Getting the Most Out of Your Book Workshop
Academic book workshops are becoming increasingly common for scholars in tenure-line positions at schools that can provide significant research support. As part of these workshops, authors typically share a draft of their book manuscript with several scholars from outside their institutions. These scholars read it and then come together to comment on the manuscript, highlighting strengths, offering critiques, and providing suggestions for revision. Sometimes scholars from within the institution also participate in the book workshop.
These can be wonderful opportunities to get meaningful feedback, but they can also be anxiety-producing experiences that leave many scholars feeling overwhelmed. Below I provide some ideas for how to make your book workshop work best for you. I also end with a suggestion for how scholars who aren’t at the kind of institution that funds book workshops (I sure wasn’t!) can enact some elements of this process themselves.
Identify your goals for having a book workshop. Why do you want to have a book workshop? What are your main goals for this process? Being clear on this will help you figure out many of my below suggestions, including timing and who to invite. Are you wanting to produce the best book that you can? To get focused feedback at a particular stage in your writing? To build your scholarly network? Before you begin the planning, it’s important to spend time reflecting on what you hope this process will accomplish for you and your book.
Figure out the timing that is right for you. I was recently talking with an acquisitions editor at a respected scholarly press who bemoaned the book workshop, saying she had seen scholars with strong manuscripts veer off course after these events. She specifically mentioned scholars whose manuscripts had been accepted at presses then doing book workshops and dramatically altering their projects.
I don’t think this editor meant that scholars shouldn’t do book workshops, but I do think she suggests that you want to think carefully about the timing of your book workshops. Factor in when feedback would be most helpful for you. Also factor in when feedback might be most needed. For example, if you have an advanced contract with a press, but haven’t yet sent them the full manuscript, that could be a good time for the workshop, as long as you will also have the time to revise the manuscript substantially before submitting it.
Think carefully about who to invite. Book workshops are partly valuable because they help you to extend your scholarly network. What a gift to have scholars spend time deeply thinking and talking about your work. But don’t fixate so much on the networking aspect that you forget about the aim of the project. Your main goal is getting helpful feedback on the book so you want to be sure you select participants who can provide this. So while it might be tempting to invite a super famous scholar in your field, be sure their work is directly related to yours or else they may tell you to write a book that you didn’t intend to write (and you may feel pressure to do so). If your book deals with several areas (immigration, gender, labor), ideally you should aim to invite a group of scholars who, together, has expertise in each of those areas.
Don’t ask any meanies. Beyond thinking about scholars’ content expertise, also think about what you know about them as people and mentors. Don’t invite the conference crank who always asks rude questions or the colleague who makes you feel small, even if they are well regarded in your field. Ideally, you want to invite people who are smart, critical, and generous readers. Most scholars are in a vulnerable place when they are working on their book manuscripts so you want to be sure that the book workshop doesn’t destroy your confidence. If you aren’t sure of who to invite, discuss with your dissertation adviser and other close colleagues.
Shape the discussion. What workshops looks like will vary based on your institution, but try to shape the conversation as much as you can. This is, after all, your book workshop. One way to do this is to share particular questions or concerns you have about the manuscript with scholars when you send it to them. You might note that you welcome any and all feedback, but that you are particularly interested in hearing about [list several things here and explain why]. Another thing you can do is to signal what kind of feedback you don’t want (i.e. avoid copyediting, thoughts on bigger picture issues would be helpful). Also be clear about what stage the manuscript is in. If some chapters are more polished than others, point that out. The more context readers have for the work, the more they can tailor their feedback to your particular stage.
Also come to the workshop with questions. Scholars will likely share their general feedback first, but during discussion you also have the opportunity to ask their thoughts on various issues. Some of these could be about the manuscript itself. Ask for their input on aspects that have been bothering you (I’m not sure if Chapter 4 makes sense where it is placed in the manuscript or if should it come earlier. What do you think?). Some might be about the broader publishing process. For example, participants likely would have good ideas about presses who might be interested in your manuscript.
Take good notes during the workshop. Some of the most useful parts of the workshop may come not in scholars’ prepared remarks (which they will likely share with you anyway), but in the discussions that emerge during the event. It’s always helpful when someone makes a comment and others in the room agree (or disagree). So be sure to take good notes on the discussion. You might ask another colleague or student to take additional notes to ensure that you don’t miss anything. If permitted, consider audio recording the discussion, though if you plan to do this be sure to get permission from participants ahead of time.
Be prepared for a lot of feedback. Know that you are going to get a lot of comments on your manuscript. This is normal. It’s not uncommon to come away with many pages of single-spaced feedback. Knowing this can help you prepare for it and not feel like there is something wrong with your manuscript.
Make a plan for how to deal with the feedback. Part of this plan might include taking a break after the workshop to give you time to digest the feedback. As you return to it, analyze it for common themes that emerge. If multiple scholars agree that an aspect of your argument could be better developed, they are likely right. Also pay attention to feedback that speaks to particular challenges that you had already observed in your manuscript. But be sure to keep your vision for the manuscript in mind and honor that as you wade through this material. If you are feeling really overwhelmed, perhaps you can get a colleague or writing coach/editor to help you make sense of it. (For more tips on dealing with feedback, see here).
You don’t have to have a book workshop. These events obviously can be very valuable (see above). But there are various reasons why you might not want to do a book workshop, even if you have the funding for one. Maybe you are really crunched for time with your manuscript and don’t think you will be able to incorporate a lot of feedback. Or perhaps you are the kind of person who feels paralyzed by too much feedback. Or maybe you are facing excessive anxiety about your writing and feel like this process would do more harm than good. Give yourself permission to not have a book workshop. Maybe people (most academics!) publish books without them.
Make your own book workshop. If you don’t have formal funding for a book workshop, but think feedback would be helpful to you, consider creating your own mini-workshop. You could, for example, select a chapter of your book manuscript and ask colleagues at your institution (or elsewhere) to read it, offering to do the same for them. Choose part of the book that you think would most benefit from feedback. Having people in a room (or Zoom) together talking about your book can be a powerful thing so creating opportunities to workshop together can be very valuable. Also, check whether small grants might be available from your institution that could fund this work; you might be surprised what is out there.
And an aside to scholars at institutions who have the means to fund book workshops, remember that most people in the academy do not have this luxury. Being willing to exchange work with colleagues at less well-funded institutions is a way to help try and level the publishing playing field a bit.
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For more advice on book workshops, Matthew Salganik has an excellent blog post about his experience of having a book workshop, as does Karen Tani. These guidelines from Virginia Tech are also useful.
Good luck as you plan this process. By identifying clear goals for your workshop, planning well, and making careful choices about who to invite, these events can be positive processes that help launch your books into the world.
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