Book of Essays?

[leavesoflorien]

I'm thinking of trying to get some eljay academics together to compile a book of scholarly essays. My brain is entirely warped from all of the research I've been doing for my thesis and I've come to realize that it can't be all that hard to put together a collection on any topic

Comments

[fizzykitty]

I'm not sure many academics would want to publish in a book like this. It wouldn't add to the tenure file and wouldn't "count" as a publication because it isn't from an academic press. Maybe it would be more useful if you tried to pitch your idea to an academic press.

[rimrunner]

That was my thought, too. Also, there are quite a few such books of essays out there already, so I'd think there would need to be something substantively new about this one.

[coendou]

Yeah, self-published books can certainly serve a lot of purposes, but they don't really add to one's academic credibility. Someone who is trying to finish their dissertation or work towards tenure is not too likely to have the spare time to do MORE academic writing on something that won't further that goal. It's hard enough to get people to write short articles for newsletters for professional organizations.

[imbrium8]

If you are really set on publishing a collection on this topic, I would suggest talking to your adviser (I assume, based on the thesis reference, that you are a grad student), and ask about the viability of the book as an academic publication, and about the process of putting together such a collection. This is not how one typically begins putting together an edited volume.

[tx_cronopio]

You can call this group a lot of things, but being afraid to speak up is not one of them.

[pansette]

Well put.

[sjester]

You may be underestimating the work involved in such a project. What do you do if you don't get as many submissions as you'd like? Do you know people who work in this area that you can harangue for papers? What can you offer them if they do submit? Also, there are already quite a few collections of essays on Tolkien and mythology and whatnot. Most of them with a narrower focus than you seem to have. If you are really committed to this project, you may want to take a look at what's already out there and figure out how you're going to differentiate your book from the dozens that have already been published. These are just the issues that come immediately to my mind.

[homericlaughter]

This is a joke, right?

[max_ambiguity]

I know I'm laughing.

[homericlaughter]

It's a good thing the OP brought this up, because I keep forgetting to ask everyone on the internet to contribute to my collection on all history ever or maybe on some things that didn't happen but could have? THERE WILL BE AN INDEX. Let me know!