Academic Book Publishing - Generating Raw Material for my Proposal

This week I am asking myself questions that will lead to valuable book proposal material. If you are just tuning in, I'd like to direct you to my initial post where I described my project and noted the book where all these great "steps to publishing" are found.

Here are some of the questions I am asking and the first draft of my answers:

What made me interested in writing about this topic in the first place?

There is a growing realization that churches in Canada are shrinking and it is harder to find full-time pastors to lead them. Some qualitative research and autobiographical work has been done but very little research has looked at biblical and historical origins of multivocational ministry. I had a lot of questions about how early church leaders were supported and where the concept of full-time paid profession ministers came from. So, I set out to find answers. I am also a former multivocational pastor, so the project feels personal.

What people, places, and things do I describe in the book?

I look at Jesus, his disciples, the apostle Paul, other groups and associations, as well as the post-apostolic church. The context is largely the Greco-Roman world. I describe how they were paid and supported in their efforts to preach and teach.

Why should my research findings matter?

Most scholars see Jesus’ disciples as abandoning their trades and jobs to follow the saviour of the world. The apostle Paul on the other hand, with his commitment to tentmaking and self-support, is seen as an outlier. My research questions those traditional assumptions and invites scholars to take a step back and consider whether there might be other things at play. These findings are helpful as we wrestle with the decline in congregational support for pastors, leading to multivocational ministry becoming more mainstream. It is something of a return to what we see in the early church.

Who should read this book and how will they benefit from doing so?

While scholars will find my research intriguing, those educating pastors and ministers will find my book particularly intriguing. Academics interested in connections between biblical and practical theology and those educating pastors for ministry are my primary audience. I would also like to think that my book could be helpful for those considering or working in multivocational ministry but I am not sure.

What’s the main thing I want readers to understand when they finish my book?

Jesus, his disciples, Paul, and the early church leaders likely all worked at times. Some were more self-supporting than others but the idea of a full-time paid church leader was a foreign concept. Multivocationality was alive and well in the early church.

How did I conduct the research for this book?

I took a historical approach to my research, starting with a book about pastors in 19^th century North America and working my way backwards. When I arrived in the New Testament I decided to start writing. I draw on commentaries, books on Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, and biblical texts.

What does this book add to current scholarly conversations and even those happening beyond the academy?

The are current conversations happening about multivocational ministry but they are taking place among practical theologians. Good qualitative research is beginning (e.g., Tentmakers edited by Watson and Santos, Bivocational and Beyond edited by Darryl Stephens, etc.) but this field is lacking solid biblical and theological grounding. My book aims to bring biblical and theological foundation to those in the academy which will hopefully ripple to bolster the credibility for multivocational practitioners.

What makes this book special?

The book brings together new perspectives on ministry in the New Testament as a way to help contemporary educators and practitioners think about funding models for church leadership today.

Why am I the right person to write this book?

I am a scholar-practitioner. I’ve researched and written a book about online theological education where I took a historical-theological approach to pastoral education and provided recommendations for theological education today. I am also the dean of a seminary which houses a Lilly funded project which is designed to provide research and support for multivocational ministry.

What’s the most interesting story from my research and why is it interesting?

The discovery that the Tannaim, or rabbinic sages during the time of Jesus and the apostle Paul, would not accept money for teaching Torah. This finding allowed me to broaden my questions and look at familiar passages with a new lens.    

Anything else?

If it might be of interest, I would consider writing a series of books in this area. As I have already compiled an initial sampling of data, a second book would survey and discuss pastoral funding in the centuries between Constantine and today. A final book could address practical issues facing pastors, churches, denominations, and seminaries as this model of ministry becomes more mainstream.

Gathering submission information from target presses and determining my book's fit

In my ongoing venture of preparing to pitch my book to a publisher, I am starting to shift my attention from finding presses that align with my book's subject area to creating a digital file which includes email contacts and submission guidelines for each.

If you don't know anything about this process, let me enlighten you. It is probably important to know, not all academic presses operate the same way. Special shout out to Julia K. Kostova and Patrick H. Alexander who wrote a little book called Building a Scholarly Career: The ATS Guide to Religious and Theological Publishing. Kostova and Alexander describe in detail the many types of publishers in the field of theological publishing. Their book even includes a helpful 11 x 17 spider diagram outlining a taxonomy of presses. The book groups dozens of presses into nine different categories. Drawing on Kostova and Alexander's work I will describe only three of their categories, those most relevant to my project. 

Press Categories

1. University Presses

University presses, like Oxford or Cambridge, are not-for-profit publishers of scholarly books. They are committed to the process of academic peer review and potential books are approved by a board comprised of faculty members from the university. 

2. Non-denominational Presses

 

Non-denominational presses, such as Eerdmans, Baker Academic, IVP Academic, etc., are for-profit companies that are committed to religious and theological publishing. They are not affiliated with a specific denomination or religious group and usually publish both scholarly and non-scholarly books.

3. Commercial Religion

 

Commercial presses, like Wiley, Routledge, or Bloomsbury, publish religious and theological books as well as books in the social sciences and humanities. Their audiences can be quite large. They have traditionally focused on selling reference works to libraries.

Within each of these categories I compiled a short list of presses to approach. Getting to know each press gives me better sense of how my book might fit. This week I started drafting statements about how I think my book aligns with the mission and repertoire of each press.

Gathering Submission Information

With my narrowed list of presses I scoured each of their websites in search of two things: submission guidelines and contact names. I want to know what editors are looking for in a proposal package and who to contact when the time comes. While non-academic authors generally need an agent to pitch their work to a press, most presses accept unsolicited manuscripts from academic authors. Some publishing houses have generic email addresses and a bulleted list of items to include in the proposal; others have the names and contact information of their acquisitions editors, those who were work authors to bring new books into presses, for authors to contact directly. While all presses have acquisitions editors, some make it easier than others for new authors to contact them directly.