Blog Archive
Historista’s Guide to the Writing Life Part III: The Trade Book Proposal
The Book Proposal: the most important document that you will create in this whole process. So you know, no pressure. Many of you may have written book proposals before, for academic presses. The good news is that trade book proposals share much in common with their academic relations; the not-exactly-bad but somewhat . . .
Read MoreHistorista’s Guide to the Writing Life Part II: How to Write a Query Letter
Once you have compiled your list of agents and their contact information, it’s time to pitch your book project to them in the form of a query letter. The examples and questions below assume this is a non-fiction history book project, but the general structure is adaptable for pitching trade books in . . .
Read MoreHistorista’s Guide to the Writing Life, Part I: Why and How to Find an Agent
This is the first in a series of posts about how to go about pitching and placing a non-fiction trade book, if you have written one (or want to write one). There are three reasons to get an agent, rather than sending out your materials directly to editors: You don’t have access . . .
Read MoreMr. Wolf Presents: Your SHA 2015 Bingo Card
Well, hello there. I’m Mr. Wolf. You haven’t heard from me in quite a while. It appears that most people prefer to do their complaining about students and colleagues in private. That’s fine with Mr. Wolf, it just means he’s a little bored. But now it is conference season, Mr. Wolf’s favorite . . .
Read MoreHow to Build a Better Academic Conference
‘Tis the season, my friends. You get on a plane with your pile of papers to grade or that book you have to prep for class or that sheaf of printed primary docs you need to annotate. You fly to a mid-size city, take a cab to a conference hotel, dump your . . .
Read More#FollowWomenWednesday: Why It Succeeded — And Why It Won’t Last
How long could #FollowWomenWednesday last? This was one of my questions in the first few weeks of this hashtag meme, which aimed to create more gender equality on Twitter. Initially I was not optimistic. Hashtags are usually flashes in the pan, and it was unclear how many Tweeps who participated in the . . .
Read MoreHow I Left Academia; or, Dirty Sexy Money
Now that you know why I left academia, let me tell you how I was able to do it. I was able to do it because I can afford to do it. Ah, money. The subject couples fight about most. And a topic about which academics are largely silent, even though historians, . . .
Read MoreWhy I Left Academia; or, To Publish … and Therefore Perish
A few weeks back, I wrote a Historista post about adjusting to a life untethered (or mostly untethered) from academia. In response to that post, readers wondered, Why did you leave academia in the first place? How are you able to support yourself? I’m going to answer question #2 in an upcoming . . .
Read More#FollowWomenWednesday
If you were on Twitter yesterday and you follow or are followed by a lot of women in academia, you probably noticed that something was afoot. Around midday, posts began to proliferate using the hashtag meme “FollowWomenWednesday”; they listed the handles of women who tweet. As of 2:30 p.m. today, as Karen . . .
Read MoreI’m a Social Media Sexist (and Probably, You Are Too)
You have logged onto Facebook and Twitter and you are reading through your feed. People have linked to posts of all different kinds: breaking news, silly quizzes, articles they have written. Which of these posts do you like or share or retweet? Some? None? How do you decide? I started thinking about . . .
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