Strategies for publishing in the humanities: A senior professor advises junior scholars

Journal of Scholarly Publishing

Volumn 48, Issue 4, 2017, Pages 199-220

  Chávez Garciá, Miroslava ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b Chicano Studies   (United States)

Author keywords

Promotion; Publishing; Women faculty of colour; Writing

Indexed keywords

EID: 85024113422     PISSN: 11989742     EISSN: 17101166     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/jsp.48.4.199     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. see 'Gender, Race, and Ethnicity of College Administrators, Faculty, and Staff, Fall 2013,' Chronicle of Higher Education, August 19, 2016, 16.
2. see Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner, Juan Carlos González, and J. Luke Wood, 'Faculty of Color in Academe: What 20 Years of Literature Tells Us,' Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 1, no. 3 [2008]: 40.
3. see Marybeth Gasman, 'An Ivy League Professor on Why Colleges Don't Hire More Faculty of Color: "We Don't Want Them,"' Washington Post, September 26, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/ 09/26/an-ivy-league-professor-on-why-colleges-dont-hire-more-faculty-of-colorwe- dont-want-them/.
4. For Kerry Ann Rockquemore's insights on mentoring, see, for instance, 'Essay on How to Be a Good Faculty Mentor to Junior Professors,' Inside Higher Ed, August 12, 2013, https://www.insidehighered.com/career-advice/how-be-greatmentor;
5. 'Essay Calling for Senior Faculty to Embrace New Style of Mentoring,' Inside Higher Ed, July 22, 2013, https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/ 07/22/essay-calling-senior-faculty-embrace-new-style-mentoring.
6. For more resources on mentoring, writing, publishing, and navigating academia generally, see Rockquemore's National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, http://www.facultydiversity.org/.
7. For quantities of academics books sold, see Noah Berlatsky, 'What Is the Point of Academic Books?,' Pacific Standard, December 16, 2014, https://psmag.com/ social-justice/point-academic-books-publishing-writing-literature-96610#.yo1faexq7.
8. According to Steven Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, books sales have declined around 37 per cent since 2007, which saw the peak of the book-selling industry in recent years. 'The average U.S. nonfiction book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 2,000 copies over its lifetime,' writes Steven Piersanti in 'The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing,' Berrett- Koehler Publishers, accessed May 13, 2017, https://www.bkconnection.com/the-10- awful-truths-about-book-publishing?redirected=true.
9. For more excellent advice on publishing from the mouths of editors and authors, see 'Answers from Academic Publishers,' Daily Nous: News for and about the Philosophy Profession (blog), May 28, 2015, http://dailynous.com/2015/05/28/answers-from-academicpublishers/;
10. '10 Point Guide to Dodging Publishing Pitfalls: Veteran Academic Authors Share Their Hard-Won Tips,' Times Higher Education, March 6, 2014), https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/10-point-guide-to-dodgingpublishing- pitfalls/2011808.
11. On the value of monographs, see Robert B. Townsend, 'What Makes a Successful Academic Career in History? A Field Report from the Higher Ranks,' Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association, December 2012, https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/ december-2012/what-makes-a-successful-academic-career-in-history.
12. For more on the ranking of presses and the significance of publishing with prestigious presses, see Karen Kelsky, 'The Status of the Press Matters, Still!,' The Professor Is In (blog), November 28, 2014, http://theprofessorisin.com/2014/ 11/28/evaluating-palgrave-and-other-non-university-presses/.
13. Insights on series in publishing houses come from discussions with colleagues as well as from Elaine Maisner, 'Getting Published by a University Press,' Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association, May 2002, https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/ may-2002/getting-published-by-a-university-press.
14. For more on ebooks and their role in tenure, see, for instance, Kristine M. Bartanen, 'Digital Scholarship and the Tenure and Promotion Process,' The Academic Commons (online platform hosted by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education), July 24, 2014, http://www.academiccommons.org/2014/07/24/digital-scholarship-and-the-tenure-and-promotion-process/;
15. Townsend, 'What Makes a Successful Academic Career in History?.'
16. For historians who have published academic trade books successfully, see, for example, Daniel McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance: A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power (New York: Knopf, 2010);
17. Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000).
18. For more specific advice on publishing with university presses versus academic trade presses and trade presses generally, see Tonya Golash-Boza, 'How to Publish an Academic Book - Why Choosing a Publisher Is Important and How to Choose One,' Get a Life, PhD: Succeed in Academia and Have a Life Too (blog), April 21, 2012, http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-publishacademic- book-why.html.
19. See, for instance, Irene Lara, 'Daughter of Coatlicue: An Interview with Gloria Anzaldú a,' in Entre Mundos/Between Worlds: New Perspectives on Gloria Anzaldúa, ed. AnaLouise Keating (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 41-56;
20. Stephanie Decker and Liz Legerski, 'Interview with Kathleen Blee,' Social Thought & Research 28 (2007): 23-33;
21. Miroslava Chávez-García, 'Interview with Yolanda Cruz,' Boom: A Journal of California 1, no. 3 (2011): 57-61.
22. For a lengthy review with a deep and broad scope (she reviews multiple books), see, for instance, Christina Greene, 'What's Sex Got to Do with It: Gender and the New Black Freedom Movement Scholarship,' Feminist Studies 32, no. 1 (2006): 163-83.
23. Humanities and Social Sciences Online (H-Net), https://networks.h-net.org/.
24. For more insights on the challenges faced by women of colour in academia, see Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, and Angela P. Harris, eds., Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2012);
25. Patricia Matthew, ed., Written/Unwritten: Diversity and The Hidden Truths of Tenure (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016);
26. Saba Fatima, 'Am I Being Paranoid? Women of Color in Academia,' SIUE Women's Studies Program, April 20, 2015, https://siuewmst.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/am-i-being-paranoidbeing-a-woman-of-color-in-academia/;
27. Marion B. Sewer, 'Advancing Women of Color in Academia,' ASBMB Today, August 2012, http://www.asbmb.org/ asbmbtoday/201208/minorityaffairs/WomenOfColor/.
28. Carol Morton, 'Submission to Print: Submitting a Paper for Publication and the Publication Process,' in Writing for Scholarly Journals: Publishing in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, ed. Daniel P. J. Soule, Lucy Whiteley, and Shona McIntosh, (Glasgow: eSharp, 2007), 34-35.
29. For an excellent start on this process, see Reviews of Peer-Reviewed Journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences, https://journalreviews.princeton.edu/rankingpeer- reviewed-journals/.
30. See, also, the Humanities Journals Wiki page, http:// humanitiesjournals.wikia.com/wiki/Comparative-Literature,-Cultural-Studies- and-Theory-Journals, which provides personal insights on experiences with journals mostly in the humanities.
31. Miroslava Chávez-García, Mayra Avitia, and Jorge N. Leal, 'Future Academics of Color in Dialogue: A Candid Q&A on Adjusting to the Cultural, Social, and Professional Rigor of Academia,' in Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color, ed. Dwayne Mack et al. (New York: Routledge/ Taylor and Francis Group, 2014), 128-45.
32. Alaric Hall, 'Turning Your Coursework into Articles,' in Writing for Scholarly Journals: Publishing in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, ed. Daniel P. J. Soule, Lucy Whiteley, and Shona McIntosh (Glasgow: eSharp, 2007), 10-24, 15.
33. See 'Answers from Academic Publishers.'
34. Townsend, 'What Makes a Successful Academic Career in History?.'
35. One source with useful information similar to what I provide is Karen Kelsky, 'The Professor Is In: When to Publish Your Book, and When to Hold Off,' The Professor Is In (blog), June 9, 2014, https://chroniclevitae.com/news/537-theprofessor- is-in-when-to-publish-your-book-and-when-to-hold-off.
36. Quoted in Carl Richards, 'Learning to Live with Impostor Syndrome,' New York Times, October 26, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/your-money/ learning-to-deal-with-the-impostor-syndrome.html?-r=0.