Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious About Serious Books (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing and Publishing) [Paperback]

William Germano, vice president and publishing director at Routledge, wrote Getting It Published to explain the expectations that scholarly publishing houses have toward writers. He set forth as his goals "to explain how publishers select manuscripts and publish them, to help the serious writer best present her or his work so that its chances for acceptance will be significantly increased," and "to show how the process from submission to publication can be made to work, and work well for both publisher and author" (x). Germano's helps train the young scholar how to shop his book around after he has done sufficient research and written a manuscript.

Germano explains that an author must ask the two questions: "Why did I write this book?" "Whom did I write it for?" (1). Too often, an author has too big of expectations for their book. Many scholarly works concern a niche subject that will not penetrate the culture at large. It is important for the author to understand what audience would be interested in his book and to approach publishing houses that have shown an interest in that subject.

In the end, Germano's Getting It Published is very useful at guiding the unpublished author through the upcoming publication obstacle course. His perspective is unique to most scholars since he is on the publisher side of the fence, and this perspective provides a lot of insights that would not be shared in a conversation with a fellow scholar. The neat thing about reading through this book is that it actually inspired me to delve more into my research and write more. Germano has written a book that provides a good practical layout on simple things like writing letters and asking for permissions to reprint pictures, quotes and poetry while at the same time expressing what the expectations for the author are and what the author should expect out of the publisher. It lays it all out concisely and clearly.

The author has so much experience with the subject he discusses that the reader receives a very critical,detailed and full discussion of the subject matter. This is a very helpful and a must book for anybody who is planning to publish

I understand that your PhD advisor was a Drill Sergeant. In the boot camp, you hated her because she tried to break your bone. You bled, you threw up, but you survived. Congratulations! I really like your work Mr. PhD because you provide the world with new ideas. But you got to understand that the public do not understand PhDs very well. Your extreme pursuit of academics is hard for a layperson to chew and to digest. You need moderation. You need to survive the public's court. Can you do it Mr. PhD? Welcome to the real world.

Your doctoral dissertation is not a book manuscript--this is the message that Mr. William Germano delivers in his book, "Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Book." This article is a self-contained review of the book. How to turn a scholarly thesis paper into a successful book manuscript, and to muster editorial, publishing, and copyright issues for mass dissemination, is the debate in Mr. Germano's book, in which intricate details of writing are nit-picked and common errors are elaborately explained.

A scholar enjoys complex ideas and thrives in producing novel results by raising the complexity of innovative ideas. In such a complexity, several aspects are seriously omitted to enthuse general readers. A scholarship is intended to be highly academic. The world of scholarship is much different than the world of general readership. Getting a clear picture of this distinction is necessary because turning a thesis or dissertation work into a commercial book production requires a lot of carefully executed plans, and series of editorial checks and balances, and a complete revamp of the drafting style.

Will your book make money to the publishers? If the answer is no, why are you even writing a book? A scholarly journal, such as, an IEEE publication, is not targeted to general public. Such a journal definitely helps a scholar in her career, but would not bring money from general public. A commercial book for general readership should bring money to the publishers; else, the publishers will not be in business. Is your book written in a way that guarantees money to the publishers? If the answer is no, your manuscript is toast.

It is assumed that you are a good writer. It is also assumed that you have a scholarly research result handy, and that you have written your prose, i.e., your thesis or dissertation. Now there are some basic drills to help your writing pass the tests of publishers. These drills are not usually discussed when getting your master's or doctoral degree. These basic drills will be acted upon your thesis work by a publisher to make sure that your book ideas are viable for the business.

Length of pages: The publisher's sales and marketing department decides a list price to your book. When the price is decided, the number of pages for your book is also decided. It may be a challenge to an author to remain within the range of a specified page length. If your contact stipulates 250 pages, you cannot submit 500 pages of manuscript.

Proposal Submission: You should first call a potential publisher and find out the actual name of an acquisition editor. A preliminary research is necessary before contacting the acquisition editor. You need some credible qualifying information as to why you are selecting the particular publication house. This qualification may be shown by your research of competing books in the market that are published by the same publisher. The logic is: the publisher is interested in your book, because the publisher has already published a book in your research area.

After you research competing books in the market, and decide that a particular publishing house fits you better, write an email or letter directly to the acquisition editor, addressed by her actual name. The names of acquisition editors should be in the publisher's web site. It is very important to know the interest of the acquisition editor before sending her an email or letter. In the email or letter, you should clearly mention some important aspects of the proposed book. What is the problem that your book is solving? How is your book different from all other books? Is your book for specialists, for students, or for general readers?

Recent graduates or newly minted researchers usually face a tough question about their identity: Who are you? Therefore, in your proposal letter, in addition to the inquiry and description of your project, you must include your Curriculum Vitae (CV). A CV is important when you have no history of publication. A CV tells the acquisition editor or publisher about your expertise and research interest.

Always check the guidelines of the publisher for the manuscript preparations. Every publisher may have a specific way of handing proposals, acquisitions, manuscripts, and permissions. These guidelines are usually published in the publisher's web site.

Manuscript Review Process: The book manuscript is sent to the readers selected by the publisher. Such readers are usually the known experts. The readers will review the manuscript and provide written opinion, which is called reader's report. The reader's report judges the quality of the book, and most importantly, the scope and marketability of the book. The report may be highly vague, or highly nit-picked to the level of sentence structure, grammar, or spelling. Sometimes a bad report may kill the book.

The editorial process of the book may be very lengthy, back and forth process, in which a full participation of the author is necessary. The process includes copy editing--line by line editing, proof reading, as well as indexing. An index is a map for searching the contents of your book. It takes about two weeks or more to prepare a good index for your book. It is the author's job to prepare an index for the book.

Contract: Once a binding contract has been established between the publisher and the author, it does not mean that the publisher will not back out of the deal. A publisher does not want to kill a book on contract, but it happens routinely. The contract will hold the author binding on timely delivery of the final manuscript, illustrations, correct format of the delivery, permissions (copyright), and warranty that conforms that the written work is the original work of the author and not reproduced. The publisher is also binding on contract for timely publication, royalty provision, copyright registration, reporting of sales, and out-of-print notification.

Copyrights and Permissions: Depending on the strategic interest in the book and the market, copyright issues and ownership of the copyright can be negotiated in the contract. Except the "fair use" provision of the copyright law, it is imperative that the author gets permissions if the book contains any proprietary or copyrighted materials, such as, pictures, film stills, maps, charts and diagrams. The publication process will stall if all permission paperwork is not processed before printing. Your editor should be able to provide you with appropriate forms for the permission paperwork. It may take months for all permissions to clear.

The author's job will not be complete even after the book is published. The success of the book depends largely on marketing efforts after the post-publishing process. The book will stop selling if the author stops marketing of the book. The income of the author from royalty depends on the sales revenue that the book can generate. Therefore, the obligation of the author does not end until the book is out of print.