Writing and Publishing a Book: Some Help

Greetings again. Earlier this month, I received an e-mail message from a researcher who attended the first AuthorAID workshop. The subject line of the message was “Help!”

The researcher explained that she wanted my advice on how to write a book. She said she hopes to write a book about the history of her research area.

In my reply, I noted that the AuthorAID Resource Library includes a PowerPoint presentation on how to write and publish a book. Later, I found that a chapter titled “How to Write a Book Chapter or a Book” is available online, as part of a book excerpt in Google Books. (The chapter begins on page 150. If necessary, please scroll backward or forward to find it.)

Also, here are some basic tips on writing and publishing a book:

• Seek a publisher that has published good books in your field. Such a publisher is more likely to accept your book, edit it well, and market it well.
• Break the project into small pieces. Writing many chapters might seem overwhelming. However, writing one part of one chapter at a time might not.
• As in writing scientific papers, start with whatever part is easiest.
• Use peer review. Many publishers obtain peer review of book manuscripts. (In fact, last week a publisher asked me to review a book manuscript.) Perhaps also obtain reviews yourself, both from other experts in your field and from potential users of the book.

Much success to those of you who will be writing books!