If you have taken up the task to prepare an edited volume, there could be several reasons behind it. Maybe you want to drive attention to a topic you think is important, to establish your name in the field, or this is your way to mentor junior scholars.
What’s important is that you first need to derive a strategy for your edited volume. You need to plan for the overall assembly and production of the entire volume. It is a difficult job, and there are many academic editing services in Mumbai now offer a team of experienced editors to accomplish such projects.
Here are a few tips to produce a great edited volume.
Set an Overarching Theme
Your edited volume needs to appear coherent with a well-integrated voice. It can be achieved if you know the topics to be covered and your target readership. Identify the critical content so that your volume does not look like a collection of semi-related chapters.
Identify Suitable Authors
Target good authors whose research complements your theme. Be open-minded enough to include unfamiliar authors that could contribute to your volume. You may issue a call for chapters. Be very specific to declare your requirements for the material.
Manage Writing Processes Efficiently
To ensure that you have a cohesive book at the end, provide detailed guidelines to the contributors. You can seek the help of one of many academic copy editing services in India, such as Stylus Solutions, to define an overall format of your volume.
Create a draft of the introductory chapters so that the contributors get an idea of the theme and format. Assign specific questions for them to answer to find the right material to include.
Ask the contributors to present drafts to ensure that chapters are connected. If possible, assign discussants for each chapter. Inform fixed deadlines for contributors and always set aside extra time as a contingency.
Prepare a concluding chapter that summarises the book’s contributions.
Provide Necessary Feedback
Maintain effective and frequent communication with contributors. Ask for reassessment in case of any issues, which will save a lot of time later. Make sure the contributor agrees upon in advance, to provide original work. In the case of published content, ask the contributor to get written permission from the original publisher.
Stay Organised
From the early stages of planning to final editing, keep the project organised and apply good documentation practices. Prepare a master list of all chapters, including chapter and author contact details, along with details of the assigned editor, delivery dates, additional notes, and correspondence information.
Keep a progress report regularly updated with project status. Divide responsibilities among the team members definitively and be clear about the timeline allotted to the volume.
Make sure you can deliver before claiming a delivery date for the publication. Wait till you are at the advanced stage to do so. Prepare to remove a contributor from the volume if you can no longer guarantee a submission on time.
You may need a team of editors to complete an edited volume, as it requires you to spend time improving content submitted by others. You can always get help from one of many academic editing services in Mumbai, to produce a comprehensive edited volume. Stylus Solutions is a company thoroughly experienced in academic editing that provides such services. You can visit www.stylusolutions.com or mail your queries at [email protected].