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Stay up to date with the events and knowledge that are shaping the publishing industry.
Lighting the Fire!! The Harlem Renaissance’s Queer Publication
The Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as it was black.” As we bring in 2024’s celebration of Black History month, it feels only right to shine a light on the voices that have been deliberately lost to time. In 1920, the world witnessed the inspired boom of art,...
Is SkyNet Taking Over? AI-Generated Articles Are Popping Up Left and Right
Yes, it’s hyperbolic to say that the machines are truly taking over as James Cameron predicted almost 40 years ago in The Terminator, but everyday seems to bring more and more news stories about AI infiltrating another industry. Publishing is not immune to this...
How to Organize an Author Event as an Independent Author
After your book is written, your hope as an author is for your work to reach interested readers and grow a fan base. But how do you establish connections and locate those readers? One effective approach is to arrange events such as live readings and panel discussions....
How to Procure a Cover Designer for Your Book
You should never judge a book by its cover, but that won’t prevent potential readers from passing over your book if they don’t like its cover artwork and design. So how can you commission a book cover that both attracts readers’ attention and accurately communicates...
Before You Start Writing Your Book: Twenty Things to Consider About Your Story
Are you considering writing a book? Maybe you have a vague idea of a story you’d like to tell, but you aren’t quite sure, or maybe you have a solid idea of what you want to write, but … What might you be missing? When I started writing my (still unfinished) book a few...
Technically Speaking – Part 2
Part I of this two-part post focused on the five major steps to successfully approaching a technical writing project without a technical background. Now, in this second installment, we’ll focus on the list of 10 tips and tricks to successfully making that project...
Word Count in Novels: Is It Important?
Word count — it’s a simple enough thing — write the words and count them. But do word counts really matter when you are writing your novel, and is book length an important thing to consider before publishing? Although there’s no absolute answer, and there’s always an...
How to Be a Good Beta Reader: Reading in Exchange for Critique
What Is a Beta Reader? A Beta Reader is asked to read an author’s work when they’ve finished their original edits, but before the professional editing has begun. They help the author handle big-picture questions regarding story, pacing, plot, character, etc. While...
What’s in a Name? How to Make Sure Your Book Title Looks and Smells as Sweet as a Rose
Maybe I’m showing my age here, but when I was a young adult, I loved going to Barnes & Noble to peruse the new book titles to see what spoke to me. We’re told not to judge a book by its cover, but a cool title on said cover is always helpful in catching the...
ISMTE Recap: When It Comes To Preprints, Trust, but Verify
With the open science movement growing in popularity in the last decade, preprints have become a bigger and bigger part of the publishing industry. They’ve also, in some ways, become a bigger and bigger problem for the publishing industry as well. ISMTE’s recent...
Navigating Reviewer Fatigue
Peer reviewed journals often try to promote timely publication as a selling point to potential authors. An efficient publication process is crucial for scholars who are publishing time-sensitive research and who are required to publish in many disciplines for career...
The Proof is in the Pudding: Networking, Success, and Cliches
You know those sayings that are so ingrained in your brain that you can’t even remember how or when you first heard them — the ones you hated when your mom would use them for comfort or a life lesson but you now find yourself counseling others with? Two wrongs don’t make a right. The early bird gets the worm. You know the ones I’m talking about. Well,...
What You Need to Know About Conflict of Interest
In the world of publication, conflicts of interest are taken very seriously. Yet, it is also easy for an author or reviewer to miss conflicts of interest if they are not fully aware of what a conflict of interest is. So, what is a conflict of interest? A conflict of interest is any financial or non-financial relationship that a person has or might have...
There Are Plenty of Fish in the Publishing Sea
No matter who you are, you have likely experienced the dating world. And if you are in the writing/editing industry, you have probably also tried to get your work published. These two worlds might seem unrelated, but, when you take a closer look, they have much more in common than meets the eye. In both worlds, for example, you are inevitably going to face...
Reference management software: a must-have for authors
The moment is here. After years of planning, experimentation, and analysis you are ready to publish your findings and share your discoveries. Your desktop is littered with manuscript versions one through twelve and your eyes are watering as you scan the final version, anxious to initiate peer review of the work. Before you click “submit”, it’s time to...
STM Publishing and India
Several generations ago, when people in the US imagined what the future might look like, their most optimistic ideas tended toward a kind of Intergalactic Techno-Utopianism best represented in media by L. Ron Hubbard, The Jetsons, or various comic books involving spandex and lasers. This view is now largely museum material. What has replaced it at...
To Catch a Predatory Publisher: Avoiding Scholarly Scams
For researchers, the road to publication is often a difficult one — and it just got even trickier. With the advent of open-access (OA) journals in which authors often pay a fee to be published, the scholarly publishing world has been the target of many scams. Fake journals claim to provide authors an easy road to publication, but instead only tarnish...
Effective Communication in the Publishing Industry
One of the aspects I love most about the publishing industry is the diverse group of professional backgrounds that it attracts. A number of my colleagues were English majors, but there are also plenty of publishing experts who studied history, journalism, or language arts. I even know several people in my line of work who have backgrounds in the sciences,...
So You’ve Been Rejected, Now What? On Appeals in Peer Review Publications
Getting rejected stinks. Wouldn’t it be great if we could appeal people’s decisions in life? Imagine asking someone on a date and getting rejected. What if you could submit an appeal letter explaining your argument with data to back it up? If only. Well, in science, you can. As an editorial assistant, I’ve seen quite a few appeal letters submitted to my...
Nimble Abstracts Best Inform a Variety of Media Consumers
Abstracts are the most read section of any manuscript, and they can decide readers’ stances on your manuscript before they even read your Introduction. Thinking of your abstract as a marketing tool for your manuscript can be daunting. Not only is this important bit of text a self-contained description of the manuscript, it is also used in numerous...
The Top 10 Reasons Acceptance Is Delayed
You, a prospective author, open your inbox eager to receive that long-awaited acceptance email, only to find a request for additional revisions from the editorial office. Waiting to hear from a journal office about your manuscript can be a grueling experience; the last thing you want after meticulously revising your paper is to be asked to revise it again....