Faculty members often write academic books in isolation and are in need of resources, space, and workshops to support their writing efforts. Getting published with a university press can also be an intimidating, competitive, and opaque venture. While the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Student Success (CETLSS) offers writing retreats and the Office of Research provides grants for research activities, no practical workshops exist at Appalachian State University to help faculty members better understand how to get published. In an attempt to fill this gap, University Libraries partnered with the Office of Research and Innovation and CETLSS to launch the Appalachian Book Publishing Support Program for university faculty, staff, and graduate students. The goal of this scholarly publishing program was to increase authorship at Appalachian State University and to demystify the traditional scholarly publishing process. The event was planned during the Summer 2024 and launched in the Fall 2024.
The event took place on October 25th, 2024 and consisted of three workshops:
- 9:00AM-9:50AM “How to land a scholarly book contract”
- 10:00AM-10:50AM “How to work with an editor”
- 11:00AM-11:50AM “How to pitch your book”
Each workshop was presented by senior-level editors at the University of Georgia Press (Nate Holly, Editor-in-Chief), the University of South Carolina Press (Aurora Bell, Associate Editorial Director), and the University of North Carolina Press (Lucas Church, Executive Editor).
Overall, 43 people registered for the Appalachian Book Publishing Support Program, which included mostly faculty members, some staff members, and 1-2 graduate students. The average number of participants who attended the live Zoom workshops ranged from 18-25 attendees. The Appalachian Book Publishing Support Program made a significant impact on both the university community and our university press colleagues. Faculty members — who are under pressure to meet promotion and tenure publication obligations — were given the rare opportunity to engage with editors from prestigious university presses who are making acquisitions decisions. As the gatekeepers in scholarly publishing, the editors gave specific, actionable advice on how to obtain a publishing contract and a behind-the-scenes look at how the acquisitions process works.
"The success of the Appalachian Book Publishing Support Program underscores the serious need on campus for more services supporting faculty authorship and scholarly publishing. " said Agnes Gambill, Head of Scholarly Communications for the University Libraries. "The turnout was impressive with faculty scholars participating across departments and disciplines. Our guest editors from senior-level ranks at UNC-Chapel Hill, UGA, and USC provided rare, customized, one-on-one feedback to faculty on book proposal ideas. Thanks to this program and the support provided by the Bivens Fund for Excellence, the Office of Research and Innovation, and CETLSS, the AppState academic community is better equipped to navigate the academic publishing landscape, interact with acquisitions editors, and secure book deals with publishing houses."
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Original Invitation Post:
Join us tomorrow! On Friday, October 25, 2024, University Libraries will be hosting a virtual half-day program to support authorship on campus. The program will help authors demystify the academic publishing process and get published. In order to receive the Zoom link to the workshops, you must register below. The Appalachian Book Publishing Support Program will feature workshops by editors from the University of North Carolina Press, the University of Georgia Press, and the University of South Carolina Press. The biographies of editors and their acquisition interests can be found here. Topics include:
- How to land a scholarly book contract
- How to work with an editor
- How to pitch your book
Date: October 25, 2024 Workshops will be held from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Pitch sessions will be held from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. Registration: Link The workshop is sponsored by the Bivens Committee, the Office of Research and Innovation, and CETLSS for supporting this program. Please click the link below or contact Agnes Gambill at gambillab@appstate.edu for further information.
https://appstate.libcal.com/event/13210830
