Holding a Book Manuscript Workshop: Lessons from Duke University – May 6, 2025
Session Description
May 6 2025 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Holding a book manuscript workshopoffers a critical opportunity to welcome feedback and input on your near-final book manuscript, strengthening and improvingit before submission to your scholarly press of choice. However, while thebenefits of having a book manuscript workshop are clear, what a book manuscriptworkshop is or can be is less clear. Should you invite an externalreader? How long should the workshop be? When should it be held based on yourtenure timeline?
In this conversation, Sylvia Miller (Director, Scholarly Publishing andResearch Development, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University) and Alison Keith (Director, Jackman Humanities Institute) provide answers tothese questions. Key takeawaysfrom the session will include how and when to organize a book manuscriptworkshop, what to budget for, and how to include your editor for maximum impacton your manuscript. Participants are encouraged to submit questions ahead oftime and there will be ample time set aside for Q&A during the session viathe chat.
This session is part of the Book Publishing Series. Prior sessions’ recordings are available through theCRIS video library (with UTORid).
Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Identify the key steps required to organize and hold a book manuscript workshop
- Develop strategies to integrate collaborative feedback at critical junctures of the book manuscript journey
- Establish key milestones in a revision plan for submission to a scholarly press
