Publishing a monograph is essential to the careers of scholars in many disciplines, but the academic publishing process is often opaque and mystifying. This spring, the Obermann Center begins a new program to set UI faculty and graduate students up for success in the publishing market by connecting them with an accomplished editor from a scholarly press.
Our inaugural Editor-in-Residence, Mark Simpson-Vos, is the Senior Executive Editor at University of North Carolina Press. He manages acquisitions across multiple disciplines, including religious studies, American culture, popular music, Native American and Indigenous studies, and Civil War era history. During his April residency at the Obermann Center, Simpson-Vos will host a talk for graduate students writing their first book, deliver a public lecture on issues in scholarly publishing, and lead a faculty book proposal workshop.
Ahead of his arrival on campus, we asked Simpson-Vos several questions about what he hopes to accomplish through his residency, how he views the state of scholarly publishing today, and his advice for those trying to break into scholarly publishing, either as authors or as editors.
The responses below have been edited for concision.
As Obermann’s inaugural Editor-in-Residence, what do you look forward to accomplishing during your visit to the University of Iowa campus?
My broadest hope is that my time with faculty and students will help nurture better understanding and closer relationships between scholarly publishers and the members of the scholarly communities we exist to serve. When I spend time visiting campuses and talking with students, faculty, and administrators, I’m struck by how many people can describe good relationships with an editor who helped with a particular book or essay, along with a basic appreciation of the role of peer review in scholarly publishing – but the same people tend to feel much of what publishers do is opaque, or even at odds with their goals as producers and consumers of the works we publish. In spending a few days engaging with writers and readers not just about the mechanics of writing a good proposal or navigating the first-book publishing process but also the bigger picture of the ecosystem we share, I hope I can build a stronger sense of our common purpose and goals.
What makes a book proposal stand out to you?
A book proposal is going to look different based on the kind of book a writer is producing, and the kind of audience the writer hopes to reach. But if I think across all the various kinds of books I’ve had the chance to publish, the ones that pop for me always express a strong sense of purpose – a major research question that needs better answers, an intervention that will meaningfully change the way readers think, a great sense of surprise. And all of this is ultimately connected to a keen sense of audience. Editors are always looking for a potent answer to the “so what” question, but I always add a “for whom?”
Laura Portwood-Stacer published a book a couple of years ago that I love to recommend, suitably titled The Book Proposal Book. It’s excellent, and I would generally endorse everything it offers in the way of advice.
What brings you the most joy in your job? What books or series are you the proudest of having worked on?
Simply put, I get the greatest joy from helping writers achieve their goals. There’s something deeply satisfying when I get to send an author a first copy of their finished book, but I get a bigger charge out of moments when I can see something a writer has been wrestling with snap into place along the way—a thorny organizational matter, a concise distillation of an argument, or a recognition that an idea connects to another in an unexpected way.
One initiative very near and dear to my heart was First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies. I dreamed it up with another editor as a way to help solidify the emergence of critical Indigenous studies as a field and methodology, and we ended up working with four publishers, an amazing board of Indigenous scholars, and about 50 first-time authors and books. Many of them were Indigenous authors, and in some cases they were writing the first scholarly books about their own communities. I can go through the list now and see leaders in the field who are training their own students, generating amazing new work, and meaningfully changing the way we understand Indigeneity and Indigenous people around the world.
What do you think is the future of scholarly publishing?
This may sound simple, but I think the future of scholarly publishing is what scholars want and need it to be. Time and again I’ve seen creative adaptation and new initiatives arise when scholars start using new tools and methods, prioritizing reaching new kinds of audiences, and engaging with published work in new ways. Digital publishing is a quintessential example. After early experimentation of all kinds, we’ve found scholars want and need expansive access to large bodies of research material in digital form as a help in discovery, quick engagement, and teaching. But scholars in many fields also value access to print for more intensive engagement. So publishers have gotten very good at offering both in a sustainable way.
I am fairly optimistic by nature, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t deeply concerned about the future of colleges and universities and how changes in higher education inevitably impact what happens in the publishing part of higher ed. Also—reflecting my bias here as a nonprofit university press person—so much of the infrastructure of scholarly publishing remains tied up in for-profit corporations where the value proposition and mission seems to be at odds with the kinds of inquiry and discovery that happens within a university. Throw the disruptive nature of generative AI and large language models into the mix, add a big splash of declining trust in the value of expertise, and you have a pretty volatile brew.
That said, the power of the written word has endured through some massive changes over a couple of millennia. I’m betting on the human ability to create with language in a way that communicates distinctly and precisely with other humans.
What advice do you have for somebody interested in becoming an editor?
Start as soon as you can. Publishing is an apprenticeship industry where you’re really expected to learn your way in and up from the ground floor. There is no bad first job in publishing, because at the entry level the skills and knowledge are often transferrable. But there is lots of competition for those positions, so you want to get started and cast a wide net. Bear in mind, just because you’ve written your own work – a thesis or dissertation, for example – it doesn’t mean you’re going to be adept at helping others do the same. To be a successful editor, that’s really the whole ballgame.