How early is too early to submit a book proposal to a publisher?

[adel9216]

Hello everyone,

So, I've had this idea for a book for months. Literally. But I don't know if the timing is right. Is there such a thing as a right timing anyway?

To be honest, it is not my priority at this time to write a book as I have a doctoral degree to complete. But the book I have in mind would be strongly related to my doctoral work, while being targeted to a general audience or undergraduate students. It would not be a book for "specialists", more of a topic-101 book on my topic.

The book on the specific angle I have in mind currently does not exist on the market.  Which is frustrating to me. So I'm telling myself, why not write the book I want to read. There's clearly a gap I have identified that I feel well-positioned to fill in with my work. And I do feel like there would be interest from publishers and some readers for a work of this type, because I hear around me that it is also a frustration that this gap is not filled by anyone.

Don't get me wrong, I am not expecting to sell a thousand copies of the book, nor do I want to become a professional author. It's more of a "bucket list" type of goal, and because I truly love writing, and feel there is a need that's been left unaddressed.

I have identified a few publishers (non academic). It would be some type of short essay, non-fiction of course. I have also jotted down a few ideas for a book proposal which is about 5-8 pages for the main publisher I'd be aiming at.

However, I don't know how early scholars and researchers usually send out their book proposals to publishers. I would like to work on this towards the end of my doctoral degree. And things will evolve during the next couple of months/years which will help to bring nuance and depth to my argument and ideas as well. So I am working on my doctoral thesis while thinking 5 years ahead and keeping in mind that I'd like to publish a book inspired by my thesis. And that would not take into account the months/years of re-writing, revisions, editing that's also involved in the process of writing a book.

But how early is too early to submit a book proposal to a publisher?

[polly_mer]

Have you discussed this idea with your advisor and the other people in your field who are likely to know?

What would you do if I flat out tell you this is a terrible idea to work on now and should just be a line in an ideas notebook for the next five years? 

Would you believe me or is this another case in which you don't want good advice that means you would have to give up something, you want to be told that your plan is a good one and get some very, very minor tweaks?

[adel9216]

Have you discussed this idea with your advisor and the other people in your field who are likely to know?

What would you do if I flat out tell you this is a terrible idea to work on now and should just be a line in an ideas notebook for the next five years? 

Would you believe me or is this another case in which you don't want good advice that means you would have to give up something, you want to be told that your plan is a good one and get some very, very minor tweaks?

I don't like the tone you have when you're speaking to me. You're incredibly condescending. I am not a child. You need to stop. I don't know what "this is another case of" you're referring to.

And FYI, I have discussed it with them a few months ago, and they told me that my idea is an excellent idea and that it does fill a gap and that I am the right person to do this, and that I do have the potential to do it. I am the one who is saying that I want to focus on my thesis first.

I did not write the book at this stage. I just wrote down ideas, so far, just so I don't forget them, even if I come back to those in a couple of years.

[adel9216]

And despite what you seem to believe about me, I am well capable of taking criticism and advice. Everything can be said. It's HOW things are said that I may have a problem with. And you're speaking to me like I am an idiot. I am not.

Visibly, there is something about me that sets you off. But it has nothing to do about me. It has more to do about you. So I invite you to be the "bigger person" that you claim to be and to do a bit of introspection as to why you feel such an urge to crush every idea or initiative that I may have in mind as a young researcher.

Fortunately, I am confident enough to not let your condescending attitude impact me. Maybe that's what irritates you so much. The confidence I have. But you know what? It's not my problem. It's yours. And I see through you, clearly.   

[Wahoo Redux]

The general advice is always to focus on finishing the dissertation.  Very little happens without that.  I would seriously look at what I had to do to accomplish the dissertation and honestly decide if you can work on two huge projects at the same time.  Some peeps can.  And we know that competition is tremendous in academia---a book alongside the diss can only be to the good.

Can you finish the book in dribs and drabs while working on the diss?  Or, if you take the summer to focus on the book, do you still have time and funding to finish the diss?

Most publishers have a one page protocol for submissions.  It always includes sections about competition and the market; if you can honestly say you've got something unique that there is a call for, you have a great toe in the door.

You might see if you can find an acquisitions editor and simply email them a general query, put yourself on their radar. 

But focus on the diss. 

[Ruralguy]

Yes, where Polly and Wahoo agree is that you should focus on diss.

However, as Wahoo suggests,  whether you can handle a book as well  is between you, your adviser and your deity, roughly in that order.

I don't think it would hurt to craft a proposal and think about how you'd finish the book.

If undoable with diss, simply submit the proposal as you are finishing your diss.

Errr..it's that "easy."

[Parasaurolophus]

In my field, junior scholars usually have to submit the manuscript itself (or most of it) along with the proposal. I have no idea if that's the way things normally work in your field, however, and your advisors are probably best-placed to guide you on that front.

I don't see any harm in starting the process, however. Ask around your network (faculty in your department are a great place to start) and see if you can see someone else's proposal, so that you'll have a better idea of how to prepare yours. The next time you're at a conference with a book display, chat with the reps there to see what they're looking for in terms of proposals, and in terms of the books they want to publish. Try to set up a meeting with some reps at one of those conferences so that you can pitch your idea, and chat about the specifics they're looking for.

But yeah, consider sitting on it until the dissertation is finished, or finding other ways to complete parts of the project (e.g. by writing up a short conference paper that could form the core of a chapter, later, when you're ready, etc.).

[traductio]

The advice to talk to your supervisor is good. The only thing I'd add -- and this applies to university presses, not commercial presses -- is that when I've taken my PhD students around to introduce them to acquisitions editors at conferences, the editors have always had the same reaction -- "That idea sounds great! Finish the diss first!" That's the advice I'd likely give my PhD students if they asked me. They often have really great ideas but haven't acquired the skill to carry through with them, or even if they have, they'd be a lot more successful with more experience. I can't make that judgment for you, of course, but your supervisor will have a better sense of where you are.

[traductio]

The book on the specific angle I have in mind currently does not exist on the market.  Which is frustrating to me. So I'm telling myself, why not write the book I want to read.

I meant to add that I applaud that impulse. I've published three books now that were the ones I regretted I couldn't find, so I did them myself.

[Hegemony]

If your proposal is a good one (and it takes a lot of time to craft a good one), they will say, "Okay, send us the complete manuscript." And then you will have to sit down and write and polish the complete manuscript, which will make many months or possibly years. By that time the original editor will have left and who knows what else will have changed. So complete the manuscript before you send out the proposal, so that when they ask for the complete manuscript, you have it to send in

However, it's different if you're submitting a mainstream book to a commercial publisher, as it sounds as if you might. In that case, almost all publishers require you to submit via an agent. So first you would do a search for agents in the right field, and then prepare your proposal for them. If your proposal is a good one, they will say, "Okay, send me the complete manuscript." And then you will have to sit down and write  the complete manuscript.

Only well-established authors with big names can sell books by a proposal alone. So the moral is, if you want to go this route, write the manuscript first.

[polly_mer]

And you're speaking to me like I am an idiot. I am not.

My experience with very bright, very enthusiastic early career scholars with the most promise is that they only take advice counter to their desires when it is so blunt that there is no Professor Sparklepony possibility.  You are definitely in that category as you come back round after round with great ideas that are distractions from the important parts of your academic life right now:

* coursework since you're still in your first year
* comps since you're still in your first year
* dissertation since you haven't yet defended

Be angry with me all you like, but take the feedback that everyone is giving you to focus on the work that must be done to finish your PhD and be ready to get that next job.

You are free to do what you like, but the readers at home need to see both the blunt message and what happens when people insist on asking for advice and then not taking it while proclaiming loudly that they aren't an idiot.

[adel9216]

And you're speaking to me like I am an idiot. I am not.

My experience with very bright, very enthusiastic early career scholars with the most promise is that they only take advice counter to their desires when it is so blunt that there is no Professor Sparklepony possibility.  You are definitely in that category as you come back round after round with great ideas that are distractions from the important parts of your academic life right now:

* coursework since you're still in your first year
* comps since you're still in your first year
* dissertation since you haven't yet defended

Be angry with me all you like, but take the feedback that everyone is giving you to focus on the work that must be done to finish your PhD and be ready to get that next job.

You are free to do what you like, but the readers at home need to see both the blunt message and what happens when people insist on asking for advice and then not taking it while proclaiming loudly that they aren't an idiot.

You do not have good faith. You have assumptions about me, and you're twisting information to confirm those assumptions.

I said in my original post that I want to focus on my thesis. It's exactly the first thing I have said. But you just ignored that part, because hey, you want to be right and prove that you're so experienced and that you've figured me out, when in fact, you do not.

This says a LOT about you and the type of "mentor" you claim to be. That type of mentorship is just BS. You're so problematic, and I pity you, you're so bitter and unhappy. Probably you wish you were like me a tiny bit ;-) I see through you so clearly and I feel so sorry for you.

I have zero problem with the messages of all the other users. Their messages are respectful and full of insight that I will take in. Even the messages recommending that I leave that idea for later on. Zero issue with that advice.

I have a problem with you and the way you speak to me. But again, you're pretending to not understand what I've been telling you for the past months. You are condescending and arrogant, and you come off as a know-it-all when in fact, all I can see is how frustrated you feel about your life and you're just lashing out on me because you take me as a target. You clearly need to do some introspection to understand some of the reasons why you feel that need. It has nothing to do about me at the end of the day.

Being experienced is not incompatible with being modest and respectful. And opening the door for potentially being wrong at times. You do not have all the answers. And you're showing me exactly the type of academic I never want to become.

All the professors I encounter tell me "we're colleagues, you're not a student". That doesn't mean they can't share their experience and expertise with me or give me advice. But there's a decent and respectful manner to do so, and you seem to not understand that part. I am not a child. I am not your child.

But you know what? You won't have the last word. I will successfully pass my thesis, and I will have a successful career. And I will write that book and accomplish all these things that I've set myself to do. Even if you wish soooo hard the opposite for some reason. You're just motivating me more instead of discouraging me.

That's it. I've said what I had to say.

I will be ignoring you from now on and I ask you (again) to stop contacting me or responding to my threads, because it truly feels like harassment. 

[adel9216]

The general advice is always to focus on finishing the dissertation.  Very little happens without that.  I would seriously look at what I had to do to accomplish the dissertation and honestly decide if you can work on two huge projects at the same time.  Some peeps can.  And we know that competition is tremendous in academia---a book alongside the diss can only be to the good.

Can you finish the book in dribs and drabs while working on the diss?  Or, if you take the summer to focus on the book, do you still have time and funding to finish the diss?

Most publishers have a one page protocol for submissions.  It always includes sections about competition and the market; if you can honestly say you've got something unique that there is a call for, you have a great toe in the door.

You might see if you can find an acquisitions editor and simply email them a general query, put yourself on their radar. 

But focus on the diss.

Yes, some people can do both, I have a couple of friends who have published a book during their doctoral degree. These books are in the same format that I would imagine mine, so it's not impossible, although, my priority is my dissertation and my doctoral degree as I have mentioned in my original post. But I will keep writing those ideas down when they come up, so I have at least something to start from.

Thanks for your input!

[adel9216]

Yes, where Polly and Wahoo agree is that you should focus on diss.

However, as Wahoo suggests,  whether you can handle a book as well  is between you, your adviser and your deity, roughly in that order.

I don't think it would hurt to craft a proposal and think about how you'd finish the book.

If undoable with diss, simply submit the proposal as you are finishing your diss.

Errr..it's that "easy."

Yes, my plan was not to write the book now, but rather, to work on the book proposal which is 5-8 pages long. My plan was to actually write the book towards the end of my doctoral degree and after so I could reuse some material from my thesis, although it wouldn't be exactly the same content.

[adel9216]

The book on the specific angle I have in mind currently does not exist on the market.  Which is frustrating to me. So I'm telling myself, why not write the book I want to read.

I meant to add that I applaud that impulse. I've published three books now that were the ones I regretted I couldn't find, so I did them myself.

;-)