"A good index makes your book more accessible by providing an alphabetical list of terms that a reader might want to be directed to."

Academic Book Publishing: Indexing

In today’s world, when we read so much content on-screen and can so easily use the “find” command, you might question whether an index is still necessary. The answer is yes (read on for why), and that means that once…

"Book promotion -- a team effort", with screenshots of various promotion materials like book website, social media posts, and book trailers

Academic Publishing: Promoting Your Book

Once the publication date for your book is nearing, it’s time to think carefully about how you can help with promotion. Academic publishers do all they can to make sure your work will reach its intended readers, but they have…

Photo of an academic book open at a page containing a table

Academic Publishing: Creating Effective Tables

I have a love/hate relationship with tables. I love when we can incorporate any type of visual into CEL publications, but I hate to see poorly designed or unnecessary tables in academic writing. When creating a table, you have to…

How do you obtain permission?

Academic Book Publishing: Securing Permissions

In our recent blog post on understanding copyright and permissions, we outlined when you do and do not need to secure permission to reproduce someone else’s writing or artwork in your book. This blog post will take you through the…

When is it necessary to seek permission?

Academic Book Publishing: Understanding Permissions

All academic writing builds on previous research. As Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather state in Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, we are “creating and contributing to scholarly conversations—an ongoing dialogue … that involves people and our construction of…

Two graphs shown. The graph on left is default produced by Excel (cluttered and unattractive), graph on right is re-designed following 4 steps discussed in this blog post

Four Steps to Better Data Visualizations

If you’ve collected data in your higher education research on engaged learning, chances are you’d like to present it to your readers in an effective, visually pleasing, and impactful way. The problem is that data visualization is a complex topic,…

Two new book cover designs for Writing about Learning and Teaching, with bright and colorful artwork

Academic Book Publishing: Cover Design

There is little in the book production process that creates as much excitement (and often, disagreement) as the design of the book cover. Every author wants a cover that conveys their enthusiasm for the content within, a cover that communicates…

Academic Book Publishing: Typesetting

Welcome to another post in our series on the process of academic book publishing! We’re taking you through all the steps, from writing and submitting your proposal, working with your editor on the development of your manuscript, and having your book copyedited. In…