Crafting a compelling book proposal is both an art and a strategic exercise that sits at the intersection of scholarly rigor, craft, and market awareness. Faculty authors from R2 institutions struggle with navigating a complex and competitive scholarly publishing landscape, and many need assistance developing a book proposal, which has become a genre of its own. Library publishers and university presses now find a shared purpose in helping faculty scholars articulate their ideas, find relevant presses, work with editors, and get published. This presentation explores how university presses and library publishers can collaborate through the book proposal development process to help aspiring faculty authors develop book proposals that catch the attention of editors and lead to book deals. Using a case study from Appalachian State University, this presentation will describe how library publishers and university presses can partner to support faculty during the book proposal development stage, using collaborative models, such as workshops and consultations, to help faculty craft stronger book proposals. This presentation will also examine how library publishers can identify and build sustainable cross-campus partnerships that improve the overall faculty author experience and strengthen publishing pipelines that support both open and traditional models of dissemination. Finally, this presentation will examine the core components of an effective proposal and highlight how library publishers are uniquely positioned to facilitate relationships between university presses and faculty authors.
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