign the publishing contract you have been offered? Is it wise to publish in an electronic journal? How much can you expect to earn from your writing? What are your legal and ethical responsibilities as an author? What can you expect from your publisher? In the fourth edition of this widely recommended book, Beth Luey offers answers to these questions, as well as practical advice on negotiating a contract, preparing an electronic manuscript, seeking permission to reproduce text or artwork, choosing illustrations, and indexing. She also suggests ways to write clearly not only for one's peers but also for students and general readers. A chapter on the business side of publishing explains costs and pricing for print and electronic products. This edition brings advice to academic authors fully into the age of the Internet and the World Wide Web; both the text and the bibliography have been completely updated and a new chapter evaluates various electronic media for different kinds of publications and suggests ways for the technologically ambitious author to use them to best advantage. Beth Luey teaches and does research on the history of the book, scholarly publishing and current issues in authorship and reading at Arizona State University. She is the author (with Martha Broderson) of A Guide to Book Publisher Archives (Book Industry Study Group, 1996) and The Structure of International Publishing (Transaction Publishers, 1992).

Genres: Writing, Research, Nonfiction

340 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 1987

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This edition of this book is now quite dated (it’s important to note that this is a review of the 4th edition: I can’t speak to later editions), but, sticking to my, “never shelve a book until you’ve read it cover-to-cover” rule, I went ahead and read it to get it out of the way, at least. It was actually more interesting than I expected, but it would be very outdated for anyone to use today. The author has worked in pretty much all sides of academic publishing, and has taught it as an academic subject, which makes her uniquely qualified, in addition to bringing perspective on the arcane processes of publishing that baffle authors and librarians. She explains each topic concisely and well, and will actually give some degree of sympathy for publishers, who are generally blamed for everything the market does to books and authors. I found the chapter on pricing (Chapter 11, ironically, given how many academic publishers have gone broke) especially informative. I chuckled every time I saw the little message “*New Chapter on Electronic Publishing” on the cover, but I didn’t laugh much at the actual text. She had pretty good insight into what was happening 25 years ago, and what the possible developments were. The one thing no one knew at the time was whether and how fast readers would adapt to reading e-books. It turned out to be slower than predicted by the most utopian publishers, but a steady growth that has now created a new market. She never makes the mistake of choosing one of the more extreme predictions, and, again, was quite informed on the state of the art of that time. On the whole, this edition is an interesting time capsule, offering some insight into how things developed in 21st century academia.

[Kazia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I unfortunately got my hands on the 3rd edition and thus the content was outdated. Overall though, it was very informative and helpful.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely for academic authors.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice concise book to guide a new academic author through the process of getting published, both articles, books and edited volumes. It is thoroughly updated for the digital age.