{"id":38431,"date":"2017-04-06T15:21:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T22:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38431"},"modified":"2017-04-06T15:21:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T22:21:17","slug":"thinking-like-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/thinking-like-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking like an editor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/thinklikeaneditor.jpeg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38432\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/thinklikeaneditor.jpeg\" alt=\"thinklikeaneditor\" width=\"680\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/thinklikeaneditor.jpeg 680w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/thinklikeaneditor-250x174.jpeg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There is a lot of good information about academic writing and publishing that is now out of print. It\u2019s generally still accessible if you peruse the outlets that sell second hand books or remainders, so do check out the \u2018other sellers\u2019 link online. I\u2019ve recently been accumulating older books about book publishing. One such elderly text that I bought recently for not much more than the cost of the postage was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Thinking-Like-Your-Editor-Nonfiction\/dp\/0393324613\"><em>Thinking like your editor. How to write great serious nonfiction \u2013 and get it published<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2002) by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato.<\/p>\n<p>Rabiner and Fortunato are not academics. They are in the trade, working as literary agents. They aren\u2019t writing just for academics either, but for anyone who fancies writing a well -researched but popular book. When <em>they<\/em> meet authors, and read their book proposals, they look for someone who<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cdemonstrates real command of their material\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They want someone who \u201cisn\u2019t afraid to make observations and draw inferences\u201d. They <i>don\u2019t<\/i> want a writer who is tentative, or\u00a0\u00a0someone who produces\u00a0polemic, bombast or un-evidenced generalisations. They won\u2019t have someone who rests on their reputation either. \u00a0And they\u2019ll reject anyone who \u201cqualifies everything they say\u201d \u2013 such people are, they suggest, \u201cbetter suited to university press publishing\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>is able to make their material come alive for the reader<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Over detailed work is as much of a problem as a book lacking in evidence. A successful nonfiction writer knows how to explain \u201cthe rules of their world\u201d and also what to leave out. They respect their readers\u2019 intelligence and neither talk down to them nor bore them to tears.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>has honed the craft of writing<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Publishers are not looking for someone who is still learning, according to Rabiner and Fortunato. They want authors who can use \u201cprecision in language, sound overarching structure and good narrative skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>communicates their \u201cpassion for the topic\u201d and their \u201cpassion to leave a mark on it\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rabiner and Fortunato suggest that popular on fiction writers have\u00a0\u201ca strong authorial voice\u2019. While a book must deal fairly with its subject matter, taking into account all relevant information and points of view, the author must have \u201csomething to say and the compulsion to say it.\u201d The author is ambitious and unafraid to let loose their desire to say something important. ( \u00a0p 68-69)<\/p>\n<p>Now, while Rabiner and Fortunato differentiate themselves from agents and editors who work in university presses, my hunch is that this list isn\u2019t very different from what academic editors really\u00a0want too. Rabiner and Fortunato\u2019s good popular nonfiction writer is also\u00a0the\u00a0ideal academic writer.<\/p>\n<p>My guess is that if you want to publish a monograph in paperback with one of the big academic book publishers then you\u2019ll have to pretty well meet the same criteria. You\u00a0see, academic publishers, just like big commercial publishers, also\u00a0make judgments about authors as well as their topics. As a very senior academic editor told me once, \u201cWe\u2019re not just investing in your book, we\u2019re investing in you.\u201d So you have to show that you know your stuff, but also that you can write in ways that are engaging and authoritative. And most of all, you have to balance your hedging with your assertive argument. \u00a0If you don\u2019t, I reckon\u00a0it\u2019s the hard-back library copies for you, prospective author.<\/p>\n<p>But, if the difference between the popular nonfiction book and a \u2018popular\u2019 academic book is not necessarily about the author and their writing, then what actually is the difference? Why aren\u2019t all academic books considered to be popular nonfiction? The answer is of course that it\u2019s\u00a0the topic and the market \u2013 it\u2019s about how many people are likely to be interested in the book\u2019s content. Most academic books are relatively narrow in focus and have less popular appeal than the big selling non-fiction books.<\/p>\n<p>But not all academic books are niche. We can probably all list some academic colleagues who make it big in the popular nonfiction market. Some of us\u00a0do work on topics which, for one reason or another, are of interest to big readerships. Not me unfortunately!<\/p>\n<p>If this is you, and you are working on a topic that you think might be of wider interest than a largely academic audience, Rabiner and Fortunato have some very helpful things to say to you. That\u2019s because most of their book is about how prospective authors can explain their project in ways that will convince a publisher or an agent that they have a potential best seller on their hands. They tell you the common pitfalls that authors make when they are pitching their text, and the kinds of considerations and calculations that big commercial publishers make.<\/p>\n<p>So\u2026 if you are one of those people who has the potential to write popular nonfiction, then you could do a lot worse than picking up your second-hand copy of this book. I\u2019m not lending you mine, Im afraid, as I think there\u2019s still more I can dig out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; There is a lot of good information about academic writing and publishing that is now out of print. It\u2019s generally still accessible if you peruse the outlets that sell second hand books or remainders, so do check out the \u2018other sellers\u2019 link online. I\u2019ve recently been accumulating older books about book publishing. One such [&hellip;]\n&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/thinking-like-editor\/\" class=\"more\">learn more&rarr;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":38432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[65933],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-38431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-academic-writing-and-publishing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thinking like an editor - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/thinking-like-editor\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking like an editor - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; There is a lot of good information about academic writing and publishing that is now out of print. 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