I have 7 book projects in the works, here’s how
Each commitment helps me use my editing, research and writing skills in complementary ways.
I remember when I turned my dissertation into a book, and all that it entailed, I swore I would never write another book. I was burned out and the attention to detail almost broke me. For some reason, it was much more challenging than my dissertation had seemed initially. I thought I would write lots of big articles, and not worry too much about single-authored monographs. That was a number of years ago, and I always talked about “the book” as my first book, as though it would be the only one. However, I’ve changed my practices quite a bit in the last couple of years, and I thought it might be inspiring or at least helpful if I explained why and how I am currently working on seven book projects.
To give some background, I had spent a long time in service and teaching commitments. It was time for a reframe. My whole early life prepared me for scholarship, but that wasn’t what I was spending most of my time and energy on. So, I switched my focus. I was approached by a major publisher at a conference to do some editing, and I came out of that wonderful meeting with the idea for two edited volumes, both in my area of expertise. I had never edited a volume, so I needed some guidance.
Fortunately, a colleague wanted to work with me on one of the books, so I was able to learn from him. Here’s the thing: editing is a particular skill set, and it is difficult and time-consuming, but the nature of the work is that it is seasonal. Spend time putting together the contents, authors and submitting the proposal. Wait. Commission chapters. Wait. Get the first drafts and edit and send them back. Wait. Second round of edits and finalization. Get the index done and detail work on illustrations, etc. Submit. Wait. Get copyedits and do them. Wait. Get proofs. You get the idea. It’s small bursts of tasks that are intense, separated by a lot of down time.
I took on two books that had slightly different timelines with the same publisher so that was a little challenging, but because of delays in various parts of the projects, these two editing projects didn’t overlap. The creative part of an edited collection is the creation of the original idea and concept for the book. When it is done, it is done.
Then I realized that I had all this wait time and could do a monograph that took up those spaces between editing tasks. I also realized that after the initial work of putting together an edited volume, I could spend some time putting together other edited volumes. So, when I was finished with the first two (which are coming out this year), I submitted a second edited volume, something I had been thinking about for years but had never acted on. Once I finished the proposal and answered some of the initial reviewers’ comments, there was another waiting game.
Then, out of the blue I was contacted by a colleague who wanted to co-author a book on teaching in our field. I would normally turn down this type of request, but this person had already written a sample chapter as well as the proposal. I knew the material so well that I knew I could do this (and my contribution would only be 25,000 words) without much difficulty, so I said yes. We got the contract.
At the same time, I had given a conference presentation that resonated with people and thought it would make a nice monograph (please note that so far that I have not mentioned doing a single-author monograph). It is on teaching, so it uses part of my scholarly arsenal that doesn’t take brain space away from my disciplinary brain. I crafted a proposal, wrote the introduction and got a contract.
Then I decided I wanted to stake a claim in my field in a big way. So I put together a monograph proposal on a passion project that would be high profile and sent it to another publisher. I included a conference paper from 20 years ago as my writing sample (that would be a chapter). That’s as long as I’ve been thinking about this. They wouldn’t give me a contract, but were very interested. I applied for funding from my university to go to an archive, and if I get it, that will greenlight this project.
So, here’s my work breakdown for the next three years:
Year 1: Finishing touches and publication of two edited volumes (after two years of intermittent work on them)
Year 2: Proposals for teaching monograph, third edited collection, and preliminary proposal for disciplinary monograph. Spend entire summer on co-authored book (the whole time and into the fall a little bit). Submit a draft in early fall.
Year 3: Chapters come in for editing in January, take research trip to write a chapter for the disciplinary monograph (while on half sabbatical), and then spend the rest of the sabbatical writing the teaching monograph. In the fall, editing work on volume on board, first draft of teaching monograph submitted, hopefully disciplinary monograph contracted.
If you are keeping track, you will notice I have only mentioned six book projects so far. I also have an old monograph that got put on the back burner when COVID hit that I have to finish (it has gone out to favourable review) but it needs more archival work now that things are back open. This I will turn to in Year 4 along with the disciplinary monograph.
This all sounds like a lot, but notice there are past, present, and future projects that combine the different skill sets of editing, research and writing in a complementary way. The way I manage this (while taking an entire month off in the summer) is through meticulously planning every week of the year ahead of time. It takes some work, but wouldn’t you like to be where I am right now?
Elizabeth Wells is a professor of music history and musicology at Mount Allison University as well as author of the book The Organized Academic.
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1 Comments
“but wouldn’t you like to be where I am right now?”
Nope. Quality matters more than quantity.