Planning a Multi-author Volume?

I'm a Professional... I Can Help.

 

Getting a multi-author volume out of the starting gate, much less bringing it across that ever-receding finish line, can bring the most accomplished academic to his or her organizational knees.  "Herding cats" doesn't begin to cover it.  There's also cajoling the administration, massaging the budget, badgering the contributors, intriguing the publisher, and, at the culmination of all this hard work, flogging the product.

 

I know about this stuff because I've done it - nine times as of this writing.  I know how to keep track of the various versions of each chapter as they fly from first editor to second editor to author and back again.  I've kept those cats in line and on task (as much as humanly possible) until they came through with the promised chapter, preface, or revision. I've arranged their airfare, honoraria, and hotel rooms for the kickoff and follow-up conferences.  And I've wrangled with the budget mavens at painful length to see we got what we needed when we needed it. You ain't seen nothin' until you've dealt with a Defense Department comptroller's office.