I have never shared this publicly on my blog, but I have a big dream of publishing a book. If you follow my twitter conversations on the Wednesday night #educoach chat, then you could probably guess what I'd like to write about (and have been working on for quite some time now with Shira Leibowitz and Kathy Perret).
This is why I chose to attend the #ASCD13 session on "How to turn your great ideas into a great ASCD book" led by ASCD editors Genny Ostertag and Stefani Roth and by authors Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey. This was the perfect session for a writer to attend and I especially enjoyed hearing Fisher and Frey's stories on writing (I LOVE learning about authors!)
If you'd like to write, but maybe not a whole book Eric Vandenheuvel attended the ASCD session on publishing an article.
HERE are the notes he took in that session (Thank you Eric!)
Here are my notes from this session:
What do you want to write about most?
Do: choose a relevant topic that meets a need in the field that you have expertise/experience to share. ASCD gives priority to topics that include educating the whole child (their mission) and will look for this in a proposal.
What's your hook?
What
really differentiates your content, what makes it special/different.
What makes people think "that's a problem I have and I can solve it."
Think of a spine supporting everything in it, provides a backbone for
all the material. Make sure you have a fresh angle.
Don't: give a gimmick or try to hard (ex: abc's list or sending with a teddy bear)
Who
is your audience? who is your writing for? What outcomes will they be
looking for? You must connect with your readers and offer solutions to
their problems. What keeps them up at night? Don't tell them it's for
everyone. If you say everyone will love it, then you likely haven't
thought of your audience.
Competition--do
you research to know your competition. What has been done already and
why was it done? If there's nothing on it, it may be a reason. Don't
assume your idea is original. Google your title, google under
publishers.
Starting April 15, ASCD will be accepting proposals in an online portal that will allow you to track your manuscript's progress. Proposal guidelines are at
www.ascd.org/write When you send in your proposal don't
skim on sample material. They'd rather see the whole manuscript than
just one chapter. They are important for the review team. They need to
get to know you on the page. More is better than less.
What do editors want? Top 5 qualities:
1. Original-What is original about your piece? Give fresh information. Don't state the obvious (no lit review).
2. Research
based-evidence based, make sure it is scalable/sustainable. Don't
labor over methodology. Good example: new Principal Evaluation book by
James Stronge. Not every book has to be that research-based. Could just
have one chapter that includes the research and then move on to be
practical. Don't just say "We know from research" and not cite anything.
3. Practical- Provide guidance as specific as you can so people know, but don't be too academic. It needs to be readable.
4.
Specific-Offer helpful ideas, show what they look like in real
classrooms/schools, don't over-generalizes so much that readers can't specify
to their situations. If you can't figure out to apply to your school
while you're reading, you'll stop reading. A great example is How to
Create and use Rubrics.
5.
Conversational-ensure your text is engaging, succinct, easy to navigate,
be accessible, be yourself. An editor can help you add research, but
they can't make it super conversational and give you personality...you
need to do that. Don't include a lot of jargon or over-complicated
language. Don't try to impress people with crazy big words. Don't be
over-personal "I'm so great, I'm the best..." Great example: How to
Create a Culture of Achievement by Fisher and Frey.
DeClutter--make sure that other people can see themselves using it. Put forth the how-to.
Do talk to published authors! Dont' stalk them!! (They must not be
on twitter...my authors on twitter don't mind the stalking and have
become great resources!)
 |
| Frey and Fisher sharing their writing tips |
Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey shared their writing experiences and tips:
If you get a contract from a publisher-whatever date you negotiate...HIT IT! When they say your manuscript will come in on 11/15, that means they have lined up editors and the rest of the team for that date. If
you don't hit it, they will not want you for future books. Add 3
months to what you say you can do and then ask the editor for that date
and then hit it. If something comes up, tell them immediately so they
can try to change it. They do NOT like it if you miss a deadline.
Fisher said (about their published books), "None
of these are our titles! The marketing department gets the title and
the cover...none of them were in our minds. Let it go, don't make the
exact title/cover your concern. The marketing department knows what
they're doing. I don't even bother anymore...I just give a general
"here's what the book is about" for the title."
Processes
to write-everyone develops their own. Nancy writes in an office at Doug's house, because his house is bigger and she won't get distracted by knowing what laundry needs to be washed! They have 2 desks in one office to talk to each
other to parcel out what they will each write about. Planning process-they cover the back of the office door with sticky notes to sort based on
those sticky notes. Then they put on individual sticky notes a shorthand
about the point/tool and then easily move/sort ideas into chapters.
Gives a good visual for conversations.
Other publishers-know who they are and who best fits your ideas.
Write about what you know. Look closely
at your context/experiences, this is what you are expert in. Listen to
what people ask of you, pay attention to the patterns that emerge in
those questions. That's the idea that you need-if they're seeking you
out about something, it means they can't find it out somewhere else and
it means you're an expert in.
Books
are all about the same size. Do not write a thick book for ASCD. Aim
for 50,000 words. If you're at 45,000 in chapter 3 you're writing too
much. If you hit 60,000 it won't be thrown out, but you don't want it to
be too long. People want short chapters to read. They're busy and want
to read small chunks in one sitting. If it's too long, they'll stop.
When
you send a proposal, do not send your first chapter--if you wrote it
first, it won't be your best chapter. It's likely very general and
probably won't show your conversational tone and practical examples. Write
the meat first and THEN write the 1st chapter. Otherwise you end up
saying everything you want to say in the first chapter!
Nancy
keeps a writer's notebook to jot down good ideas. You don't want to
lose your thoughts in busy lives. Keep track of super funny quotes too!!
Keep those little stories that could possibly be used.
If
you've been in education for a number of years, you have a book inside
of you! It's just that some people take the time to sit down and do it.
Your butt in a chair...that's how you write a book! Part of the writing process is like being a brick
layer of words. There's a level of discipline to keeping yourself from
being distracted. Schedule time to write. Treat it like a meeting.
Schedule it just like a conference or something else that's important.
Keep it as a promise to yourself. If you can't do that, how can you keep
a promise to someone else.
Create a goal
for each day, ex "today I will write this idea." "Today I want to
finish___" and then stop. This will help you pace yourself better to
finish the book. You will get fatigued and get frustrated if you try to
write for 8 hours a day. Nancy
writes notes about what they talked about so she can look back if they
haven't written them yet. You will paralyze yourself if you keep going
back to reread what you've already written. Leave yourself a note to
know where to start tomorrow and get going again.
Doug said that staring at a blank page intimidates him so he opens a chapter from a previous book
and writes notes on the top of the page and then copy/pastes it to where
he's working...it's all a psychological thing for him! Nancy-puts down
a quote or a scenario to get something on the page. She may not keep
it, but it gets the flow going.
Their first book started as a conversation in the car. Her
first chapter took 4 weeks to write---laboriously. Now she writes fast.
It was hard for her emotionally to see the edits/revisions come back,
because it's like your own child. She's learned to become detached from
that. When you get your first book out, ask the publisher for a copy
of the cover to frame on your wall...it feels good to look at it.
And have you ever wondered how ASCD chooses their member books? (The free one you get with your membership?) It must weigh less than 1 pound!
