Supporting the Scholarly Engagement of UNCF Faculty Members:
A UNCF/Mellon Programs Academic Publishing and Writing Seminar
JULY 14 – 19, 2019
THE RITZ-CARLTON REYNOLDS, LAKE OCONEE

Agenda
Sunday, July 14, 2019

Takeaways:

•  “Choose a writing lifestyle over a publishing lifestyle.”

•  “Spend more time thinking about what you want to say than searching for a publisher.”

•  “Don’t try to avoid trouble – know that your research is meant to shake things up!”

 

Academic Publisher’s Workshop – The Academic Publishing Process

Feat. Courtney Berger (Duke University Press), Dawn Durante (University of Illinois Press), Mick Gusinde-Duffy (University of Georgia)

Monday, July 15, 2019

Courtney’s Key Points

•  Transforming a dissertation into a book is a paradox of narrowing the focus to broaden the impact

•  Understand your book’s intervention, audience, and form

•  The book is a part of an ongoing conversation, not a conversation ender

Dawn’s Key Points

•  Think of the proposal as a living document, and your main communication tool

•  Be transparent about your timeline

•  Carefully prepare a cover letter, prospectus, annotated table of contents, and sample chapters

Mick’s Key Points

•  The manuscript review process is simple in structure, but can be lengthy

•  Be observant of the escape clauses in an advance contract

•  Be clear regarding multiple submissions to presses; they are not necessarily time savers

Additional Writing Resources

•  Pomodoro Method – write for 25 minutes at a time, using a timer; take a 10 minute break after two sessions

•  Scrivener – an organizational software geared towards writing

•  Mind Mapping – a technique for expanding ideas spatially