Should I Do an Edited Collection?
Posted on July 24, 2012 by Karen
No.
Let me say it again: No.
Let’s put it a different way:
You: But, it’s just the papers from a conference panel. Is it ok then?
Me: No.
You: But, I’m co-editing it, so I don’t have to do all the work. Is it ok
then?
Me: No. And, please, co-editing? Are you kidding me?
You: But all I have to do is collect and edit the papers and write an Intro.
Is it ok then?
Me: No. And you’re doing all this and don’t even have a chapter in it? Are
you kidding me?
You: But I’ll have a book for tenure.
Me: No, you won’t. Edited collections don’t count.
You: But it’ll get me a job.
Me: You want to know what’ll get you a job? A REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLE
IN THE TOP JOURNAL IN YOUR FIELD. Write that! Write two of them! Hell,
you can write a whole effing monograph in the time you are going to waste
fighting with your contributors, waiting for the external reviewers, arguing
with your lame press, agonizing over the copy-editing, and trying to market
the book because your lame press doesn’t spend a dime in advertising.
You: Really?
Me: Yes.
You: An editor from a really great press I never heard of actually got in
touch with me! And asked me to do it! Is it ok then?
Me: No, and never, ever, ever accept an offer of publication from someone
from a press you’ve never heard of. Or even a press you have heard of, if
they come chasing after you. It’s the prom, sweetheart. Don’t go with the
first person who asks you (unless they’re the dream date you’ve been
waiting for). Do the work, and get yourself into position to get the date
you really want.
You: But I am already committed.
Me: Get out of the commitment.
You: But it’s my friends.
Me: Have drinks with your friends. Go to Vegas with your friends. Do not
waste your precious writing and research time gathering up and, god forbid,
editing, your friends’ questionable essays and volunteering unpaid,
uncredited time to get your friends a publication. And by the way, their
chapter in your edited collection is barely going to do them any good either.
You: But I’m going to go ahead and do this edited collection.
Me: It’s your funeral.
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About Karen
I am a former tenured professor at two institutions--University of Oregon
and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I have trained numerous Ph.D
. students, now gainfully employed in academia, and handled a number of
successful tenure cases as Department Head. I've created this business, The
Professor Is In, to guide graduate students and junior faculty through grad
school, the job search, and tenure. I am the advisor they should already
have, but probably don't.
