Publishing Scholarly Monographs workshop

Lunch: 12:00pm-12:30pm
Workshop: 12:30pm-5:30pm

This workshop is open to graduate students in their third year of doctoral research or beyond, and to early career researchers in the Humanities. it is run by the publishing consultant Josie Dixon. Josie has over fifteen years’ experience in both university-press and commercial-academic sectors of the publishing industry, as senior commissioning editor and editorial manager at Cambridge University Press, and as publishing director for the academic division at Palgrave Macmillan.

Participants in the workshop are required to submit a 1-page abstract of their research when they apply for a place at this workshop. The abstract will enable Josie to tailor the workshop to the interests of those present, and generally to familiarise herself with the research of the workshop participants. The deadline for submission of the outline is at 9am on Tuesday 15th May. Please send your outline to training@humanities.ox.ac.uk (please name your file using this format: A N Other – abstract).

There will be a small amount of background reading to do before the workshop. Please note that registration will not be completed without your outline. If we don’t receive your abstract by the deadline, we will allocate your place to someone on the waiting list after the deadline.

The focus of the workshop is on turning your doctoral thesis into a monograph, encouraging participants to view their research as others will see it, along the line that stretches from commissioning editors and publishers’ referees, through sales and marketing staff, all the way down the distribution chain to booksellers, librarians, review editors, and the prospective readership. This involves thinking about the market, choosing and approaching a publisher, and working out how to represent your work to best advantage. Discussion and exercises ensure that the material remains practically-based throughout.

Breakdown of the workshop:

· The publishing climate
· Understanding publishers’ decision-making
· Book or article?
· From DPhil to monograph
· Readership and market
· Interdisciplinary work
· Proposals, titles and selling points