jobs.ac.uk - Great jobs for bright people
  • Find a Job
  • Find PhDs
  • Career Advice
  • Jobs by Email
  • Recruiters
  • Your Account

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

career-advice.jobs.ac.uk

Secondary Sidebar

jobs.ac.uk Career Advice

  • CV and Cover Letter Advice
    • CV Tips
    • Free CV Templates
    • Cover Letters
    • Personal Profiles
    • CV Resources
  • Jobseeking and Interview Tips
    • Jobseeking Tips
    • Academic Interviews
    • Professional Interviews
    • Jobseeking and Interview Resources
  • Career Development
    • Academic Careers
    • Research Careers
    • Professional Careers
    • Working in Industry
    • Career Development Resources
    • Global Careers
    • Working From Home
  • Women in Higher Education
  • Resources
    • Academic Case Studies
    • Professional Case Studies
    • Interview questions tool
    • Job Profiles
      • Health and Medical
      • Engineering and Technology
    • Blog
    • Vlogs
  • Webinars
  • Country Profiles
    • Africa
      • Egypt
      • Ghana
      • Kenya
      • Nigeria
      • South
    • Americas
      • Canada
      • United States of America
    • Asia
      • Bahrain
      • Brunei
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Japan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Malaysia
      • Qatar
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Singapore
      • South Korea
      • Turkey
      • United Arab Emirates
    • Europe
      • Belgium
      • Denmark
      • Finland
      • France
      • Germany
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Russia
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • United Kingdom
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
  • Studentship Advice
    • PhD
    • Studentship Resources
    • Vlogs
  • Sections
    • CV and Cover Letter Advice
      • CV Tips
      • CV Templates
      • Cover Letters
      • Personal Profiles
      • CV Resources
    • Jobseeking and Interview Tips
      • Jobseeking Tips
      • Academic Interviews
      • Professional Interviews
      • Jobseeking and Interview Resources
    • Career Development
      • Academic Careers
      • Research Careers
      • Professional Careers
      • Working in Industry
      • Career Development Resources
      • Global Careers
    • Resources
      • Academic Case Studies
      • Professional Case Studies
      • Interview questions tool
      • Blog
      • Vlogs
    • Country Profiles
      • Africa
        • Egypt Country Profile
        • Ghana Country Profile
        • Kenya Country Profile
        • Nigeria Country Profile
        • South Africa Country Profile
      • Americas
        • Canada Country Profile
        • United States of America Country Profile
      • Asia
        • Bahrain Country Profile
        • Brunei Country Profile
        • China Country Profile
        • Hong Kong Country Profile
        • India Country Profile
        • Japan Country Profile
        • Kazakhstan Country Profile
        • Malaysia Country Profile
        • Qatar Country Profile
        • Saudi Arabia Country Profile
        • Singapore Country Profile
        • South Korea Country Profile
        • Turkey Country Profile
        • United Arab Emirates Country Profile
      • Europe
        • Belgium Country Profile
        • Denmark Country Profile
        • Finland Country Profile
        • France Country Profile
        • Germany Country Profile
        • Ireland Country Profile
        • Italy Country Profile
        • Netherlands Country Profile
        • Norway Country Profile
        • Russia Country Profile
        • Spain Country Profile
        • Sweden Country Profile
        • Switzerland Country Profile
        • United Kingdom Country Profile
      • Oceania
        • Australia Country profile
        • New Zealand Country Profile
    • Studentship Advice
      • PhD
      • Studentship Resources
      • Vlogs

Academic Writing: How To Write A Textbook

This article explores an often neglected aspect of academic publishing: the student textbook. Many scholars regularly publish their research in journal articles or academic monographs but never consider writing a textbook.

Why write a textbook?

Many lecturers become frustrated because a course that they want to teach has no obvious textbook to recommend to students. If this is the case, why not write your own? As innovative teachers working with the latest theories and approaches, we often find that student textbooks do not keep up with the trends explored in our research, meaning that students can struggle to grasp these ideas.

Textbooks can have a significant international audience, with US academia especially relying on the student purchase of a key text to guide them through a semester’s course. Unlike the publication of academic monographs, publishing student textbooks can offer considerable financial benefit to the authors because students buy a copy each rather than relying on sales to libraries as is the case with most monographs.

Considering co-authoring?

Many publishers prefer that textbooks have an authorial team rather than one author. This is because the ideas that make up a textbook’s content are not solely the intellectual product of one person but of a synthesis of the field, so it makes sense to have a number of scholars on board preparing the content.

Expertise on the methods of teaching and need for a book in a particular national context can help to sell the book. For example, having a European and US scholar working together helps to make the book relevant on both sides of the Atlantic, and consequently boost sales.

Finding a publisher

Looking for a textbook publisher is a different procedure from finding one for a monograph. Make sure you research which companies are the key players in the field, as the top monograph publishers may not be the best for textbooks.

If you are a full time academic you will find that textbook publishers come to you. You will be approached by publishers offering free ‘inspection copies’ of their existing books to encourage you to adopt the books as recommended texts for your courses. Alternatively, publishers’ representatives often visit universities and arrange face to face meetings with academics to discuss this. As an author you can take this opportunity to see whether the publisher would be interested in your proposed textbook.

The writing process

If you collaborate with colleagues overseas on the textbook, the writing process will have to be managed carefully. It helps to assign one member of the partnership or team to maintain contact with publishers, another to deal with images, and so on. The division of the writing will be different in every case, but it is important that any split is equitable, and that this is reflected in the division of royalties. Most co-authors find it easiest to allocate entire chapters to one writer, rather than having a number of contributors working on one section simultaneously, but with modern methods of communication, file sharing and editing, any version of the collaborative process is becoming viable.

Catherine Armstrong,Academic, Research & Teaching

Share this article

Reader Interactions

You may also like:

What You Should Include in a Personal Statement
How to attract the right PhD candidate
Research Jobs in Medical Technology

Comments

  1. Book Writers says

    29th December 2019 at 4:56 am

    Of course, what a splendid website and educative posts, I will bookmark your website.All the Best!

    Reply
  2. Prof. N. Balasubramanian says

    16th February 2021 at 6:02 pm

    Excellent guidelines. Congratulations.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Follow us

Latest Jobs

  • Faculty Position in Urban Planning and Design [Open Rank]

    Urban Planning and Design, Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University

    Location(s): Suzhou

    Salary: Competitive salary in the market


  • Faculty Position in HeXie Management Research Centre (Open Rank)

    HeXie Management Research Centre, Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University

    Location(s): Suzhou

    Salary: Competitive salary in the market


  • Associate Lecturer: MBA

    Guildhall School of Business and Law, London Metropolitan University

    Location(s): London

    Salary: £49.74 per hour


  • Associate Lecturer: MBA

    Guildhall School of Business and Law, London Metropolitan University

    Location(s): London

    Salary: £49.74 per hour


  • Research Assistant / Postdoctoral Research Associate (0.474 Fte)

    School Of The Arts Department Of English , University of Liverpool

    Location(s): Liverpool

    Salary: £30,503 - £42,155 pro rata


  • 'Professor of Immersive Design

    University of Hull

    Location(s): Kingston upon Hull

    Salary: £61,000+


Footer

jobs.ac.uk - Great jobs for bright people
  • Find a Job
  • Find PhDs
  • Career Advice
  • Jobs by Email
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Accessibility Statement

Copyright © jobs.ac.uk 1998 - 2022

  • Find a Job
  • Find PhDs
  • Careers Advice
  • Jobs by Email
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Accessibility
jobs.ac.uk - Great jobs for bright people

Copyright © jobs.ac.uk 1998 - 2022