On the path to academic publishing, authors frequently encounter stalls and roadblocks, whether as part of the writing process or at the point of finding and securing the right venue for their work. We support many scholars at these moments of challenge and have a granular understanding of the current publishing landscape. We offer a range of consultation services to help you feel equipped to move forward with your projects, large or small.
Manuscripts and research programs
We happily consult on long-term publishing projects to support you in meeting your goals. This includes reading and discussing text in process and partial drafts, helping you devise and maintain a schedule, and talking through ideas as well as the themes of your work so that you can articulate them clearly from the outset.
Book proposals
The book proposal is your gateway to publishing a monograph or edited volume. We review book proposals, consult on the text itself, discuss how to contact and approach publishers (including reviewing your cover letter), and advise on appropriate audience, fit, and format.
Revise & resubmits
We work often with authors navigating peer review, which has given us the opportunity to examine an extraordinary number of reader reports. We offer consultations to help authors understand what reviewers are seeing in a text and to strategize a plan for responding.
Communications
Given the opacity that can surround publication, clear and open communication is crucial—especially for first-time authors. We provide guidelines and offer practical advice on approaching presses and navigating rapidly changing publishing processes in the context of university requirements and professional demands.
Professional materials
Whether it is a fellowship application or a tenure file, we are experienced in the language and expectations of academic applications. We can help you frame your professional contributions in ways that support your career goals.
Workshops
In addition to these individual consulting services, we offer in-person and virtual workshops on every phase of the publishing process, from each specific step to the broad overview. These can be tailored to graduate students, early career faculty, or broader scholarly audiences. Faculty writing groups and development offices, university and college departments, and research institutes may contact us at info@textformations.com for additional information.
I truly cannot thank you enough for your careful readings and incredibly insightful edits. It was so clear to me at the end just how much your suggestions and queries lifted the manuscript as a whole and made it the best version of itself. I truly could not have wished for a better experience and am so grateful. It would be an absolute pleasure to work with you again in the future.
—Assistant Professor, Yale University