How to prepare a book manuscript - How to write a book chapter or a book - Doing other writing for publication

How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

How to prepare a book manuscript
How to write a book chapter or a book
Doing other writing for publication

Joy at signing a book contract can readily become terror as the prospect looms of writing several hundred manuscript pages. Breaking the project into manageable chunks, however, can keep it from becoming overwhelming. While still remembering the scope of the book, focus on one chapter, or part of a chapter, at a time. Soon you might be amazed at how much you have written. Unless chapters build directly on each other, you may be able to write them in whatever order you find easiest. Similarly, a chapter, like a scientific paper, often need not be written from start to finish.

Much as journals have instructions for authors, book publishers have author guidelines. These guidelines, which sometimes can be accessed from a publisher’s website, present the publisher’s requirements or preferences regarding manuscript format, preparation of tables and figures, and other items, such as obtaining permission to reprint copyrighted materials. The guidelines also may specify the style manual to follow. Before starting to write, look carefully at the guidelines. For convenience, perhaps prepare a sheet listing the main points to remember about the manuscript format, print it on colored paper for easy identification, and post it where you readily can consult it. Following the instructions can save you, and the publisher, effort later.

Immediate demands on your time can easily rob you of opportunities to work on a book. If possible, set aside specific times for writing. For example, include in your regular weekly calendar some blocks of time to work on the book, as if they were appointments. Or have certain times of the year to focus on writing. If you have the opportunity, perhaps arrange beforehand to get a sabbatical leave to work on the book, or negotiate to have reduced duties while doing so.

For a busy scientist-author, the writing of a book can extend over months or years, sometimes with interruptions of weeks or more. Therefore, a consistent style and voice can be difficult to maintain. One tactic that can help address this problem: Before resuming your writing, reread, or spend a little time editing, a section you have already drafted. Also, once you have drafted the entire book manuscript and are revising it, look for consistency.

And yes, be prepared to revise the manuscript. In books, as in scientific papers, good writing tends to be much-revised writing. Some book authors do much of the revising as they go, a paragraph or subchapter at a time, and then have little more than final polishing left. Others do a rough draft of the entire manuscript and then go back and refine it. Take whatever approach works for you. But one way or another, do revise.

If the book will include material for which you do not hold copyright—for example, illustrations published elsewhere—you will need permission unless the material is in the public domain. You also may need to pay permission fees. Usually, obtaining the needed permissions is your responsibility, not your publisher’s. However, your publisher may be able to provide advice in this regard, and publishers’ guidelines for authors often include sample letters for seeking permission. Start the permissions process early; identifying copyright holders, receiving permissions, and (if needed) obtaining images suitable for reproduction sometimes takes weeks. (For more on rights and permissions, see Chapter 19.)

Once you submit your book manuscript, the publisher may send it for peer review. Beforehand or simultaneously, consider obtaining some peer reviews of your own. Show the manuscript to people whose views you regard highly, including experts on your subject and individuals representative of the intended readers of your book. Solicit and consider their frank feedback. If appropriate, thank your reviewers in the acknowledgments (with their permission) and give them copies of the book when it appears.