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1 & ABOUT THIS BOOK Introduction This is a straightforward—even at times hard-hitting—book about successful academic publishing in journals and books. It is expressly designed and written for you who wish to become successful academic authors especially in the areas of biblical studies, theology and religion, and the arts and humanities. Academic publishing is at the heart of the advancement of learning in the intellectual world. Academic publishing provides the venue where the newest ideas are proposed and developed, and where scholars intellectually expose themselves to the scrutiny of their peers to see if their ideas can pass muster. There is a certain amount of ego strength required to lay out your ideas in print, and it can be daunting to the point of complete paralysis if you are not experienced at it or ready for it. This book is written with the intention of helping, first, those who have not yet developed an active publishing profile in the serious academic world to work toward such a publishing lifestyle and, secondly , those who have not yet achieved their potential to develop further their academic publishing life—all of this based on my own experience and what I have learned as an editor, author, and active academic. By learning how to do so, unnecessary impediments can be minimized, and scholars—including you—can put forward their best work for the benefit of the profession and their own individual research profiles. Writing this book, which is focused primarily upon academic publishing , does not necessarily mean that I do not have respect for those who write for a popular audience (I do have an opinion, but that’s another story). The criteria for publishing popular writing, however, have much more to do with finding subjects that are hot at the time, knowing the right people in the publishing business, timing the market, dumbing 2 Inking the Deal down the content of one’s work, and then dumbing it down again. Most of all, whereas it may pay you well as an author, it makes little to no contribution to the advancement of knowledge and understanding of a subject. If you are interested in learning how to write for the popular book market, or the popular press, I suggest that you find an agent (who probably will only represent you if you are an established author—wait a minute, how does this work?—and will take 15–20 percent of the money from your writing), forget your most challenging and provocative ideas, develop a slick prose style, and cultivate your media image. If, instead, you are interested in how to begin to publish successfully in the academic market, and possibly even to establish a widespread, well-earned, and deserved reputation for yourself as an acknowledged expert in your field, then I have written this book to try to help you. Don’t get me wrong. It is not that I have any objection to having my books sell well or even making money from my writing. However, that is not my primary or even secondary purpose in writing and publishing the scholarship that I do. I am what I like to call a “legacy writer.” That is, I write because I am in pursuit of making a significant and enduring contribution to my field of academic endeavor. In the course of this writing, I hope perhaps to discover some notions or ideas that others have not envisioned before, and maybe even leave an important permanent mark on my fields of study and research. I want future generations of scholars to still be picking up and profitably using the books and articles that I have written, because I captured something important in them, and not simply to find my (onetime popular) books remaindered or chucked out to make space in the library for the newest and latest publication. As a result, I personally focus on writing hard-core academic articles that appear in technical journals or books, and books in monograph series that mostly only academic libraries can afford.1 The joke is that—and I hesitate to say this (and the publisher of this book should ignore what I am about to say)—I would have done all of the writing that I have done for absolutely no financial return, simply because I believe so strongly in the role and importance of making a meaningful scholarly contribution. The most important reward that I have gained has been the repeated sense of accomplishment in...

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