Crafting Your Book Proposal: A Summer Seminar for Faculty

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Are you ready to write your book proposal? Come join our group. Get tips from a veteran university press editor and feedback from fellow faculty. We'll meet once a week for 90-minute seminar-style sessions during the 2020 summer break (dates to be determined). At the end, you will have both a persuasive book proposal and the confidence to submit it to your top-choice publishers. 

For more information, please contact Melody Herr, Office of Scholarly Communications, at herr@uark.edu.

Overview

We will adapt the seminar's content and pace to the participants' needs.

Week One: Goals

• Discuss the ways in which your book advances your personal and professional goals
• Present your argument and a one-paragraph summary
• Understand the purpose of and audience for a book proposal

Milestone One:  Title and Table of Contents

*Please share your title and table of contents with the group two days prior to the next meeting.

Week Two:  Logic

• Provide and receive feedback on the milestone project

Milestone Two:  Description and Cover Letter

*Please share your description and cover letter with the group two days prior to the next meeting.

Week Three:  Seduction

• Provide and receive feedback on the milestone project 

Milestone Three: Introduction and Sample Chapter(s)

*Please share your introduction and sample chapter(s) with the group five days prior to the Week Five meeting. (There's nothing due for the Week Four meeting.)

Week Four: Partners

• Understand the scholarly publishing ecosystem and the author-publisher partnership
• Understand the peer review process

Milestone Four: Identify potential publishers

*Reminder — Share your introduction and sample chapter(s) with the group five days prior to the next meeting.

Week Five: Strategy

• Provide and receive feedback on the milestone project 
• Group leader will play the role of an acquiring editor; group members will play the role of peer reviewers

Milestone Five: Strategy for submitting your proposal 

Sponsored by the Office for Faculty Affairs, University Libraries, and the Office for Research and Innovation.

Melody Herr is head of the Office of Scholarly Communications. She earned a Ph.D. in history of science, medicine and technology from Johns Hopkins University. A veteran acquiring editor, she has more than 16 years of experience working for scholarly publishers, including Johns Hopkins University Press and the University of Michigan Press. An author herself, she has published six books; the most recent is Writing and Publishing Your Book: A Guide for Experts in Every Field (Greenwood, 2017).