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<h1 id="free-advice-from-aunt-b">Free Advice from Aunt B.</h1>
<ul class="post-metadata">
<li><time datetime="2006-08-04">04 August 2006</time></li>
<li><a href="/tags/academia/" class="post-tag">academia</a>, </li>
<li><a href="/tags/publishing/" class="post-tag">publishing</a></li>
</ul>
<p>And its really <a href="http://tinycatpants.squarespace.com/journal/2006/8/4/free-advice-for-academic-authors.html">good advice</a>, too: how to write an academic book that folks might actually want to read.</p>
<p>Though she doesnt quite say so, many of the points she makesparticularly that, with respect to outside sources, “[e]ither they prove you right or you prove them wrong or they dont get to be in your book,” and, with respect to audience, that you shouldnt “write for the four people who know more about your subject than you do. They arent going to buy your book. Write for the five thousand people who are smart and curious but dont know as much about your subject as they should”are precisely the differences between a dissertation and a book.</p>
<p>The first trick, I think, in revising your dissertation into a book is to take all of that stuffthe outside sources who are there only to prove that youve consulted them; the references designed to demonstrate to the four people who are reading your dissertation that you really do know your fieldand stick it in the footnotes. Its not part of the flow of your argument, so into the backmatter it goes.</p>
<p>The second trick, however, is to eliminate the half of your footnotes that really arent that important, after all.</p>
<p>Are there other tricks and tips youd care to share?</p>
<ul class="links-nextprev"><li class="links-nextprev-prev">← Previous<br> <a href="/ways-in-which-today-sucks/">Ways in Which Today Sucks</a></li><li class="links-nextprev-next">Next →<br><a href="/other-peoples-conferences/">Other People&#39;s Conferences</a></li>
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