Getting It Published, Fourth Edition: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books

In this thoroughly updated fourth edition, a trusted editor offers a comprehensive guide to selecting--and working with--a book publisher.

For more than two decades, writers have turned to William Germano's Getting It Published as a guide to the world of serious book publishing, including university presses. A professor, author, and thirty-year veteran of the book industry, Germano knows what editors want and what writers need to do to get their work published.

This fourth, thoroughly updated edition of Getting It Published accounts for new challenges facing authors and changed conditions in the publishing industry. From open access to peer review, from approaching a press to considering an agent, publishing can be confusing for authors trying to understand their options. This new edition continues to offer the clear, practicable guidance on choosing the best path to publication that has made the book such a trusted resource. Its latest revisions include an expanded chapter on proposals (and their covering emails) as well as current information on the shifting landscape of ebook publishing. But this book is more than a nuts-and-bolts guide. It takes up a writer's biggest challenges: how to frame a book-length project, shape its argument, conceive its audience, and pitch it convincingly to an editor.

Getting It Published reflects the latest changes and technologies in the publishing industry but keeps its eye on what remains constant: Whether working on their first book or their fifth, writers can make their work stronger by knowing what publishers do and why they do it.

Author: William Germano
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 05/12/2026
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780226844794

About the Author

William Germano is the author of several books, including From Dissertation to Book and On Revision, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. His most recent book, co-written with Kit Nicholls, is Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything. He has served as editor-in-chief at Columbia University Press, vice president and publishing director at Routledge, and dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he is now professor of English.