Step-by-Step Academic Book Publishing Process
Publishing an academic book needs planning and method. It is very different from one publishing process to another (traditional, hybrid, and self-publishing), but there are common elements to all publishing models.
Pre-Publication Planning
Manuscript Development and Refinement
Make sure your manuscript is up to date before you approach publishers or self-publication websites. This involves enough research, accurate citation and your academic community’s accepted standards of conduct (Clark & Phillips, 2008; Einsohn & Schwartz, 2019).
Market Research and Audience Analysis
Know your target academic audience, competing titles, and potential course adoptions. University presses especially appreciate books that have obvious application in teaching and a long shelf life (Giménez-Toledo et al., 2017; Greco, 2013; Harzing, 2010).
Publisher Research and Selection
Publisher Research and Choose Research publishers that are focussed on your subject area (Schiffrin, 2001; Woll, 2010; Zuccala et al., 2015). Try to look for an appropriate match for that piece among their recent releases, latest submission guidelines, or collection of author testimonials.
Submission and Proposal Process
Academic Book Proposals
Traditional academic publishers usually want extensive proposals with chapter summaries and proposed markets, author qualifications and samples chapters. The quality of your proposal, more than your manuscript, is often what first gets a publisher intrigued.
Peer Review and Editorial Process
Peer-reviewed academic publishing includes subject matter expertise who review the work. This whole process is time-consuming, but it vastly improves the quality of manuscripts submitted, as well as the credibility of the science they claim to represent.
Production and Marketing
Professional Editorial Services
Whether seeking traditional or self-publishing, pay for a professional academic-developmental editing, copyediting and proofreading services.
Academic Marketing Strategies
The marketing of successful academic books is oriented toward conference presentations, peer networks, course adoption, and scholarly review publications, and not the strategies of consumer marketing.
Also read Self vs Traditional Publishing
Learn more in Edited Volume
See the Royalty Rates for more resources
Further Reading: Choosing Best Publisher
References
Clark, G., & Phillips, A. (2008). Inside book publishing. Routledge.
Einsohn, A., & Schwartz, M. (2019). The copyeditor’s handbook: A guide for book publishing and corporate communications. University of California Press.
Giménez-Toledo, E., Mañana-Rodríguez, J., & Sivertsen, G. (2017). Scholarly book publishing: Its information sources for evaluation in the social sciences and humanities. Research Evaluation, 26(2), 91-101.
Greco, A. N. (2013). The book publishing industry. Routledge.
Harzing, A. W. (2010). The publish or perish book. Melbourne: Tarma Software Research Pty Limited.
Schiffrin, A. (2001). The business of books: How the international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read. Verso.
Woll, T. (2010). Publishing for profit: successful bottom-line management for book publishers. Chicago Review Press.
Zuccala, A., Guns, R., Cornacchia, R., & Bod, R. (2015). Can we rank scholarly book publishers? A bibliometric experiment with the field of history. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(7), 1333-1347.