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Legal Advice
The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel.
If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.
Whether to Write a Book
- Should I Write a Book?, by Karen KelskyKelsky, a former professor and academic career consultant, answers a question from an academic about whether to write a book.
- Why Write a Book?, by David PerryPerry, a faculty member at a teaching-oriented university who was not required to publish a book in order to get tenure, describes why he wrote his first book.
Selecting a Publisher
Find the right publishing venue for your book project:
- Mine your sources to identify books on similar topics and note which presses published them.
- Get advice from mentors and colleagues.
- Research publishers' and editors' active interests and review their current catalogs.
- Subject Area Grid from the Association of University PressesThe Subject Area Grid can help you identify presses that publish in your field.
University of Michigan Press is part of the Library and publishes over 100 books a year written by expert authors around the world. As well as selecting work for their own disciplinary lists, the experienced acquisitions editors at the Press participate in workshops across the University as well as consulting informally with U-M faculty and graduate students to offer informal guidance on finding the right publishing venues.
Writing a Book Proposal
When preparing a book proposal, check for a proposal-writing guide on the website of your desired publisher. Many publishers provide guidance in this area, and following it will serve you well.
The articles below provide general advice on writing book proposals.
- Writing a Book Proposal, by Lori FloresFlores, a historian, shares advice about preparing a book proposal.
- Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal, by Manya WhitakerWhitaker discusses writing a cover letter, selecting a press, and writing a book proposal.
Peer Review in Book Publishing
- Best Practices for Peer Review, Association of University PressesWhile this handbook was written for and by scholarly publishers, the overview of the peer review process that it provides is valuable to all participants in scholarly book publishing.
From Dissertation to Book
Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.
Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:
From Dissertation to Book by ISBN: 9780226062044Publication Date: 2013Germano's 'From Dissertation to Book' is considered the authoritative guide to revising a dissertation for publication.
Getting It Published by ISBN: 9780226281407Publication Date: 2016Germano's 'Getting it Published' provides advice for academic authors looking to write and publish a scholarly monograph.
- Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhailMacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.
In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Deep Blue) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations.