Before I left for ISA 2018 and AAG 2018, I purchased a ton of books. I have been doing way more work on waste (not only human manure but also municipal garbage) and while my water library is spectacularly well populated, I didn’t have enough books on waste, so my poor credit card took a big hit and I started purchasing a ton of books that I thought I might need. Along the way, I found a few books on academic writing that were inexpensive and that I thought would make the shipping costs worth it.
Yes, I admit it: I buy academic books sometimes as “order padders” so when I pay for shipping I don’t feel as bad. So, anyway, I wanted to read William Germano’s book for new authors and thus I purchased it. This book is not for authors who are PhD graduates and want to revise their dissertations as books. For that purpose, Germano wrote “From Dissertation to Book”, which I’ve also written about here on my blog.
This is my concluding tweet from a long-ish thread on Germano’s book. I think this is an endorsement if there’s ever one.
Bottom line: purchase both @WmGermano 's books, and do as I suggested: use one as reference (Getting It Published) and the other one to revise your PhD dissertation into a book (From Dissertation to Book) #AcWri #PhDChat #GetYourManuscriptOut </thread>
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
I usually don’t endorse books, but I found William Germano’s books so useful I really learned A LOT from them. In my Twitter thread (which you can read in its entirety by clicking anywhere on the tweet shown below) I embedded recommendations of other academic writing books that I’ve read.
.@WmGermano 's first book and this one are both published by @UChicagoPress – Getting It Published is for NEW books, not revising PhD theses pic.twitter.com/J88jkpokTC
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
This book is intended to demystify the book writing and publishing process. I find Germano's writing quite fluid and accessible. pic.twitter.com/9PS0WbqxeV
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
Contrary to "From Dissertation to Book", in "Getting It Published" Germano offers a handbook. A guide. A reference volume to "get back to" pic.twitter.com/38eMxlXwYL
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
As Miles says, cited by Germano, we should aim to explain the field to a broader audience – the first being scholars in other fields. pic.twitter.com/au7vbV9lJA
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
Here is where you'll find all sorts of disagreement. Depending on the press, you will find that they will like more jargon, less jargon. pic.twitter.com/vXl3xAyZVG
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
Germano's list of what editors look for totally makes sense to me and it's also the advice I've received from my editors (and friends) pic.twitter.com/LqtK5t39se
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018
These are 4 gems on editing a book (as an edited collection) and why you shouldn't do it. Regardless, I've edited two books, I'd do it again pic.twitter.com/46aZAHy4TH
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 14, 2018