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Has anyone here ever been part of a textbook writing project? I have been asked to lend my writing and editing ability to the development of a proposal and potentially to the writing of the book.
Just wondered what I needed to know, or if anyone had advice.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Medicine. The co-authors are doctors and other medical personnel.
I have no expertise in the subject matter but will mainly work on formatting the proposal and pulling all the writing together - they will supply the expertise.
I've begun by researching the major publishers and getting their proposal guidelines, and then will work with the authors on the creation of the actual proposal. Again, I just wondered if anyone had gone through the process before and had advice. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I've been a research assistant to a professor writing books intended for use in graduate classes. Not exactly textbooks, in the sense of a broad overview or "spine" for a course, though.
One thing beyond getting the proposal guidelines is to look at the publisher's catalog and figure out how the book you're proposing complements their other offerings.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Financial reward is not the goal. The people involved sincerely want to improve education in their field and fill a need they perceive for a more targeted textbook. They want to leave a legacy and improve education and build their resumes for the future.
No one is expecting to get rich on the project, least of all me. I'm just a writing lackey.
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You might get some funny stories out of it. One of my professors used to work for a medical research company when she was in grad school. Her job was to take their reports and make them readable, since apparently every doctor and researcher at the facility was utterly incapable of writing a coherent paragraph. I can't remember most of them now, but she had some really funny stories about the things they wrote, especially some of the more colorful and out there euphemisms they used for bodily functions.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I used to work as an assistant editor at a (small) textbook publisher. We did pretty much strictly humanities, though, so I'm not sure whether any of my experience has any bearing on a science textbook.
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