It’s the one where I talk about how to get back out there and promote your research after finishing your PhD…
This is a guest blog post from Cat Bennett author of The Confident Creative: Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind.
The Road to Yes
I’m a veteran writer of sorts. I’ve been writing all my life—journal entries, essays, stories. But I’ve always made my living as an artist, primarily as an illustrator. Now I’m a newly published writer, the author of The Confident Creative / Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind. Findhorn Press is my publisher and the day I received a yes from them was indeed a happy one. I remember reading once that getting a book published doesn’t really change your life, so writers shouldn’t hope for that. Published writers still get out of bed in the morning and do the things they do. Their bank accounts rarely burst at the seams from newly minted millions. It’s true my life is much as it was a year ago before my book was published. But it’s also radically changed—I feel a new freedom. Read more
This is the first in a two part guest post by our intern Lucy Wickens on how to use Facebook for networking and research.
While some people are total Facebook devotees, others can be dubious about its use as a legitimate networking tool. But the thing is, Facebook is fast becoming a business card replacement at academic conferences because it instantly provides regular news bulletins from and direct contact with your academic peers. On top of that, Facebook organisation pages and groups and event invitations make it pretty much a one-stop-shop for all your networking and self promotional needs.
Of course, if nothing will convince you of its professional legitimacy, then perhaps Linked-In is a better option as it specifically caters for career networking. Although it’s still well worth giving Facebook a try… Read more
little known fact is that the working title for this website was Platforming for Academic Publishing. I was very familiar with the idea that an author needs to be ‘visible’, preferably before they pitch, and I wanted to look at this specifically in relation to academia. I ditched the title because this isn’t all I wanted to do with this site and because it seemed a bit jargony in the end – and besides PhD2Published is way cuter!
I also didn’t start the site with looking at platform building, but instead I set about installing lots of ways to flood it with content on how to make your book pitch, as this seemed the best way to establish it. But I do want to visit this idea of the platform now and, as luck would have it, a good post just came out on Writer’s Relief to remind me. Although this article, ‘Author Platforms: What They Are, Why Agents And Editors Look For Them, And Whether You Need One To Get Your Book Published’ doesn’t tackle the idea of being an academic and having a demonstrable following for your work, it does look at the idea of the platform for the non-fiction author. Read more
I was really excited to discover this article by Katharine Reeve on Times Higher Education – it’s, of course, excellent!
Reeve picks up on the key point that drives this website, which is that there isn’t much support for academic writers when it comes to learning how to propose and write a book. She states:
“While fiction authors are surrounded by advice books, websites and degree courses designed to help them get published, academic authors are left to their own devices. How are you supposed to know what is and what is not a publishable text? An academic is generally a researcher first and a writer second: you may be an international authority on Viking headwear or poststructuralist theory, but you are unlikely to be as expert at writing full-length publishable books. Unless you have a savvy supervisor or have learned by trial and error, getting into print can be tough.” Read more
Other ways of getting your book published involve learning how to market yourself – as I’ve mentioned before. Soon, PhD2Published will be offering advice on how to use social media to publicise your work. In the mean time, you’ll find my first post on this subject on Red Lemon Club, a fabulous website providing self-promotional advice for creatives, run by illustrator and designer Alex Mathers. My post is on 5 Ways to Generate Outstanding Ideas for Blog Posts and is a bit of a beginners guide.
Weekly Wisdom #4
Connect with other like-minded academics through online mailing lists, facebook groups, link sharing platforms, blogs and micro blogs!
Weekly Wisdom #1
June 8, 2010
1
Welcome to the first post in a regular series of weekly installments of academic publishing wisdom.
This is (smash the Tuesday morning Champagne on the, er, keyboard):
Weekly Wisdom #1
Be savvy and get paid gigs reviewing books that directly relate to the one you want to write!
