Thursday, June 18th, 2009...8:59 am
Ask Amy: Goverment Is Good!
Douglas J. Amy, professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College had a problem: An established scholar with three scholarly books on his curriculum vitae, Amy decided that he had another book to write but one that would reach a wide general audience. However, when he wrote the book, he found no trade press (which would have marketing and distribution) interested in it, while interested university presses could not afford either substantial marketing or widespread distribution.
So Amy decided to self publish Government is Good: An Unapologetic Defense of a Vital Institution as a Web site.
Amy critiques the Right-Wing war on government (including its real agenda and rhetoric) and analyzes the essential functions (most of which we take for granted because they usually operate smoothly and in our favor) of government.
You can read his narrative of this self-publishing venture and his lessons learned in his article “Adventures in Web Publishing” in Inside Higher Ed.
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2 Comments
June 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Thanks, Tom. Web publishing is best done by established scholars, since tenure committees still tend to dismiss its significance.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Exactly, Charles. The MLA, as you know, has urged departments in language and literature to review their tenure and promotion policies with respect to book/monograph expectations. Scholarly book publishing is in a free-fall without a working parachute (golden or otherwise), jeopardizing the careers of emerging scholars.
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