Writing And Editing Books

Writing and Editing Books: Processes, Benefits, and Pitfalls

Jane F. Gilgun, Editor University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Prepared for the National Council on Family Relations Round Robin for Book Authors Thursday, November 17, 2005 Phoenix, Arizona 1

Note This set of essays was a handout for the Round Robin for Book Authors that I originated at the annual conference of the National Council on Family Relations. Sage Publications provided appetizers and beverages. I would like to make this volume more widely available. It is on my website at: ssw.che.umn.edu/Faculty_Profiles/Gilgun_Jane.html or on the NCFR website at www.ncfr.org. Others may copy and distribute this free of charge. If any individual or organization would like to sell these, please contact Jane Gilgun or Cindy Winter at NCFR. Contact information is below. Jane Gilgun January 3, 2006 Minneapolis, MN USA In memory of Bron Ingoldsby, who died too young in October 2005. Bron is the co-author of one of the essays in this booklet. Thank you, Bron, for your good work on behalf of children and families.

National Council on Family Relations 3989 Central Avenue, N.E., Suite 550 Minneapolis MN 55421 USA Toll free (US & Canada): 888/781-9331 763/781-9331: www.ncfr.org Jane F. Gilgun Professor, School of Social Work University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 1404 Gortner Avenue St. Paul MN 55108 USA phone: 612/624-3643 e-mail: [email protected]

http://www.pdfcoke.com/professorjane © 2005/2006 by Jane F. Gilgun

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Table of Contents Foreword:
Books
Matter
 Jane F. Gilgun 


Karen
Bogenschneider
 Putting Ink to the Page: The Process of Writing the Book : Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families and What Professionals Can Do Pauline
Boss
 The Process of Writing Long: Ambiguous Loss and Loss, Trauma and Resilience Marilyn
Coleman
&
Lawrence
Ganong
 Stepfamily Relationships: Development, Dynamics, and Interventions; Handbook of Contemporary Families: Considering the Past, Contemplating the Future;& Points and Counterpoints: Controversial Relationship and Family Issues in the 21st Century Penny
Low
Deiner
 Writing the Book I Wanted to Use in My Own Teaching: Resources for educating children with diverse abilities: Birth through eight Steve
Duncan
&
Wally
Goddard
 A Practical Text that Addresses a Need: Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach

8







11

12

16

18

Martha
Farrell
Erickson
&
Karen
Kurz­Riemer


A Long and Winding Road: Writing Infants, Toddlers & Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention

21




Maxine
hammonds­smith
 A Publisher-Initiated Book: Child and Adult Care Professionals

24




S.M.H.
Hanson,
V.
Gedaly­Duff,
&

J.R.
Kaakinen

 An instant success: Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice & Research

25





Scott
R.
Harris.
 From Dissertation to Published Book: The Meanings of Marital Equality

27




Bron
B.
Ingoldsby
&
Suzanna
D.
Smith
 Variations in Family Life: Families in global & multicultural perspective Mary
Ann
Lamanna
 Two Books, Two Stories: Marriages and Families: Making Choices in a Diverse Society with Agnes Riedmann and Emile Durkheim on the Family. 

 Phyllis
Moen
&
Patricia
Roehling
 Mismatches & Contradictions: The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream

29

31 33




Amelia
Rose

 Self-Publishing: A Minister’s Guide to Domestic Violence

36

Jacqueline
Scott,
Judith
Treas,
&
Martin
Richards
 Family Life Today: The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of the Family

38

Bahira
Sherif
Trask
&
Raeann
R.
Hamon
 A Book we Wanted to Use: Culturally Diverse Families: Expanding Perspectives

40

Margaret
Ward
 Tailoring Course Content to Students: The Family Dynamic: A Canadian Perspective

42

3




4

Foreword 
 


Books
Matter
 



 The Round Robin for Book Authors, held at the 67th annual conference of the National Council on Family Relations on November 17, 2005, was designed to give interested persons opportunities to talk to authors in an informal setting about the processes, pitfalls, and benefits of writing and editing books. As program chair of the conference for that year, I wanted to encourage scholars, especially younger scholars, to write books. A second purpose of the Round Robin was to give authors opportunities to market their books. I have observed for more than 20 years as an academic, that scholars who wrote books moved up the career ladder more quickly than those who didn’t. Other academic institutions frequently recruited them, they typically had higher salaries, and they had more recognition and prestige—such as endowed chairs and favorable decisions about requests for research funding--than those who publish articles only. The publication of articles is important to the rankings of academic departments, while faculty’s books have little impact on rankings. Thus departmental administrators and senior faculty encourage and reward assistant professors for publishing articles and make little mention or actively discourage the writing of books. On the other hand, the status of departments usually rises when faculty members publish books. I asked the authors who participated in the Round Robin to write informal essays on how they got the idea for the book, the process of writing the book, the benefits and pitfalls of writing a book, and anything else they’d like to tell persons interested in writing books. As you will see as you read these essays, editors of books as well as writers of books provided some important information about doing books. Not all authors who participated in the Round Robin wrote essays. Here are some of the learnings I gleaned from these essays. Assistant Professors and Writing Books With planning, assistant professors can write books. Scott Harris’s essay showed how he wrote papers that he used in developing his

dissertation. He then turned the dissertation into a book published while he was an assistant professor. Early book publication gives a boost to academic careers, if authors continue to be productive in writing and publishing. Their subsequent efforts must bring to fruition the passion and commitment that early book publication suggests. As much as faculty wish this is not true, the number of publications—along with quality, of course—is important in promotion and tenure decisions. Phyllis Moen, who has an extensive record of book publishing and has an endowed chair at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, got started through participating in Women’s Studies meeting at Cornell when she was an assistant professor. All but one of the participants was from the humanities. Each of them talked about the book she had just completed and the book that was in progress. Thus began Phyllis’s book writing career. Marilyn Coleman and Larry Ganong in their essay on Handbook of Contemporary Families suggest that untenured faculty not edit books. Marilyn and Larry relied for the most part on chapter authors with whom they had relationships and whose “arms they could twist” or on authors knew their work. In addition, they pointed out that editing books can drive you crazy and you may have to put your own writing and research aside for the sake of finishing the edited book. Untenured faculty have rarely had the time to develop a network of relationships with other scholars who could contribute to book chapters. They also jeopardize their chances for tenure when they postpone their own writing. Untenured scholars who want to edit books have to figure out how to keep writing and publishing articles along with their editing duties. Kerry Daly was an assistant professor when he edited Qualitative Methods in Family Research (Sage, 1992) with me and Gerry Handel. I was a new associate professor when we began and Gerry was a full professor. Kerry kept right on publishing articles, and received promotion and tenure to associate professor and then promotion to full professor.

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Some untenured professors, as Karen Bogenschneider wrote in her essay, have senior colleagues who encourage them to write books. Karen, however, realized how such a project would take away her writing time. She began writing Family Policy Matters on her first sabbatical leave after she received tenure and promotion. How Long Does it Take? Whether early, mid, or late career, time is a major issue when writing books. I know this myself, as I repeatedly explain to others that I prefer to meet in the afternoons as I write in the mornings. In her essay, Pauline Boss wrote about how she as a new academic who also was parenting children, had to write after her children were asleep. As time went on, she apparently wanted a pretty good night’s sleep and therefore did most of her writing during holidays and sabbaticals. A main reason she retired recently was to have time to write books. Maxine Hammonds-Smith and Karen Stephens wrote their book in nine months, which is quick by academic standards. The ten years I took to figure out how to organize my book, tentatively called Stories Perpetrators Tell: Personal Accounts, Analysis, and Action Plans, may not be recordbreaking but that is a long-time, especially since I had done hands-on life history research on the topic for almost 20 years. The differences in time lines may be related to the clarity of the conceptualization of the book. Maxine and Karen had national child and adult care guidelines to help them structure their book.

wonderful it is, too. As Penny Deiner said, writing can be addictive—a very healthy and sustained high. In a dark moment, one of my colleagues mused that he uses writing as a way to distance himself from times when he feels anxious and depressed. When this is so, authors who do this are in good company—a new theory about Abraham Lincoln is that he was great because he struggled with depression—he understood suffering and wanted to alleviate it in others. I write to save my life is a phrase that many fiction writers understand. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but writing certainly can enhance quality of life. Writing takes time. We need time to think, to read, to have fun doing other things and to trust our own good minds, trust that one day we will make some sense of what we want to write and then be able to communicate it to others. Several authors, like Steve Duncan and Wally Goddard, mentioned the time it takes to do a book as one of the pitfalls, balanced, for course, by many benefits. As Karen Bogenscheider wrote, “When the ideas are clear and crisp, it is easy to develop the outline for the argument and find the words to express it.” On the other hand, Karen said the idea for her book Family Policy Matters took about 30 years to germinate and much longer than she had expected to write. Like others, she found that over time, her ideas about how to do the book changed. We need time for ideas to get crispy. Where Ideas for Books Come From

I, on the other hand, struggled with figuring out how to make sense out of stories that perpetrators of violence told me. How do I avoid sensationalizing violence when the book will be based on the words of perpetrators? How do I handle my own horror at what I heard? How can I make this a constructive book? One day I realized that I could re-create the process that engaged me as I slowly began to understand what violence means to perpetrators. I would alternate chapters on stories perpetrators tell with my analysis of these stories. In many ways, that was an “Ah hah” experience that is working. I am now writing chapter 11 of what I expect to be a book with 13 chapters. I had hoped to finish ten years ago, but now dream of finishing the first draft some time in the spring of 2006. Though many authors advise others to be realistic about how long it takes, in my own experience I seem to need to fool myself not only about how long it takes but how difficult it is to conceptualize, link, articulate, and illustrate ideas. But—how

The ideas for the books came from many places. Several authors said they wrote or edited books because they couldn’t find texts that fit the material they wanted to use in teaching. So, they put together their own books. Margaret Ward, for example, who taught at Cambrian College in Toronto, couldn’t find textbooks that incorporated information about Canadian families and society that her students could use in their direct work with families. That was the beginning of her book, The Family Dynamic: A Canadian Perspective, now it its fourth edition. Shirley Hanson made a similar observation about teaching family nursing practitioners. Other authors wrote books because they have discovered something important and want to share their own thinking and what they learned. Often they are interested in social change, or alerting people to major changes in society. The work of Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling on the career mystique as well as the book that Amelia 6

Rose developed on helping ministers to respond to women who are survivors of domestic violence. Bron Ingoldsby and Suzanne Smith wrote their book because they thought it important that students understand that what it means to be a family varies cross-culturally and internationally. Publishers sometimes invite authors to write or edit books that the publishers have identified as responsive to a need. Maxine Hammonds-Smith said yes when a publisher’s representative asked her to collaborate with Karen Stephens, a child care professional Maxine had never met, on a book on intergenerational care. They met all deadlines and both of them enjoyed the process.

authors/co-editors can’t say enough about the satisfaction of successful collaborations: Wally Goddard and Steve Duncan, Bahira Sherif Trask and Raeann Hamon, and others already mentioned. In editing, books, there can be some challenges in getting authors to meet deadlines. Book editors also have to make decisions about how much editing they do of the chapters submitted. Sometimes, they reject the very chapters they have solicited because the scholarship is not quite ready for publication. Some chapter authors don’t take kindly to having their work rejected, but almost all appreciate the feedback and find other places to publish their work. Benefits and Pitfalls

Mitch Allen of Sage Publications invited Kerry Daly, Gerry Handel, and me to edit the book that became Qualitative Methods in Family Research, referenced earlier. Marti Erickson, too, responded to a publisher’s invitation to use her talents in bridging research and practice. Collaborations Collaboration can be a joy—a true partnership that can be a highlight of careers, marked by stimulating exchanges of ideas, deep thinking about ideas, and exchanges over how best to present ideas. Such was my experience with Kerry and Gerry. Marti Erickson, on the other hand, started with one co-author who wasn’t able to complete the work. She found another co-author, Karen Kurz-Riemer, who was ideal. Some authors suggest that persons thinking of collaborating to take time to get to know each other and to explore their styles. Do they have similar expectations about deadlines, quality, and sharing of the workload? If one author has written or edited books with others, what do their coauthors say about their collaboration style? Larry Ganong and Marilyn Coleman have a lot to say about collaboration. Several sets of co-

Often, book authors and editors say they themselves benefited the most from their work on books. Maxine Hammonds-Smith makes this point. They learn a lot not only about the subject matter, but often about themselves, their writing styles, and their capacities for a sustained commitment not only to finishing but to the ideas themselves. Mary Ann Lamanna talked about how she continually incorporated new interests into her books and sought also to balance her particular interests with what she thought would be important to her audiences. Creating books can indeed be a labor of love as Marilyn Coleman and Larry Ganong say was their experience. Many authors find satisfaction in making a contribution, to somehow make things better for other people. Judith Treas, Jacqueline Scott, and Martin Richards, had a strong commitment to helping others understand “a range of issues relevant to family life today.” Pauline Boss enjoys “writing long,” meaning writing books instead of articles. This set of essays gives you opportunities to think about whether you, too, would like to “write long.” Jane F. Gilgun

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Putting Ink to the Page: Writing Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families& What Professionals Can Do (Erlbaum, 2002) by Karen Bogenschneider, University of Wisconsin-Madison _________________________________________________________________ My decision to write a book was premature in some respects and long overdue in others. Writing the book was premature in terms of my naivetée. I grossly underestimated the time that it would take to write a 275-page book that I thought was good enough to put my name on. In other respects, the book was long overdue. The book was deliberately and inadvertently shaped by my 30 years of professional experience as a practitioner, teacher, and researcher, and a lifetime of experience as a daughter, wife, and mother. These personal and professional experiences are the seeds of the book which actually took a full 30 years to germinate. In preparation for this National Council on Family Relations Round Robin, I have recorded for would-be book writers why I decided to write the book, what I learned in the process that may be useful to others, how I found a publisher and marketed the book, and what pitfalls and benefits writers might experience. Why I Decided to Write a Book My decision to write a book probably started much like that of any author—when you find yourself saying, “There ought to be a book on that.” Then the more you think about it, the more you come to realize that if there is going to a book on that, you may need to be the one to write it. During the tenure process, I was actually encouraged by a colleague to write a book that would incorporate the Family Impact Seminar briefing reports that I routinely wrote for state policymakers. Given the research requirements for tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I decided not to write this book during the tenure years, but I did begin writing it during my first sabbatic leave. Initially, I started with the idea of a quickly produced book that would reprint some of the already prepared chapters of Seminar briefing reports. Overtime, the book evolved to a broader, more comprehensive rationale for a family focus in policymaking; an examination of the role that policies play in the fostering stable, wellfunctioning families; and specific strategies that

professionals can use to influence policymaking in ways that strengthen and support families across the life cycle. In all honesty, I wrote the book because I hoped that some of the ideas might be useful to others. At the time of the first edition, my colleagues and I had organized 16 Family Impact Seminars for state policymakers and we had learned some pragmatic processes and procedures that might be useful to researchers and practitioners interested in getting their ideas acted upon in the policy world. I had taught eight undergraduate and graduate courses on family policy and I thought some of the research reviews, theoretical concepts, and practical examples might be of use to others teaching family policy in college classrooms. In my applied work, I learned how seldom family considerations are taken into account in the normal routine of policymaking and how useful tools like the Family Impact Checklist can be for evaluating legislation, raising provocative questions, and assessing the family-friendliness of existing policies and programs. Few authors imagine that their book will become a best seller, but most hope that putting the ink to the page may advance thinking in their field in some small way. Perhaps a poet puts it best: But words are things and a small drop of ink Falling like dew upon a thought produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. Lord Byron What I Learned in the Writing Process that May Be Useful to Others I learned many things while writing my book on family policy, four of which seem particularly important to future writers. First, in my view, the most important part of writing a book is having a good idea. Some people have lots of good ideas and write lots of good books. 8

For others, like me, it takes years of experience to gather materials and gain insights that might be useful to others. When you have a good idea, it burns to be put on paper. When the ideas are clear and crisp, it is easy to develop the outline for the argument and find the words to express it. Second, the idea for the book has to be one that you are passionate about. Writing a booklength manuscript takes time and dedication. Writing conflicts with other work responsibilities and introduces time pressures that previously did not exist. Writing squeezes the time that you have available for having fun with family and friends. Writing interferes with other pursuits like spending time on your golf game and reading for pleasure. Third, before you begin, clearly identify who the target audience is. The target audience shapes, not only what you say, but how you say it. Writing is so much easier when you can clearly envision in your mind who the book is addressed to.

contracts closely and asked for recommendations from colleagues who were book authors. Marketing the Book A colleague told me once that the biggest mistake that authors make is spending so much time writing a book that too little time remains for marketing. Your publisher can guide you, but you can also aid the publisher by providing the names and addresses of professionals and professional associations that might be interested in your book. For example, I compiled a list of professors who teach family policy on college campuses and the publisher mailed them complimentary copies. My marketing efforts included giving lots of presentations and shamelessly mentioning the book’s release. The publisher provided promotional flyers with professional discounts. I announced the book on list serves and in the newsletters of professional associations. The Pitfalls and Benefits of Writing a Book

Fourth, writing a book takes longer than you would expect. Good books often entail locating and reading the current literature in the field. Moreover, few authors can write a first draft the first time. A book is written and rewritten several times before it is delivered to the publisher. Beyond writing and editing the manuscript, there are other time-consuming tasks such as developing the index, finding the best people to write the forward and marketing blurbs, planning the cover design, preparing the reference list, securing a publisher, selecting a title, and writing and executing a marketing plan. Given all these tasks, be realistic about the book’s estimated completion date. Finding the Publisher Unlike manuscript reviews, the prospectus for a book can be simultaneously shopped around to several publishers at the same time. When writing the prospectus, it is tempting for academics to underscore how this book will contribute to our understanding of the field, which is clearly important. However, book publishers are businesses, so any market analysis that you can provide will be helpful such as what the competition is, how your book will stack up to competitors, and who are the potential buyers. I actually found myself in the enviable position of receiving three contracts for my book on family policy. To decide on a publisher, I read the

The biggest pitfall I experienced in writing my book is the time it takes away from other personal and professional pursuits. In a sense, writing a book is an act of faith--an enormous time drain with no guarantee of any gain. Frankly, after writing for months, ideas that once seemed fresh and germane become stale and mundane. It’s been said that “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” After months of writing, I began to wonder if my book would be tasted, swallowed, chewed, and vomited. Putting one’s ideas in print for all to see (and perhaps disagree) takes professional courage. For me, writing this book had four big benefits. First, whether it is read or not, a book endows the writer with expert stature and seriousness of purpose, and bestows the credibility to speak on a particular topic (Smith, 1991). Second, the biggest reward was the unsolicited, positive testimonials: the family policy instructor who has found the book valuable in teaching college classes and the e-mail from a person in another country who says the book changed her life and reaffirmed her intentions to stay in the family policy field. I was surprised by both the feedback and how much it meant to me. Third, writing a book will probably make you a better writer. I view writing much like an Olympic sport. For most people, writing is not an

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inborn trait, but a talent that emerges through diligent and painstaking practice. Finally, the time spent in writing Family Policy Matters seems to have been worth it. The publisher has sold enough copies to warrant a second edition. Writing a second edition holds its own special challenges, but that is another topic.

Reference Smith, J. A. (1991). The idea brokers: Think tanks and the rise of the new policy elite. New York: The Free Press. Karen Bogenschneider is a Rothermel Bascom Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Family Policy Specialist in University Extension, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, 1430 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706 USA; Phone: (608) 262-4070; E-mail: [email protected].

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The Process of Writing Long: Ambiguous Loss (Harvard University Press, 1999) and Loss, Trauma and Resilience (Norton, 2005) by Pauline Boss University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Writing for me is a pleasure, but there is also pain, especially when I sit down in front of the blank page for what I call "writing long"―books instead of articles. With that long-term commitment, the process takes years. Clearly, perseverance helps. I wanted to translate my research publications into a book for more general audiences. It took five years to write a proper book proposal, but finally I had it ready. In the spring of 1996, I mailed a dozen off to likely publishers. I had one copy left over, so I walked down to Garden Street in Cambridge (where I was living that year) and dropped it off at Harvard University Press. I got a call the next morning saying they would like to publish the book. I told them I had just mailed off twelve copies of the proposal to New York publishers. They said they would wait. Rejection after rejection arrived, so I obviously went with the people who liked what I was trying to do. HUP had a track record of publishing theory books for trade audiences and agreed that the public could handle theory about ambiguous loss. I am forever grateful to Harvard University Press for their decision to publish Ambiguous Loss. The process of finding a publisher showed me that the most important qualities in the process of writing are patience and perseverance. With the Norton book just published, Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss, these traits were again helpful though it was easier this time to find a publisher. Here patience and perseverance were needed to push the conceptualization deeper and deeper. I had to read literature from various fields, and conceptualize linkages into an intervention framework to help people live more comfortably with ambiguous losses. The blank pages were really blank here, since I was pushing beyond my research into what was learned clinically in the field after 9/11 and in Kosovo after the ethnic cleansing, as well as in my clinical work with families where there is mental illness and dementia.

In this new book, I linked ideas from various disciplines into a resiliency framework for working with families of the missing by constructing meaning, tempering mastery, reconstructing identity, normalizing ambivalence, revising attachment, and discovering hope. Immense study went into each of these chapters. Just the reading and thinking took more than a year. One cannot write a proposal, and certainly not a book, without time to think. Sadly, academics do not always have that time. When I was a young academic and parenting children, my writing took place between 9 pm and 1 am when the children were asleep. As I grew older, I could not sustain that schedule, but managed nevertheless to write during sabbaticals and summers. My dream was to be able to write in the daytime, and that is happening now. It is such a pleasure. In this process of writing long, I must also address the personal. Once a proposal is accepted, the work really begins. The writing requires immense concentration. Family and friends often do not understand why you are so preoccupied with the project. Clearly the writing process causes one to be psychologically absent. My husband and I talk about this, and perhaps because he is in the arts, and writes himself, he understands that I am "gone" for hours at a time at the computer, but that I will be back again. As I am writing, and in the zone (as some say), I will suddenly see a cup of hot tea on the table beside me, and know that he was there, even though I did not notice at the time. He knows I will be back and fully present again, just as I know this while he is writing. We have written side by side in Cambridge, New York City, Australia, and most often, in our book-lined office in our home in St Paul. One could say we have our own writer's colony here, and for writing long, this makes the process much more fun. Pauline Boss is professor, Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 287 McNeal Hall, St. Paul, MN 55108. USA Phone: 612/625-0291; e-mail: [email protected]

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A Labor of Love: Stepfamily Relationships: Development, Dynamics, and Interventions. (Kluwer/Plenum, 2004) by Lawrence Ganong & Marilyn Coleman University of Missouri, Columbia

______________________________________________________________ This book was a labor of love done under great pressure. We had published a book about stepfamily relationships in 1994 that we felt covered what we knew at the time about remarriage and stepfamilies. Research on these topics increased exponentially in the years following the publication of the book, however. It was time for a revision. Sage had published our original book, but were not interested in a revision. We needed a new publisher. About this same time, Sharon Penulla, the Kluwer representation, approached us about a book, and she was quite excited about having the opportunity to publish a revision of our earlier book. Because Sharon was familiar with our work, and her company was interested in publishing a remarriage book, we were not required to submit a prospectus, which is rather atypical. What began an as update of our 1994 book rapidly evolved into an entirely new look at a substantially different body of knowledge than was available in 1994. Very little remains of the original book in this version. Thinking that we would be merely updating our previous work, we were overly optimistic about how long it would take us to complete this book. We somehow agreed to approximately the same 2004 due date for two different books we were working on. That we met the deadline for either is a bit of a miracle, but it came at a price for the Stepfamily Relationships book. We struggled nearly around the clock at times to meet the deadline because we were leaving the country for at least a month immediately after the contracted due date. We anticipated getting a version to the editors. We thought the book could be copyedited while we were out of the country, and we could polish the book when we returned. Unfortunately, we had not asked about Kluwer’s position on copyediting. We found out much too late that they only provide copyediting for edited books. We didn’t not know that the book had not been copyedited until shortly before the book was

due to the printers. When we saw the “final” copy, there were some egregious errors in the book, including a table that was totally blank! We talked with Sharon about this at NCFR (The press she had previously worked for had recently been taken over by Kluwer so she was not aware of all of their policies either.), gave her several pages of copyedits, which she promised to negotiate as best she could. Many of the worst errors were corrected. We will never again be so naïve about copyediting, and we caution anyone planning to write a book to ascertain policies regarding copyediting before choosing a publisher. We enjoy doing research and writing together. One of us will usually take the lead on a section. It is up to the other to critique it, edit, make suggestions, and move it to a more final version. We have been doing this for years, and it seems to work well for us. Co-authoring a book with someone you have not worked closely with, however, could turn into a disaster. We would suggest great caution in choosing a co-author should you decide to go that route. Some authors are notorious for not meeting deadlines, although their work is stellar once it is published. For those of us who like to meet deadlines, working with such a person would probably drive us nuts. The challenge of writing this book was ferreting out new research published since the last stepfamily book, and especially the research published since we had completed the Journal of Marriage and Family decade review with Mark Fine. Although it is easier to conduct literature searches in recent years, it still takes a time and library work to do a good job. We had allowed the time to do this; it was at the writing stage that we became pressured. Although we were reasonably pleased with the book, we would have felt much better about it if we had had two to three more months to complete and polish it. When planning your timeline, it could take you twice as long to complete a book as you think.

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The Developmental History of Handbook of Contemporary Families: Considering the Past, Contemplating the Future ( Sage, 2004 ) by Marilyn Coleman and Lawrence Ganong University of Missouri, Columbia _________________________________________________________________ This effort was the first edited book we have attempted. Its development has a long history. In 1971, the Groves Conference (formed in 1934, Groves is a multidisciplinary organization of researchers, scholars, and practitioners that meets each year to discuss developments in theory and research on marriages and families) met to consider alternate lifestyles and changes that were occurring in families. From that meeting, Marvin Sussman (1972) edited Non-traditional family forms in the 1970s. Ten years later, Groves devoted its annual meeting to contemplating what had happened in the prior decade and what had been learned. A result of that conference was another edited book, Macklin and Rubin (1983), Contemporary families and alternative lifestyles: Handbook of research and theory. In 2000, we co-chaired the Groves Conference annual meeting, where the focus again was on examining the state of American families and what is known about them. At this conference, scholars, researchers, and practitioners examined the scholarship on families that had emerged since the seminal 1971 conference. We had decided to revisit the earlier Groves Conference themes in part because we had observed that recent generations of graduate students and new professionals had little awareness of what had occurred in families and family study before, at best, the last decade. Because of space limitations, historical information is seldom included in manuscripts, and over time various issues become a historical, even though they clearly are not and should not be thought of it in that way. A second reason that we decided to revisit the earlier themes at the conference was because many of the original Groves members who had contributed so much to the 1971 and 1982 meetings were either retired or had died, and we wanted to capture the insights of those remaining scholars while they were still active Groves’s members. As an outcome of the 2000 Groves meeting, we edited a collection of 12 articles that appeared in the Journal of Family Issues (September and October, 2001). At that point, we thought we were done with this project, but as a result of feedback from readers of these articles we

began to consider the possibility of adding a third book to the earlier volumes. James BraceThompson with Sage Publications was quite interested in this project and encouraged us to proceed. As is typical, we developed a prospectus to submit to Sage who then sent it to scholars for feedback. We decided to change the focus of the book a bit from the JFI special collection so all of the articles included in the 2001 JFI collection were not included in the book and those that we did include were considerably revised in most cases. The call that we sent to the family scholars that we asked to contribute to the book asked them to review the history of their particular area for the last 30 years and contemplate changes that they anticipate will occur in the future. The book contains 31 chapters, 52 authors, and well over 100 reviewers. Each chapter was handled quite similarly to a journal article in that each was peer reviewed, which is not typical in edited books. The peer reviewers did a terrific job of making suggestions to strengthen the chapters, far better than we could have done working alone. In fact, one of the keys to what we believe was a successful outcome was the quality of the peer reviews and our biggest disappointment was that the list of these reviewers was accidentally omitted from the published volume. We did very little writing for this book, but we spent a huge amount of time editing and negotiating with the authors. This required considerable courage on our part, because we asked outstanding scholars to participate. Asking them to shorten, broaden, or refocus their work without the protection of blind review was sometimes daunting but nearly all cooperated without complaint. The one thing that this group of scholars were most hesitant to do was speculate about the future. This is understandable. When reviewing the previous Groves volumes, much of the speculation about the future proved wrong! We did push each author to do more of this, however, so each chapter has at least a bit of future expectations. The benefits of editing this book were many. For the most part working with these wellknown scholars was a joy. We knew most of them 13

personally, and they are masters of their craft, the best in their field. Because of the scope of the book, however, we had to call on a few people that we did not know. In one case, deadlines were not met and a replacement had to be made at the last minute. This was a painful experience for everyone involved, but according to the publisher, this was not a unique experience. Editing a book is not something that untenured faculty members should attempt. In fact, editing a book is probably not something you should attempt until you have reached the senior scholar stage.

We admit that we twisted arms of personal friends (who will no doubt get even) to get their participation in the project, and many would have been unlikely to participate unless they knew us personally or at least knew of us and our scholarship. The process is arduous and you lack the control that you have over your own work. The lack of control drove us crazy at times, but deadlines were finally met and the book went into production on schedule. We learned a great deal from this experience, and we believe that the book is terrific and definitely makes a contribution to the field. Would we edit a book again soon – no!

From Observations of Students to a Book: Points and Counterpoints: Controversial Relationship and Family Issues in the 21st Century (Roxbury, 2004) . by Marilyn Coleman and & Lawrence Ganong (Eds.) University of Missouri, Columbia

The idea of the Points and Counterpoints book came from our observation that students have a great deal of difficulty with critical thinking. They tend to expect to be told what to believe (what is going to be on the test) and become quite uncomfortable when given two (or more) somewhat equally plausible slides to issues. Their search for the “right” answer has somewhat dismayed us as has the frequent ability of students to disconnect information in journal articles from real life. There were a number of these “taking sides” or “pro-con” types of books on the market, but most of them consisted of short versions of published journal articles. We thought it might be more pertinent, especially for undergraduates, to include two (and sometimes three) sides of issues that were printed in newspapers and magazines as well as journals. In some cases, original essays were written for the book. Our first step in preparing to write the book was to survey instructors of introductory family studies courses to determine what topics they believed were needed to supplement the texts that they were using. We used our data from this survey to guide our search for potential issues to include. We also examined the contents of the 20 or so leading introductory texts to determine what was fully covered and what was not. From this step, we developed a potential Table of Contents. The search for articles taking the various sides of controversial

issues was challenging. Many journalists at least attempt to cover issues comprehensively by presenting all sides. This meant that many of the more balanced journalistic offerings would not work for the purposes of our book. Finding materials that we wanted to include in the book took several months, and that was just the beginning. To publish such a book, you must get permission from the authors. Thus began a tedious job of trying to track down authors. We did this prior to Google’s advanced ability to track persons so this was a slow process. Once we finally found the authors, we asked their permission to use their work. This meant that we had to have our edited version of their work ready for them to review. Occasionally this meant that we spent considerable time editing the essay, magazine article, editorial, etc. to fit the book, only to have the author refuse to give permission or to charge an unreasonable amount of money for the use of the work. One person had subsequently died, so getting permission was impossible, and we had to omit an excellent piece from the book as a result. It took several months to get permission forms back from each author – some were very slow in deciding whether or not we could use their work. In cases where permission had been turned down, we incorporated the information that was 14

relevant into the introductions to the controversial issues that we wrote, citing the authors. Some issues that instructors wanted covered were not readily available in printed form so we worked with some of our doctoral students on developing a couple of pieces for the book. This benefited the book as well as the students, who each had an additional line for their vita! The actual writing of the book came together pretty easily, once we had granted permission for the edited versions of the materials we wanted to use. We wrote the introduction about critical thinking to guide instructors as well as students in determining the purpose of the book and how it might be used. We wrote introductions to each section, and we designed classroom activities and individual projects that might enhance the students’ understanding of the issue. The book was published by Roxbury. We had agreed two to three years before we actually developed the book to do a pro-con issues book for them. We developed a prospectus that was sent to a number of people who might use such a book. We got some excellent suggestions from those reviewers that were incorporated into the final product. We have not really done anything to promote the book – that was left to the publisher. We have gotten good feedback from a few faculty members who have used the book and published reviews of it have been quite positive, thus we think our purpose in writing it was served.

Writing a book of this kind is not something that an untenured faculty member should consider doing. It is unlikely to be viewed by a tenure and promotion committee in the way that peer reviewed articles are viewed. It also would not be seen as the equivalent of a scholarly book solely developed by the author/s. We did this because it seemed like it would be fun to do, and we thought it would be useful to faculty teaching introductory family studies courses. It also is not a project that a faculty member should undertake with the idea of making money! As recent articles on the subject have indicated, the people who are now making money on books are those who traffic in used texts – not the authors, not the publishers. Marilyn Coleman is professor and director of graduate studies, Human Development and Family Studies, 411 Gentry Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA; Phone: 573882-4360; FAX: 573-884-5550; e-mail: [email protected] Larry Ganong is professor, MU Sinclair School of Nursing and Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of MissouriColumbia, Columbia, MO 65211 USA; Phone: (573) 882-0225 and (573) 882-6852; Fax: (573) 884-4544 and (573) 884-5550; Email: [email protected]

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Writing the Book I Wanted to Use in My Own Teaching: Resources for Educating Children with Diverse Abilities: Birth Through Eight (4th. ed.). (Thompson, Delmar, 2005) by Penny Low Deiner University of Delaware, Newark

________________________________________________________________________ The story of a book is much like the story of a professional career. Early in my career I could not find a book to teach about inclusive early childhood education. Public Law 94-142 had just been passed in 1975 and we were trying to modify our courses to include children with disabilities in regular classrooms. There were few books on the topic. As a young academic I thought I could make a great contribution to the field by writing a “how to do it” book. I knew little about the process of getting a book published. I started this process by going to the head of the University of Delaware book store and talked with him about different publishers and what areas they covered. He then told me to talk to the various book company reps with some advice on who the “good” ones were. I found two who looked promising, both of whom asked me to develop a prospectus and a sample chapter. I sent these off not knowing what to expect. The publishers sent the materials out to external reviewers. Both responded positively and one came to my house to negotiate, the other I met in NYC. I sought advice from colleagues who had published books and knew I wanted a good percentage of the royalties and a good sized advance. Although I was not clear what “good” really meant. In those days the advance was to pay a typist. I was truly unprepared for the fact that I signed a contract and was expected to write a book in a year with absolutely no contact from them. They did not want chapters submitted. They didn’t want to talk about it. They just wanted the whole book. This meant that for a book with 28 chapters I was expected to write a chapter every two weeks for a year. It didn’t matter that I was pregnant; we had holidays to celebrate, the older children had birthdays, or I needed to grade final exams. I didn’t meet the deadline but I came close. This part of the experience was both difficult and rewarding but intense. I have three vivid memories from that time. One was encouraging my daughter to nurse on my left breast so I could use my right hand to write. Another was having a photographer standing on my desk to take photos and I wrote.

The third was a comment from my husband when things were so close to deadline that when I finished writing a page he would carry it to the typist and copyedit for me on his way. He commented that he couldn’t tell any difference in my writing between when I was inspired and when I was under this level of pressure. I finished the first version of the book and again it was sent out for review. I was expected to respond to the reviews and resubmit the manuscript. I thought I was done. I knew nothing about copyediting and was totally surprised to have several chapters returned with the expectation that I would make the changes or look up missing information and return these in about two weeks. And so it went for the remaining 26 chapters. I vowed I would write down a citation for every book or article I ever even gazed at. This was actually how I learned to be a writer. There is little doubt that the individuals who worked with me found the systematic mistakes I made and helped be become more clear and succinct in my writing. They also helped me differentiate what I thought was common knowledge to what I needed to explain. The first edition of the book was published in 1983. The dedication says a lot “To my husband, John, my most critical editor, and the marriage that survived this writing process.” I still thought I knew a lot about my topic and that they published the book because I was such a great academic. As reality set in I began to realize that it wasn’t that I was so wonderful it was that they could sell what I knew and make money. This was a cold realization. The initial publisher was Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovich. They moved their corporate offices out of NYC after the first edition. In the early 1990s I was approached from the Fort Worth office of Harcourt Brace and Company to do a second edition which was published in 1993. After I completed this book, they asked if I could write a book on infants and toddlers. I agreed and Infants and Toddlers: Development and Program Planning one was published in 1997.

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I was beginning to have a life again when I was asked to do a Canadian edition with two Canadian early childhood educators I had never met. As the Canadian book would also be a new edition the decision was made to do a new U. S. edition as well. Both of these books came out in 1999. At this point I began to believe that I was done with the publishing industry. I received a letter in the mail saying that Harcourt Brace had sold their education holdings, including my books, to Wadsworth. I got a letter from my new editor welcoming me to the team. Then I got a letter from Wadsworth saying they had sold their early childhood titles to Thompson. The books apparently rattled around in different parts of Thompson until they landed in Delmar Learning. I discovered this because on August 29, 2001 I received a very large package from Thompson Delmar Learning with the tear sheets from the third edition of the Resources book, all 626 pages of it. There were reviews included and they asked that I revise one chapter and send it to them by October 1 and they expected the remainder of the 26 chapters by June 1, 2002. Oh, and by the way, have a great labor day!

fourth edition of the Resources was held until June 2004 when it could receive a 2005 copyright date. For me writing books is a very different experience. Publishers decide when books need to be revised based on sales not changes in the knowledge base. If the books do not sell well there will be no second edition. I almost felt like I was working at the whim of a publisher and that I was valuable as long as what I knew was marketable and fit in with their marketing strategy. It was a bit of a humbling experience. Writing, however, is addictive. I am currently writing a second edition of the Infants and Toddlers book, but as a department chair I am having trouble setting aside the time to write. There truly is a joy in seeing your name in print. It is like a snapshot of your life taken at different points in your academic career. Penny Low Deiner, is Professor and Chair, Individual and Family Studies, University of Delaware, 111 Alison Hall West, Newark, DE 19716 USA; Phone: 302/831-2969; fax: 302/831-8776; e-mail [email protected]

I was really shocked. No one asked me if I wanted to write a new edition, it just appeared. The

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A Practical Text that Addresses a Need: Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach (Sage, 2005) by Steve Duncan Brigham Young University & Wallace Goddard University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension ________________________________________________________________________________ Based on our experiences as family life extension specialists, we recognized that there are specialized skills and knowledge a family life educator needs to succeed with the general public, those persons who are not likely to return to college to learn for family life. The needs and motivations of this audience usually differ from the traditional family science college or high school students. For example, it is known that adult education audiences are more likely to be motivated by a personal or family need (e.g., see Knowles, 1998). In addition, venues for FLE outside the traditional classroom vary greatly, from radio broadcasts and newsletters to home visits and workplace training. Thus, for FLEs to succeed in the business of educating the public requires a somewhat different skill set than teaching students in traditional classroom settings. We felt that the outstanding books already in field did not address this need. We believed a comprehensive, scholarly, yet practical how-to text was needed, both to train upper-division and graduate-level students how to do FLE but also as a sourcebook to strengthen professionals already in the field. Thus far, many have been consigned to learn the principles and practices of effective FLE through limited university training or the crucible of experience alone. The broad goal of Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach is to help upper division and graduate students who are preparing to be FLEs as well as FLE professionals who serve on the front lines. This book is intended to develop and enhance the knowledge and skills needed to take FLE principles to citizens where they live and work. To this end, we have tried to incorporate some of the leading scholarship with years of our own professional experiences, to provide a scholarly yet practical guide for the FLE professional and professional-to-be.

In developing Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach, we generated a topical outline collected from our professional experiences as Cooperative Extension specialists in four states. We also drew on the experience of colleagues across the country. We shared the outline and the above case for a new text with Jim Brace-Thompson of Sage who was excited and requested a proposal. The book is organized into 14 chapters and two appendixes. The first chapters lay the foundation for effective outreach work by discussing the historical and philosophical underpinnings of current outreach FLE, guiding readers to develop their own FLE philosophy and role as a family life educator, presenting an integrated framework for developing prevention programs, describing elements of effective FLE resources and programs, and principles and practices for evaluating such programs. The next several chapters help readers learn principles and methods for reaching out to the lay audience, including designing effective instruction, engaging the lay audience, methods for effective FLE, working with the media, writing for the lay audience, and using technology in FLE. The final chapters assist the reader in learning principles and practices for reaching diverse audiences, forming effective collaborations, and marketing family life principles, practices, and programs. The book concludes with an epilogue chapter, designed to highlight the needs of future research and practice in FLE. Each chapter includes an explorations section at the end, designed as a real-life application of the chapter material. Finding a Publisher We wanted to select a well-known, international publisher who had a strong reputation in the family field. A number of publishers came to mind, but Sage quickly rose

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to the top of the list. We approached Jim BraceThompson stationed at the Sage booth during a NCFR annual conference. He was intrigued by our idea for the book and asked us to send him a proposal. He liked the proposal and took it to committee who then approved the project. We were then sent a contract. All of this took place in the space of a few months. Writing the Book It is important to collaborate with colleagues you can trust and respect. Our association with each other goes back to 1990, and we have worked on several projects before. Yet we needed to develop a shared vision and set in motion a working relationship which was to last two years from start to finish. So we worked at developing a mutual understanding and vision as task number one. After that, the next task was to decide who would take the lead on which chapters. We discussed candidly our interest areas in relationship to the topics, as well as our strengths and limitations. In some areas we had clear interest and/or strength differences and those became our individually authored chapters. Some chapters required negotiation as to who should lead out. There were a few topics where we both felt some lack of the expertise needed for a textbook effort, so we invited colleagues to write those chapters. Ultimately we ended up as sole authors on several of the chapters (Steve: 7, Wally: 4) and joint authors on one chapter (Wally first author), with colleagues authoring two chapters. Since we live and work at separate institutions in different parts of the country, we weren’t able to get together physically, except at NCFR meetings and family outreach conferences held at BYU. We sent manuscript drafts electronically to each other, incorporated comments, then sent it to each other again, before sending the entire manuscript to Jim at Sage. Jim sent the manuscript to several FLE scholar/practitioners who provided us with great suggestions and encouragement. We were encouraged to consider each reviewer comment, although the major decision as to how we addressed suggestions was left up to us. Many of the review comments were addressed and greatly improved the manuscript.

Once we were content we had addressed the issues, including a decision to add an “Epilogue” chapter at the end, we sent the manuscript to Jim---in a very large box! Sage hired a freelance editor who copyedited the manuscript and sent us comments on a typeset draft using the track changes feature on WORD, chapter by chapter. This process was surprisingly quick, and we were please that the manuscript, post reviewer, needed only minor adjustments. We were asked to select a cover design from several choices provided by Sage’s Design Department. Sage was great to work with, from start to finish .Benefits and Pitfalls of Writing the Book Since this was our first experience at writing a textbook, we were surprised at how stretching an experience this can be. To address our topic as comprehensively as possible required us to stretch well beyond our own perceptions, experiences, and favorite theories. Thus we have grown professionally from this experience would likely do it again (but not too soon!). As for pitfalls, we probably underestimated the amount of time it would take to create this book, and there were times when we really felt the time crunch, especially during the last few months before the final manuscript for publication was due. Marketing the Book We had learned from the experience of others who have written FLE books that unless the publisher works to promote your book, it may not become a 2nd edition. We worked with Sage early on to create a marketing plan for the book that would help assure its longevity. Some of those strategies include announcement of the book through Sage Family Studies marketing materials, direct emails to persons and schools to promote adoption of the book, marketing materials on the Sage website, and promotion of the book at NCFR. The book was marketed prepublication last November at the NCFR conference. In addition the book is being marketed to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences annual conferences. Finally, the book is being featured in the journals that FLEs read.

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If we can help in any way, please contact us. Stephen F. Duncan is professor, School of Family Life, 1041F JFSB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 USA. Phone: 801

422-1796; Fax: (801) 422-0225 FAX; e-mail: [email protected] H. Wallace Goddard is professor, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, Box 391/2301 S. University, Little Rock, AR 72203 USA; phone: 501/671-210 e-mail: [email protected]

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The Long and Winding Road: Writing Infants, Toddlers & Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention Authors: Martha Farrell Erickson & Karen Kurz-Riemer (Guilford, 1999 and 2002)

by Martha Farrell Erickson University of Minnesota, Twin Cities ______________________________________________________________________ In the midst of writing my first book, I ran across a quote from a famous author, whose name I now have forgotten. He or she said something along the lines of, “I found myself hoping that someone would have a heart attack so I’d have a legitimate excuse not to write.” Now, I wouldn’t wish a heart attack on anyone, but I must confess I identified with that writer’s sentiment. Writing – especially “writing long,” as Pauline Boss calls it – is hard!

The book offer, however, was too good to refuse – not in terms of money, mind you, but in the opportunity to reach a larger audience with information I thought could make a difference for children and families in high-risk situations. So I said yes to the publisher and set out on what would become a long and sometimes arduous journey. The Long and Winding Road

Nonetheless, I finished my book (eventually), and, much to my delight, both critics and customers liked it. After 6 years, the book (Erickson & Kurz-Riemer, 1999) now is in an updated paperback edition (2002) and continues to sell at a slow but steady pace. As the publisher says, the book “has legs.” So, for what it’s worth to you potential authors, here’s a quick summary of how that book came to be and what I learned along the way. In the Beginning Most authors I know had a strong desire to write a book and worked long and hard to develop a book proposal that would be snapped up by a publisher. In that respect, my experience was upside down: a major publisher approached me and asked if I would write a book for them. I had been doing quite a bit of public speaking about my research on parent-child attachment and strategies for applying that research in services for infants, toddlers and families. A representative of the publisher (Guilford Press) sought me out because she had heard from others – and also observed firsthand at a professional conference – that I had a knack for communicating research-based information in a way that was accessible and useful for practitioners. She was confident I could write the same way. (Ah yes, such optimism!) I really wasn’t at a very good stage of my life or career to take on a major book-writing project. I already was stretched thin with job demands as well as the joys and challenges of raising two kids, keeping my marriage alive, and trying to be the kind of healthy, well-balanced person I hoped to help others be.

The idea of the book was exciting to me: to integrate theory, research and practical experience in a volume that would provide a solid foundation for professionals from many different disciplines who work with infants, toddlers and their families. There was nothing like it on the market, and the publisher and I believed it would be a valuable resource for use in college classrooms and for professionals already in practice. Because the scope of the book would encompass a broad range of families and children with different abilities and risk factors – and because most of my own direct experience had been with families from one particular part of that spectrum – I suggested to the publisher that I invite a colleague with complementary experience to be co-author of the book. Frankly, I also thought having a co-author would make the job less overwhelming for me – an idea NOT borne out by experience, at least in the first half of this bookwriting journey. A colleague from another university (who will go unnamed here) eagerly agreed to be second author. I already had developed a very detailed outline for the book and had received the go-ahead from my editor, so my colleague and I figured out a shared work-plan and timeline that seemed manageable. We gathered an array of resource materials and set out on a few multi-day writing retreats together. For me, it was very effective to go away and focus completely on writing for a block of time. I was making good headway and showed the fruits of my labor to my co-author. However, although my colleague appeared to be working when we were together – and our discussions about the 21

content of the book were rich and stimulating – I never saw the product of her work. I’ll spare you the details here, but after countless variations of “the check is in the mail,” I had to call it as I saw it: this partnership was not working. This was a painful process for both of us, but I know the book never would have been completed if we had continued on that path. Much later I learned more about what was going on with my colleague that rendered her unable to do the task or even to be honest about the fact that she couldn’t. I understand now that this story is not an indictment of her, but rather a reflection of how difficult book-writing is – especially when the ordinary travails of life rise to extraordinary levels, as happened for her. (For the record, she remains my dear friend, although I didn’t always know that would be so.) As you might imagine, my enthusiasm for writing this book was waning. But I gritted my teeth and sought another co-author – for the same reasons I sought the first. I’m happy to say a local colleague, Karen Kurz-Riemer (a family educator with a strong practical orientation), agreed to step in. Together, we saw the project to completion. (I intentionally do not talk about how many months or years it took us because I do not even want to do the math. Trust me that it was a slow process!) Along the way, life intervened in the process for both of us: children’s illnesses, deaths of family members and friends, major job changes that cut into our already scarce writing time. I swear neither one of was wishing for bad things to happen to give us an excuse (see opening quote), but on several occasions bad things did happen that necessitated our stepping away from the book for long stretches of time. That’s life. We plodded on. Once our manuscript was completed, we were thrilled that our editor requested only minor edits. In what seemed like no time at all (especially after our years of grueling work), the finished book was in our hands and the reviews were terrific.

produce a good and timely product. In my experience, they are amazingly patient and supportive through the inevitable ups and downs of writing. (I only wish I could have been as patient with myself during the ordeal of writing this book! Live and learn.) • It’s important to experiment and discover where, when and how you write most effectively. Blocking out several days of time and going away on a writing retreat works well for me, but not if I do it alone. I draw my energy from other people and am sharpest and most creative when others are working next to me. That does not mean in my university office, where people often interrupt because they need this or that. For me, the ideal situation is a comfortable, sunny room – or, even better, an outdoor space – in which a fellow writer sits nearby and works quietly until time for a scheduled break for a walk, a chat and a snack. When I don’t have large blocks of time, I often do my best writing on my laptop in a coffee shop or a park near my home. • Many people structure their day so that they write first, then reward themselves with other activities. Being kind of an “eat dessert first” kind of person (at least at this stage of my life), I don’t write well until I’ve kicked off the day with a vigorous walk, a strong café latte, and a thorough reading of the morning paper. When I yield to that natural rhythm, I am much more effective in whatever lies before me. • The slowest and most laborious part of academic writing is the scholarly documentation. It’s enormously helpful to have a good assistant who can handle some of the details (e.g. locating articles, verifying quotes, checking page numbers, preparing reference lists). But, with or without that kind of help, I write best when I let the words flow as I would in an oral presentation – generating the content first, then going back and adding documentation later. This requires knowing your subject well to begin with. But, if you’re writing a book, you’d better! (In the next stage of my life perhaps I’ll write novels that require no scholarly documentation.)

Lessons Along the Way This book-writing experience, with its difficult process and ultimately fine outcome, has taught me several things that I believe have made subsequent projects easier for me. Although everyone has to find his or her own truth, the lessons I learned may help you too. • Editors and publishers have a big stake in your success and will do all they can to help you

• Given the huge commitment it takes to write a book, it’s wise to be very clear about your purpose in doing so. For me, I love working on the bridge between research and practice, and I was excited to write a book that would advance that kind of work and promote evidence-based practice in the field of early childhood and family services. Indeed, the book I discuss here – along WITH two subsequent program and training manuals I wrote – have opened doors I didn’t even know existed. My 22

career has taken me not only across the country but around the globe to work with professionals from many disciplines, all of whom strive to use best practices in mental health and family support services for young children and their families. The book has been a valuable tool to facilitate that work. It also has been used by policymakers at the local, state and national level to advocate for high-quality early childhood services and was a principal source for a seminal paper written by a Vice President of the Federal Reserve

Bank in Minneapolis (a Ph.D. economist). All in all, I’d say it was worth the effort. Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D. is director, Harris Programs and Co-chair, President’s Initiative on Children, Youth & Families, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 51 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Phone: (612) 626-8625; e-mail: mferick@ umn.edu

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A Publisher-Initiated Book: Child and Adult Care Professionals (3rd ed.) (Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 2004). Authors: Karen Stephens &Maxine Hammonds-Smith by Maxine Hammonds-Smith Alabama A & M University, Normal

______________________________________________________________________ A McGraw-Hill: Glencoe publisher’s representative invited me to co-author a textbook with Karen Stephens, who had written a book for child care professionals. Karen is director of the Child Care Center at Illinois State University, Normal. The vice-president of Glencoe/McGrawHill and the publishers representative for family and consumer sciences (FCS) wanted a book on intergenerational care. The book was to be based on national child and adult care standards. We used these standards to write the book. There was no book of its kind for secondary and community college levels where training on child and adult care takes place. Obviously, there was a need for a text book based on national standards of care. What it was Like to Work on the Book I was invited to the publisher’s corporate officers where I met Karen for the first time. Karen, the vice-president, the FCS publishers’ Representative, the senior editor and I brainstormed the conceptual framework for the book. Two weeks or so later, the senior editor sent us the guidelines to use in the writing of the book. Both Karen and I wrote and sent chapters as we completed them to the senior editor who sent them out right away for review and feedback. Approximately, nine months of writing later, we had completed the book, and it was ready for the first printing. Karen and I had no contact after the brainstorming meeting. She did her thing. I did mine. That was a good thing. We were on a fast track to get the book out. We started in the fall of 2002 and the book was published in 2004. What It Was Like to Write the Book I drew upon material I was using at the Center on Aging and Intergenerational Wellness at Texas Southern University where I was as professor and director for the center. I also used resources from other centers in the greater Houston area as well as feedback from members of the Texas Consortium on Geriatric Centers. Basically, I used theories of aging and carried them through to practice applications we did in various settings. I was also a major long-distance

care provider for my parents. I had first-hand information on many aspects of caregiving, which helped a lot in writing the book. I wrote every night, and I stuck to the timeline I had agreed to. I did a lot of the leg work during the day. I worked with 20 recently retired AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers. They were retired pharmacists, lawyers, teachers, ministers, social workers and executives in corporations. I got a lot of cases from them about what people need today as opposed to what is in published in the research literature. They were instrumental in helping me get data and holding focus groups. I was a member of the Texas Consortium on Geriatric Centers, composed of 11 universities. I had a chance to bounce things off individuals from these centers as well. There were secondary teachers whom I had trained. I introduced them to some of the material, and they tried it out in their classes. Was it worth it? Writing the book was definitely worth it. It sometimes feels as if an internal force prepared me to do the work involved. For one thing, I learned so much that I’ve been much better prepared to deal with my parents’ later life issues. I share everything I can about what I learned. Both within the church and the community I am a part of, I disseminate information about aging in families. I help with support groups for family care givers. The book itself is in its third edition, which is saying something about meeting a need. Dealing with older adults is not just the family’s business. It takes a whole village to help people deal with aging populations. People have never lived as long in such large numbers. There is an art to aging. We can no longer look at older adults as a passive population. They provide us with resources and give a history to us. Maxine Hammonds-Smith is professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Alabama A& M University, P. O. Box 639; Normal, AL 35762 USA; phone: 256/ 372-8097’ email: [email protected]

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An instant success: Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice, & Research. (3rd ed). (F.A. Davis, 2005). Editors: Shirley M.H. Hanson, Vivian Gedaly-Duff, & Joanna R. Kaakinen, J.R. (Eds.). Instructors Manual by Deborah P. Coehlo by Shirley M. H. Hanson Portland, OR Deborah P. Coehlo Oregon State University, Cascades _____________________________________________________________________ Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice and Research was conceived by Dr. Shirley Hanson while teaching family nursing at Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. She was assigned to teach family nursing and was concerned by the lack of good material to teach this subject to undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Dr. Hanson had been writing about families in other publications. An editor at FA Davis Publishers approached her about authoring a family nursing textbook. Dr. Hanson put together a book prospectus resulting in a contract with FA Davis in Philadelphia. Dr. Hanson envisioned an edited textbook in order to enlist specialists from various areas pertaining to family nursing. During the development of the first edition, she invited a professional colleague (Dr. Sherry Boyd) to join her in the editing process. This two-year project resulted in a book came out in print in 1996. This edition of the textbook became an instant success among family nurses and it was chosen to receive one of the prestigious American Journal of Nursing (AJN) “Book of the Year Awards.” Also, this book was selected to be translated and published in Japanese in 2001. Work on the second edition began soon after the first edition. Again, this was a two year project. The whole book was updated, old material was deleted, and new material was added. The second edition of the book came out in 2001. It was an improvement over the first edition and its popularity grew in the USA & Canada, as well as other countries around the world. Domestically, the book was being used by both undergraduate and graduate students, largely in schools of nursing. This book moved beyond required texts for family nursing courses. Many departments outside of family nursing adopted this book as a usable reference for their students. Courses addressing families and health in academic departments of family studies, social work, family sociology, family psychology and family medicine were among those departments adopting this book

outside of family nursing. This second edition was translated into Portuguese in 2004. Work on the third edition began in 2003. As Dr. Hanson approached retirement, she wanted to find a way to keep the concept of family nursing alive for the future. She asked two other nurse faculty colleagues to join her as editors for this edition. Dr. Vivian Gedaly-Duff from Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing and Dr. Joanna R. Kaakinen from the University of Portland School of Nursing were invited to co-edit the third edition. Dr. Hanson had experience with working with both of these nurse teachers , and they were both scholars of family nursing. Additionally, Dr. Debbie Coehlo from Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing was invited to write the instructors manual that would accompany the third edition of this textbook. Collectively, Drs. Hanson, Gedaly-Duff, Kaakinen and Coehlo formed an exceptional working team. The 3rd edition was published in 2005 and show-cased at the International Family Nursing Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in June 2005. Hopefully Drs. Gedaly-Duff, Kaakinen and Coehlo will be able to carry this exceptional textbook about family nursing into the future and a 4th edition should be forthcoming circa 2009/2010. Dr. Hanson will play a secondary role in this 4th edition. The development of an instructor’s manual for this third edition proved to be a challenge. Instructors manuals for nursing textbook have changed from a simple supply of exam questions and overheads to a fully developed multimedia guide to assist faculty at all levels of experience and expertise to deliver a quality course. Many challenges arise in this endeavor, including making suggestions to university instructors at the undergraduate and graduate level, teaching in a quarter versus a semester system, and in rural versus large urban colleges and universities.

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Additionally, nursing instructors and publishers vary considerably in their knowledge and use of multimedia. The instructor’s manual for family nursing attempted to project into the future and add more than exam questions and overhead templates. Each chapter for this on-line instructors manual included discussions points, activities to take learning out-of-the-box from lecture to experiential learning, power point presentations, case studies, exam questions, and references for outside learning. While this goal was valued, it was daunting, and proved to take more time and coordination then anticipated. Negotiations were fluid between authors, editors, and publishers, as visions became reality. As with the first edition of the book, understanding of what it takes to develop and publish an instructor’s manual to accompany it because clearer over time, and we learned a lot over the course of its development. The template is evident, now paving the way for better instructor’s manuals to accompany future editions. This instructor’s manual provides the material needed to frame that question by offering the pieces that we believe make a difference in the ability of instructors at different levels and locations to teach family nursing, and the ability of students to learn, use, synthesize and analyze family nursing in the context of nursing practice. In summary, the authors/editors in the textbook and instructors many learned many valuable lessons, a few of which are summarized below. 1.

Pick the right publisher from the beginning. Do not just jump at the first “taker.” Know that publishers are always changing, merging, and resetting priorities. Be willing to change publishers if there is not a good fit between you and the publisher. This can be tricky due to copyright issue. Some publishing houses have better resources to make your book a priority and turning it into a classy product that you can be proud of. 2.

If you are co-authoring/co-editing a book, select these people carefully. Make sure you know the quality of their work and the way they work. Ask the important questions as you develop these partnerships, such as “How will this publication fit into your busy schedule?” and, “Do you have any assistants to help you with tasks such as copyright requests, filing of drafts, scheduling meetings, etc. If not, do you have time to take care of these

details in addition to the writing requests?” “How many hours per week can you commit to this project?”, and, “Tell me about your passion for family nursing(or whatever the topic.” Two common reasons partnerships fail include unclear expectations and mismatched passion and energy for the project. 3.

Engage an attorney to review the contract before you sign on with a publisher. There are attorney’s that specialize in assisting creative and artistic people. The editors of this text book also asked the attorney to help them draw up a collaborative agreement among them so expectations, roles and other issues were discussed prior to the start-up.

4.

Acknowledge all contributors. It takes many minds to produce a book expansive and content rich enough to cover the everincreasing field of knowledge. When you are creating and giving birth to a textbook, “it takes many people to bring forth a book that includes scholars, secretarial assistants, publishing house staff, and of course the support and good will of our families, friends and colleagues.

If you believe in the topic/concepts that are contained in your book, this becomes your life’s work. Writing a good book is not a one shot deal or one nightstand. It becomes a life long mission and passion about the legacy that you want to pass on to the next generation of professionals in your field. Be ready to support and market your work even though it may receive criticism and/or competition over time. Make sure you have the next generation prepared to carry the work forward, beyond your own solo existence. Finally, publishing books can be the ultimate expression of creativity and legacy to future generations. Shirley M.H. Hanson is professor emeritus, Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing Child, Marriage and Family Therapist, Portland, OR Tel: 503-245-8099; [email protected] Deborah Padgett Coehlo is assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Oregon State University – Cascades Campus and adjunct instructor for Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing. Phone: 541/322-3137; e-mail: [email protected]

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From Dissertation to Published Book: The Meanings of Marital Equality (SUNY Press, 2005) by Scott R. Harris Saint Louis University ________________________________________________________________ The idea for my book arose out of my master’s thesis and dissertation. For my M.A., I looked at problems that can arise in close relationships when one participant feels in some way “superior” or “inferior” to the other. I enjoyed this study immensely, and found it very relevant to my life. When a revised version of my thesis was accepted by Symbolic Interaction in 1997 that also encouraged me to continue with the topic. For my dissertation, I decided to focus on marriage and look at the wide range of equalities and inequalities that might exist in that specific relationship. I arranged to devote one of my “comps” (graduate school comprehensive exams) to a summary and analysis of the literature on marital equality – a literature on which I wanted to become an “expert.” At this point I encountered one of the most common pitfalls of doing scholarly work: the never-ending literature review. Pick any topic, and there will be thousands of books and articles that are (arguably) relevant to it. Determining what to read and when to stop reading is a skill that is not explicitly taught in very many graduate schools. After six months of reading and summarizing, I re-negotiated a smaller project with my exam committee, and focused only on quantitative books and articles that explicitly defined and measured equality or inequality in marriage. Later, when I had more time, I wrote a separate paper on qualitative research on marital equality. Ultimately, both of these papers not only served as chapters in my dissertation, they became journal articles (in Perspectives on Social Problems and in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography) and later evolved into chapters in my book. Though difficult revisions needed to be done each time I “recycled” these papers, I learned that re-using material in this manner can be a very effective way to survive the time constraints and challenges of academia. While marital equality was my chosen topic, my “theoretical angle” came in large part from my second comprehensive exam, a paper in which I reviewed ideas from symbolic

interactionism, phenomenology, and ethnomethodology and applied them to the issue of equality/inequality. Once again I tried to kill at least two birds with one stone (an unpleasant but functional metaphor!). This paper satisfied my comp, and then served as the foundation for an article in Human Studies (in 2000), a piece which I then incorporated into my dissertation and subsequently revised for my book. My theoretical perspective led me to focus on the lived meanings of marital equality and inequality, rather than the analytical meanings imposed by social scientists. Consequently, for my dissertation research I conducted open-ended, indepth interviews to examine how different people defined their own marriages as equal or unequal. I sought to highlight my respondents’ diverse conceptions of marital equality by examining the stories they told me about the fair or unfair aspects of their relationships. I found the project to be pretty fun! A stroke of luck provided me with some generous financial support during my data collection and analysis. Every year, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation offers around thirty dissertation fellowships to support studies of ethical or religious values in the humanities and social sciences. I don’t know if graduate students studying families realize that they can apply for this award, but winning it was extremely helpful to me at a time when a little bit of funding could make a huge difference in my life and research. The fellowship allowed me to work fulltime on soliciting, conducting, transcribing, and analyzing interviews. It gave me time to write chapters of my dissertation and to submit an article based on my interview data, which was published in Symbolic Interaction in 2001, the same year I graduated from the University of Oregon and started working at Saint Louis University (SLU). At SLU I continued to write articles that were based on and that extended my dissertation 27

project. During Fall semester of 2003 I began submitting my book prospectus to different publishers. (I learned that simultaneous submission of book proposals is acceptable as long as you inform the editors.) I received several rejections, but some initial interest from four different presses. I ended up submitting the entire manuscript SUNY Press, in part because one of their series editors had also edited a journal which had published two of my articles. My manuscript received favorable peer reviews but did need a few changes before SUNY accepted it. Throughout this account I have alluded to the importance of journal articles. I think it’s a good strategy for graduate students to write their master’s theses, comprehensive exams, and dissertation chapters with an eye towards publishing them as journal articles. First, it obviously helps you on the job market. Second, it pushes you to do serious scholarly work, as you try to write for a wider audience and make a contribution to the field. Third, publishing journal articles can also help you convince book publishers that your ideas are worthwhile. However, one pitfall I was not aware of (until too late) was that some presses do not want to publish manuscripts in which over 50% of the content is based on revisions of previously published journal articles. Their concern is that fewer people will purchase or reprint from the book if the articles are readily available. I don’t fully understand or agree with that concern, but it is something that I should have been more sensitive to as I sent out my book prospectus. From the Back Cover of The Meanings of Marital Equality: Scott R. Harris develops an interactionist, interpretive approach to studying equality in social life by synthesizing the theoretical perspectives of

four founding figures in social constructivist thought—Herbert Blumer, Alfred Schutz, Harold Garfinkel, and John Dewey. He focuses on equality in marriage by examining the stories people tell about their equal and unequal marriages, and compares those tales to what researchers have had to say on the subject. Challenging conventional understandings of equality, Harris demonstrates that social scientists in general tend to impose interpretations of inequality onto their respondents’ lives, rather than respecting and studying the meanings that people live by. “Harris’s unique approach moves well beyond the standard and, in my view, very tired thinking about what it means to have an equal (or unequal) marriage. If anything is central to the study of marriage and family, it’s the question of marital equality. Every scholar and graduate student working in this area will need to have this book, and even those who disagree with the approach will need to read what Harris offers in order to properly come to terms with it from their varied points of view.” -- Jaber F. Gubrium, coeditor of Qualitative Research Practice “Harris does an excellent job clarifying the differences between objectivist and constructionist perspectives. The issues he discusses are vital for any social scientific field. In some subfields, such as social problems research, the constructionist perspective is well established. In the family field there has been some discussion but no sustained presentation of how a constructionist perspective would offer an alternative way of understanding family life--Harris’s book makes a real contribution here.” -- Stan J. Knapp, Brigham Young University Scott R. Harris is assistant professor, Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, Saint Louis University, 3500 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103-2010 USA phone: 314/ 977-2190; fax: 314/977-3623; e-mail: [email protected]

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Variations in Family Life: Families in Global and Multicultural Perspective (2nd ed) (Guilford, 2005) by Bron B. Ingoldsby Brigham Young University & Suzanna Smith University of Florida ________________________________________________________________ Families In Global And Multicultural Perspective is a second edition of the original text that was published in 1995 with Guilford Press. We wrote the first edition in 1995 because the field of family science was overly focused on North America, particularly the U.S.; this seemed to be true almost a decade later and prompted us to complete a second edition. Our thinking is that it is important to introduce students to the variations in family life through out the world for a broader and more comprehensive understanding of what it means to be “family.” A global and multicultural perspective has several benefits, as students •

•

• •

•

Recognize the power of forces outside family walls, the context created by physical and social environments and political and cultural histories. Think critically about the concept of “family,” recognizing that it is not the same worldwide. analyze how race, class, gender, and age structure family life regardless of physical location in the world. Penetrate the complexity and depth of issues that families face, and examine the ingenious solutions and interventions that have been developed by families, communities, and governments. Better understand the links they have to other families through today’s global society and appreciate and value differences created not only by indigenous cultures but by a society’s positioning in the global system.

Writing a textbook can be a demanding as well as rewarding process. For us, it was somewhat complicated in that in addition to writing some of the chapters ourselves, we recruited other authors to provide chapters in their areas of expertise (e.g., Japanese families, African families). NCFR served as a good source for us in finding those authors, although networking was sometimes difficult and we had hoped to find more scholars living in the regions that needed to be covered.

NCFR does attract scholars from different regions, and perhaps a common event at the annual conference would facilitate networking. There are a couple of challenges that editors need to be aware of when using multiple authors. Each has unique viewpoints and approaches to writing. This can result in a range from conservative to feminist views that may be confusing to the reader and can pose unexpected challenges to you as editors. Although it is beneficial to leave the content of chapters to the chapter authors, it is also productive to provide an organizational outline so that there is some similarity and continuity throughout the book. The other concern has to do with deadlines. Some contributors do an excellent job with being on time, and others may put serious burdens on the editors in getting them to submit their material in a timely manner for publishing deadlines. On occasion, it is necessary to delete a chapter or replace a writer, and this can be very difficult. In addition, some contributors may simply not share your vision of what their chapter should include. Writing a book can be a complex juggling act of many responsibilities—finding authors and securing contracts for each, reviewing chapters and returning them to authors with feedback and doing this at least twice, working with copy editors and managing editors, finding photographs and selecting a book cover, and so on. It is important for us ivory tower professors to have a good publisher to guide us through this process. We were fortunate to be connected with the good people at Sage, which has close contacts with NCFR scholars and writers. There are managing editors, copy editors, photo editors and others to lead you with your responsibilities and deadlines. It is a very different experience from writing journal articles—more demanding, but also one in which there are the rewards of potentially reaching a much larger number of colleagues and students.

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In general, one should not write a book for the financial rewards, as royalties tend to be fairly modest over time. The benefits are the personal and professional rewards, such as the satisfaction of understanding a particular body of literature, of working with colleagues with common interests, of increasing student knowledge, and of leaving an imprint, however small or large it might be, on the literature. There are also costs that authors need to be aware of, for such things as including copyrighted material, photographs, and indexing. It is important that you learn in advance the kind of support your University will (or will not) provide.

Although many will consider writing a book part of your professional responsibilities, others will expect you to write it only on your own time, without any secretarial or material support. It can be very important to understand such things in advance of making the decision as to whether or not to write a scholarly text. Bron B. Ingoldsby is associate professor, School of Family Life, 1041F JFSB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 USA. Phone: (801) 422-1796; Fax: (801) 422-0225 FAX; e-mail: bingoldsby.byu.edu Suzanna D. Smith is associate professor, University of Florida, 3041 McCarty Hall D, Gainesville, FL 32611-0310; phone: 352/392-2202. ext. 255; USA e-mail: [email protected]

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Two Books, Two Stories: Marriages and Families: Making Choices in a Diverse Society (9th ed. Wadsworth, 2006). Mary Ann Lamanna & Agnes Riedmann. Emile Durkheim on the Family. (Sage, 2002) Mary Ann Lamanna. 2002 by Mary Ann Lamanna Two books, two pairs of stories. For each book I’ll tell an origin story and the story of the book itself. The Marriages and Families textbook began with my teaching experience as a Ph.D. student at Notre Dame. I was assigned to teach courses on the family, but textbooks available in the mid-seventies were either extremely light on research or they had a good research base, but were not user-friendly for students who wished to apply their learning to real life. I needed a book that would be solidly research-based, but which would present that research in a way applicable to students’ family lives. An opportunity to create the textbook I wanted presented itself through the interest of Steve Rutter of Wadsworth Publishing Company. Wadsworth was looking for a new Ph.D. who would be up-to-date on research. Agnes Riedmann, text co-author, who was a UNO M.A in sociology, had already written some fiction illustrating sociology concepts for Wadsworth and eventually obtained a Ph.D. in sociology. UNO is an urban university and in 1977 had a large component of “returning” students, men as well as women, in other words a student body of diverse ages. Despite Nebraska’s “white bread” demographics, Omaha and UNO had a substantial presence of racial/ethnic minority students. And despite the conservatism of the state, there was a sort of ad hoc liberalization in the air regarding such family patterns as divorce, remarriage, single-parenting, non-marital births, and gay/lesbian relationships. These were not even controversial among my students (save for perhaps gay/lesbian families), but rather somewhat taken for granted family patterns and practices. This surprised me—if in Omaha things were changing….! It intensified my goal of writing a family text for a diverse student audience. Our textbook was very early in the presentation of family relations as diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, stages of life, and family structure and choices. I would say family diversity has been the story of our book, a story novel then, though commonplace now. Another part of the story of our book is its grounding in our everyday lives. In addition to our

extensive review of the research literature, we were attentive to what we were hearing at ground level. This convinced us that cultural changes were more than the fantasies of liberal academics. Throughout the many editions of the book, we have been aware of new developments emerging around us; we then seek out the research available. Moreover, through family and friends we are personally in touch with perspectives that differ from ours and are able to present them with respect and empathy. In other words, our politics of the family, while probably identifiable as liberal and feminist, are at the same time understanding of more conservative perspectives. Similarly with regard to theoretical perspectives on the family, I believe we are able to present all theories being used in family studies rather objectively, regardless of our own preferences. For example, while I am not personally enthusiastic about biosocial perspectives, I believe that our textbook presentation of this perspective is balanced and informative. The nice thing about having a book of one’s own is the opportunity to incorporate new interests. Over time we both became more interested in demography; law and policy; and history. At the same time, length issues—our book has grown too much over the years--limit elaboration of some family contexts we would like to expand, especially the cross-cultural comparative and historical. It has been fun to look at American society and family and to bring our thoughts about new developments into the pages of our book. This newest edition, for example, looks at “pets as family”; at the impact on the family of technological advances such as surveillance technology and assisted reproduction; at the increasing awareness of intersexuality; and at the high anxiety of today’s parents. My other book, Emile Durkheim on the Family, is a world apart. Targeted to upper division or graduate sociology students and scholars of family theory and intellectual history, it is a presentation of Durkheim’s sociology of the family. Surprising to many, the family was an important area of interest for Durkheim. He never pulled together a book from his varied and scattered work on the family, and much of that has 31

not been translated into English, so it remains generally obscure. My book analyzes Durkheim’s sociology of the family in historical context; in relation to the developing study of the family; in relation to his other work; and in comparison to issues in contemporary family studies. Connections are made to family theories, research methods, family policy, and issues of women and sexuality. This book had its origin, one could say, in my interest in and education in the French language. This education began informally, when I was a teenage babysitter for a professor of French who spoke French at home. In college I was a French major for a long time, and after graduation I spent a year in France on a Fulbright. Fast forward, to reach me again in graduate school, needing an idea for a theory paper. My professor suggested that I read a certain article, a summary of Durkheim’s course on the family by one of his students and protégées, George Davy. The article was in French; which was why my prof suggested it. Well, Durkheim had not been my favorite theorist, but once I read the article—and then more—I was fascinated. It became obvious there was a book there. Somebody had to do it! My Durkheim book took a number of years to complete, but benefited from the long period of development, as I learned more and more in that time. With greater intellectual maturity, I was better able to see not only what was in Durkheim, but how that fit with family studies more generally. It was also interesting to learn more about Durkheim the man and his family. Mme. Durkheim was a quintessential faculty wife, assisting Durkheim with his journal Année Sociologique. Durkheim and his wife helped their daughter Marie care for her children while her husband was away fighting World War I. Sadly,

Durkheim lost his son André to that war; Durkheim’s death has been blamed on depression at losing not only a son, but a colleague—André had appeared headed for a bright future in sociology. Durkheim served as mentor and adviser to his nephew, budding anthropologist Marcel Mauss. There we see the trials of a family patriarch whose efforts to guide his mentee’s personal life were less than successful! And we also see a Durkheim some of us might recognize in ourselves—the academic who says: “Sorry the article isn’t done…the journal issue isn’t ready…because this or that happened—my daughter’s wedding, my grandson’s illness, visits from relatives, etc. etc.” I was fascinated to encounter Durkheim as a fallible human being! Now, what general conclusions can I draw from these publishing experiences? 1. Do what you think should be published, what you know and love in your field; 2, Look around and see how the world of the family is changing; what it is important to communicate about the family; 3. Be patient—it may be a long time between idea and finished, published book. The first edition of our textbook took three years of work by two people; each new edition takes another year. Durkheim, well, that seemed and was endless! 4. Work with people you like and trust and who trust you. Steve Rutter, our first editor believed in us and was accepting of our judgment when we saw things differently. Dave Klein and Bert Adams, series editors for my Durkheim book, were committed to the concept, supportive, knowledgeable, and patient. They had helpful comments and ideas to offer. M.A. Lamanna, is Professor Emerita, Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology, U. of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Ne 68182-0291, [email protected]..

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Mismatches and Contradictions: The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) by Phyllis Moen University of Minnesota, Twin Cities & Patricia Roehling Hope College _______________________________________________________________ of date and out of place in 21st century America. 0ver 40 years ago, in her book The While myths are important—providing a vision of Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan pointed out the what is possible—we see the career mystique as a cultural contradictions of assigning full-time false myth, standing in the way of creating new, homemaking to half the adult population. The story alternative workplace and career flexibilities. line of the feminine mystique went something like this: Marriage and motherhood were to be totally It is “false” and problematic for five reasons. fulfilling, a life peopled by children and other First, climbing the ladder of occupational success mothers, isolated in the new residential suburbs was never possible for all workers, even in the sprouting up in post-war America. 1950s. Hard work paid off only for a select group of mostly white, mostly middle-class men. But Friedan paid scant attention to its mirror image: the career mystique, the cultural Second, the feminine mystique provided the contradictions of jobs that require employees to platform undergirding the career mystique. It is invest all their time, energy, and commitment to no accident that those most successful in climbing moving up seniority or job ladders, culminating in a career ladders in business and in government have lock-step jump into retirement based on full-time been men with either homemaking wives or else continuous leisure. wives who put their own careers on the back burner. In the 40 plus years since Friedan labeled “the problem with no name,” the feminine mystique has become a cultural relic, or else a short-term project for mothers while their children are young. By contrast, the career mystique and its corollary, the retirement mystique, remain an integral aspect of the American way of life, embraced by women as well as men. The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream brings together and distills evidence from a wealth of research over a quarter of a century, much of it accomplished by the two authors: a sociologist (Phyllis Moen) and a psychologist (Pat Roehling), along with our many collaborators and in conjunction with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Drawing on the stories of the people in the Ecology of Careers Study, we demonstrate how this myth is interwoven into the very fabric of the American way of life, making it hard to envision any alternatives about work or retirement. Yet most Americans confront job or income insecurity and stress as they contend with the moving platform of change characterizing life thus far in the 21st century. And most older workers experience both ambivalence and ambiguity as they consider the possibilities of retirement. The purpose of this book is to show that most Americans – men and women—continue to embrace the career mystique, even though it is out

Third, the old “contract” trading continuous, hard work for wage increases and seniority is long gone. Americans must now compete for jobs on a global playing field. Fourth, neither men nor women want to live the old gender divide. Women have not simply traded one mystique for another – moving from strictures about the “good” mother or the “good” wife to those embodied in the “good” worker. Rather, many American women are trying to have it all – to be the good wife, the good mother, and the good employee. Growing numbers of American men are trying to be all as well— egalitarian husbands and caring fathers as well as productive and competitive on the job. They too find it almost impossible to do so. Fifth, very few men or women can live by the old rules. One job per family—the old breadwinner/homemaker model—is often a ticket to economic privation, since wages have not kept pace with inflation or living costs, the minimum wage is a poverty wage, and “middle-class” today means something very different in today’s consumption economy. We find that Americans of all ages and stages, children, young people, adults, retirees—along with CEOs, managers, union leaders, and government policy makers—still “buy into” the career mystique. 33

Why do Americans cling to this patently false mystification of careers as the path to the good life? In part, because it epitomizes the great American Dream. The career mystique embraces both an endurance ethic and a work ethic, both crucial to American values of individualism and free enterprise. “Sacrifice by working hard,” the myth goes, and you’ll reap wealth, security, status, health insurance, pensions, respect, love, admiration, happiness. The obverse is also believed to be true by many Americans: if success is deserved, the product of a lifetime of hard work, so too is failure. In other words, the career mystique implies that those who don’t make it simply did not try hard enough. Like the sitcom reruns of the 1950s, the mystique remains. But the mid-20th century bargain of trading a lifetime of paid work for a lifetime of income security is probably gone forever. What we show in The Career Mystique is that most men and women typically go along to get along, adopting “work-friendly” strategies. They try to “fit into” taken-for-granted blueprints of jobs, careers, and success that are now ill-fitting at best. Some draw on new information technologies to manage the multiple strands of their lives. Picture a leading TV commercial; a mother at the beach with her two children frolicking in the waves while she is on a cell-phone conference call. Such technological advances permitting people to work anywhere, anytime may be family-friendly, but they are also work-friendly, encouraging employees to work everywhere, all the time. Other key family-friendly business innovations, such as child care and flextime, are also workfriendly, making it possible for employees to pursue the elusive career mystique by devoting more time to their jobs. Even the watchword “balance” itself is work-friendly. Rarely do both spouses in a marriage “balance” their work and family goals and obligations. Rather, one spouse (usually the wife) typically scales back (“balances”) in order that the other spouse (the husband) can put in long hours, travel, be on call, and try to climb or at least hang onto an increasingly shaky career ladder. We view the metaphor of “balance” as a cultural convention

reinforcing gender inequalities at work and at home while failing to challenge the career mystique. Why did we write this book? To describe how the career mystique remains part of the human experience of Americans at all ages and stages. To show the mismatch and contradictions between the career mystique and contemporary reality, as well as how Americans accommodate this mismatch. Finally, and frankly, we want to “lobby” for change. Can Americans devise new, more realistic scripts–about success, about careers, about retirement? We believe that the nation is still caught up in the career myth precisely because it is so interwoven into the social fabric, a taken-forgranted part of life – and work – today. The career mystique embraces both a gender divide and an age divide. What is key is that both the breadwinner/homemaker gender divide (of paid work and unpaid family care work) and the life course as a three-part sequential age divide: (education, employment, and retirement) are social inventions, products of 20th century forces (industrialization, urbanization, suburbanization, and bureaucratization). The career mystique has contributed as well to yet another divide: between “work” and “family” the widening geographical distance between businesses and homes in postWorld War II America became a spatial marker lending credence to this separation of work and family spheres. We portray the career mystique for what it is, a social invention perpetuating a regime of roles, rules, and regulations reifying imaginary divides— between home and workplace, between men and women, between paid work and unpaid care work, between employees and retirees. But social inventions, like technological inventions, can become obsolete. “All” that is required for American society to move beyond the career mystique is imagination and the will to change. Phyllis Moen holds the McKnight Presidential Chair of Sociology, Department of Sociology, 1123 Social Science Building, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN 55444 USA e-mail: [email protected] Patricia V. Roehling is professor and chair, Psychology Department, Hope College, 35 E. 12th Street, Holland, MI 49422-9000 USA phone: 616/395-7732; fax: 616/395-7121; e-mail: [email protected]

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More on Writing Books by Phyllis Moen University of Minnesota, Twin Cities _____________________________________________________________________________ Writing books always takes longer than you think…much longer. I started writing The Career Mystique in 1997, and it was not published until 2005! I did do several edited volumes between times, that slowed me up, but my coauthor Pat Roehling and I persevered. I let this volume go in order to do edited volumes so that my students could showcase their research in chapters. This is especially the case for It’s About Time: Couples and Careers (2003).

book, so it wouldn’t get out of hand…but it got out of hand anyway! It is a wonder it ever got finished.

Why did I Envision Writing a Book?

•

As a junior faculty member when I first came to Cornell, I went to a women’s studies meeting, consisting solely of women from the humanities, with the exception of psychologist Sandra Bem. As we went around the table the conversation was about books, books, books. Such as “after finishing my book on x, I have started a new book on y.” When it came my turn I had no “book” even on the horizon, and barely anything published. I wondered whether I had it in me to write a book. But it seemed to me, that if I was going to stay at Cornell, I’d better think about doing so. When to Write? I got the advice many junior people get (outside of humanities), not to try for a book before tenure. However, after tenure, it seemed time. From 1983 to 1989 I worked on my first book, Working Parents: Transformations in Gender Roles and Public Policies in Sweden.(1989) But at the same time I was also working on another book on the U.S. case, that didn’t get published until 1992, Women’s Two Roles, A Contemporary Dilemma. I seem to not be able to focus on just one project at a time This slows me down, but also makes me feel that not all the eggs are in one basket. And if one thing hits an impasse, I drop it for a while, and go on to the next. The hardest thing I ever did in the book writing department was to do a volume with Urie Bronfenbrenner and other colleagues at Cornell (The State of Americans.) We called it a “little”

My advice to First-Time Book Writers: •

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• •

Make notes all the time…if you don’t use an idea at one point in time, it may be useful later! Persistence is more important than anything else Work every day if possible…if you have no ideas, and very little time, mock up a table of contents, or chapter headings for the chapters not yet envisioned…that way you are engaging in the intellectual work of the book, even though you are not writing much Don’t wait for inspiration. Try putting something down, anything down. And later, make it better or redo altogether. Think about who you want to read your book, and what you want them to learn Be willing to start over…Pat and I did that several times with the Career Mystique when what we were doing just wasn’t working Have people read as you move along…what is clear to you might not be clear to a reader Make up reference list as you go along (otherwise you will be like me…frantically searching for “Joe Smith 1995” at the last minute.

Best advice given to me (by family historian, John Modell: “Write the clearest, shortest book you can. When it is finished, and to your liking, cut by a third.” I do try to do that, but I always save my cut “words”…hoping to use them somewhere else. It gives me comfort, at the time, that all that effort was not wasted…but in reality they get “lost” on the computer after a while, and I am willing to let them go. I am not good about giving advice about publishers, etc, since I have never made rational choices…often just who happens to drop by the office, or who seems interested at a meeting. Other people are a lot more savvy about this.

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Self-Publishing: A Minister’s Guide to Understanding Domestic Violence by Amelia Rose West Palm Beach, FL

__________________________________________________________________ The idea for writing A Minister’s Guide to Understanding Domestic Violence was derived from my own experience with domestic violence and my subsequent attempt to resolve the issues through my church. Looking back now, everything seems so understandable: the pattern, the victim’s response, the batterer’s control issues, etc. Yet, nothing about the manner in which church leaders or even other congregants treated victims would become clear to me until I became more keenly aware of the psychological and spiritual impact of their religious teachings. As time passed, I became heavily involved in church ministries with special responsibilities for the social service needs of families in general and women in particular. It was during this time that I became aware of the prevalence of domestic violence and its devastating effect on the psyche and spirituality of victims, especially women of faith. Like the women I mentored, I remembered approaching my minister about my husband’s abusive behavior, only to have him encourage me to pray about the matter. My husband on the other hand was allowed to continue the weekly rituals in church. No one confronted him about his behavior. I now know that some ministers cannot make the connection between abuse and a violation of sacred trust. I was still a college student and not a family member in sight. Very close friends seemed even the more far removed when I considered the miles between Florida and New York state. Something had to be done to increase awareness about this issue, I thought, but as the priorities in my life changed-the desire was dormant for several years, although I continued to work with victims. In addition, I armed myself with a degree in pastoral counseling, just incase I had to do battle with other Ministers in the future. In the fall of 2004, my professional life took a downward turn. I was now faced with a battle of a different kind: my younger sister who lived in the Caribbean and was living in the final stage of breast cancer. I opt to care for her; after a year out of the workforce and growing closer to age 60--twice the age of my professional rivals, even the jobs that I once refused were eluding me. One day, when it appeared as if I was about to lose confidence, a sudden burst of

determination overcame me. I decided that retreat was not an option. It was at this point that the idea of writing a book about a subject with which I was familiar surfaced. The rest is history. In three months the book was published. There are some books born out of adversity. The Process 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

6.

Decide on your readership; what audience is your publication geared to? Next, decide what it is you want your audience to know about what you have to say. Check to see if others have addressed the issue before you; if so, can you find another perspective from which to approach that same subject. Talk to people who love to read and ask if they would be willing to critique a manuscript for you. In my case, I sought input from victims, pastors, a librarian and people who would not have read the document otherwise. When you have written all you can possibly write, taking into consideration the feedback received from others, get a qualified individual to proofread /edit your work. While you are yet writing, begin to explore publishers and publishing companies.

Finding a Publisher On one hand this could be your worst nightmare. On the other hand it could be you could a dream come true. Depending on your finances, you have the option to self-publish or you can hope to find a publisher who likes your work and will take your on. Do not go for the ads that glitter. Look for companies that can show you other books they have published, publishers who give you clear-cut instructions to follow and who have no hidden costs. Do not be taken by the first one who necessarily say yes. Compare shop. Some publishers have their own printing departments. Be sure to clarify all of this. The price of your publication is usually based on the number of pages, whether you use hard or soft cover and on the size of the book and cover designspiral or bound. If you do self-publish, BEWARE of companies who offer to do everything for you. They 36

could do every thing including taking your copyright and your future revenue. Promotion

You have added value to your portfolio. In my case, I see my book going places I am not able to go. I get the attention of people who otherwise might not have given me the time of day.

Some publisher offer packages that include marketing and registering your publication with the Library of Congress and/or securing your copyright for you. Again, depending on your finances, you may choose to get the material and do it yourself or you may allow them to do it all for you. Since my book targets a specific readership (church leaders), with whom I work consistently, I chose to market directly at conferences, speaking engagements, and book signings. Within a month, I sold 200 copies.

The downside to any project such as this is that it takes hard work to succeed. You cannot take the occasional rejections too personally. For me, it is a constant battle to get the full cooperation of every minister. Knowledge is powerful and some are afraid of the potential ripple effect the new information could create. My attitude about it all is that I am not going anywhere in a hurry. If it takes me a lifetime to influence the necessary changes in the faith community, it would have been worth it all.

Benefits and Pitfalls

Amelia Rose, Comprehensive Consulting & Counseling Services, Inc.,1011 Green Pine Blvd, Suite F-2 West Palm Beach, FL 33409 USA; phone: 561/389-0531; e-mail [email protected]

If nothing else, you have set and reached a goal. You have proven to yourself and others that you have something worthwhile to say. You get a good sense of this from the individuals who critique your work even before you get the book off to a publisher.

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Family Life Today: The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of the Family (Blackwell, 2004). Jacqueline Scott, Judith Treas, & Martin Richards (Eds.) by Judith Treas University of California, Irvine

The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of the Family strives to be an authoritative volume of original essays by expert contributors tackling a range of issues relevant to family life today. The resulting volume reflects the vision of its international editorial team to address both new perspectives gaining force in the social sciences and the changing context of families in various countries. These objectives are evident in our choice of contributors and topics. Duane Alwin describes the historical evolution of contemporary parenting practices while Jacqueline Scott explores family life from the perspective of children. Beth Mabry, Roseann Giarrusso, and Vern Bengtson analyze generational relations while Chris Phillipson and Graham Allen examine aging in the context of the changing life course. Frank Furstenberg and Sarah Kaplan evaluate the usefulness for family sociology of the concept of social capital. Philip Cohen and Danielle MacCartney provide an original framework highly useful for understanding the multi-faceted relationship of families and social inequality. Karen Pyke and Alison Shaw consider the challenges confronting multicultural families in the US and UK, respectively. Ronald and Jacqueline Angel show how the state has structured health care for families.

policy, religion, employment and community) that shape modern family life. Contributors are drawn from the U.S., U.K., Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. From an explicitly comparative perspective, the authors provide a selective overview of empirical research and address emerging issues. Families in Europe and North America are given special attention, with discussion of previously neglected groups including immigrant families and gays and lesbians. Consistent with the editorial goals, the Companion shows how revolutionary changes in aging, longevity, and sexual behavior have affected the experience of children and parents over the life course and shifted the ties that bind different generations. Bracketed by essays that debate the postmodern psychologized interpretation of the family’s centrality versus classic structural explanations, the book challenges the frames that have shaped scholarship on the family. This volume shows why the study of social change in families is a necessary key for understanding the transformations in individual and social life across the globe. The volume’s development also offers lessons for publishing an edited collection on the family. •

Starting with a good idea is basic. This book began with the notion that the pace of social change in the context of globalization created a need for a thoughtful assessment of families from an international perspective. The editor’s sense of a good idea needs to take account of what publishers see as a good idea. Scholars care about the intellectual content of the volume, but publishers necessarily think that a good idea is an idea that will sell books. A good idea has to be communicated in terms of its academic value, but also in terms of the void that it fills in the intellectual terrain. An edited volume that is unique in its topic or orientation will find more success than one that tackles a crowded market.

•

Choose topics and contributors carefully. A general volume like our Companion

Describing the eroticization of the life course from adolescence to old age, Judith Treas argues that heterosexual unions have become more sexualized even as homosexual ones have been increasingly defined by non-sexual, domestic concerns. Martin Richards investigates how changing reproductive and genetic technologies are reconfiguring family life. Michele Budig evaluates the contributions of various schools of feminism to the study of families while Shirley Dex explores the work-family connection. Eric Widmer examines couples from the perspective of social networks. Jonathan Gershuny describes how time use changes over the life course. These and other essays examine the changing family forms and relationships as well as the changing social context (by way of globalization, technological innovation, state

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could draw on a larger pool of potential contributors than an edited volume on a focused topic engaging fewer researchers and experts. Whatever the scope of the book, however, it is important to choose chapters and writers for balance and coverage. We all have blind spots so coeditors who vetted the chapter selections improved the balance of the Companion. As for contributors, recruit the very best people for each selection. Expertise is essential, and a fresh outlook highly desirable. Prominent scholars can sell a volume, but the most original chapter may well come from a new scholar excited by the chance to contribute to a volume in the field. •

Plan for the unexpected. Few edited volumes turn out exactly as they were intended. The contributor you really want to write that particular chapter may not be available. Some authors are notoriously bad at meeting deadlines. Important chapters fall by the wayside, because you cannot recruit a contributor or because the recruited contributor does not deliver. Sadly, Tamara Hareven died before she could write the chapter on family history for the Companion, and we remember her fondly in our preface. To some extent,

back-up planning can help. Have a list of potential authors for each chapter, rather than just one favorite. Treasure versatile scholars who can produce a chapter on short notice. Communicate deadlines and expectations early and often to authors. Build extra time into your production schedule just in case. When you read someone else’s edited volume, sympathize if the product falls just a bit short of the goals. Judith Treas is professor, Department of Sociology, University of California-Irvine, Social Science Plaza 3151 A, Irvine, CA 92697 USA. Phone: 949/824-8324; e-mail: [email protected] Jacqueline Scott, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ UK Phone: 011 44 122 333 4558; Fax:011 44 122 333 4550; Email: [email protected] Martin Richard, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Free School Lane,Cambridge, CB2 3RF UK Phone: 011 44 122 333 4510 Fax: 011 44 122 333 0574 e-mail: [email protected]

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A Book We Wanted to Use: Culturally Diverse Families: Expanding Perspectives. (Sage, expected publication, late 2006) by Bahira Sherif Trask University of Delaware, Newark Raeann R. Hamon Messiah College (Eds.) ___________________________________________________________________ We generated the idea for this book through various extended dialogues. Bahira, in particular, was looking for materials to use in her classes that moved beyond typologies and generalizations about families of different races and ethnicities. Together we began to put together a short outline of the type of book that we would want to produce/ use, one which provides a family science perspective on issues pertaining to culturally diverse families. We contacted a number of people about potentially contributing to the book as chapter authors and had informal commitments from these individuals for the prospectus. The Publisher Since Raeann had a positive experience working with Sage Publications before, we approached Jim Brace-Thompson about our book idea. We met with him at the annual National Council on Family Relations conference in Vancouver and fleshed out our ideas. With Jim’s encouragement, we further developed a prospectus which he took to a committee at Sage. Based on a number of positive external reviews and a favorable response from the various groups at Sage, we received a contract for the book. The Process Initially we had to take a perceived need and conceptually clarify our ideas on paper in the form of a prospectus. Then, we had to select a publisher to pursue. We selected Sage because Raeann was so impressed by her experience with working with Sage on her book (with Bron Ingoldsby) Mate Selection Across Cultures. Every person at Sage was helpful/supportive, competent, organized and responsive. We also agreed that Sage is very good at marketing its books. This was an important consideration. We then approached Jim Brace-Thompson who was enthusiastic about our proposed idea. With his feedback, we further developed our prospectus and ultimately submitted it for the review process at Sage. With contracts in hand, we made sure that all of our authors also received contracts. Two of the authors that we had hoped would participate,

declined to be involved once the contracts were distributed. Thus, we needed to find new authors for two chapters in a relatively short period of time. First drafts of the chapters were due from authors by June 15. Several of the contributors needed extensions, but most were received by sometime in August. We e-mailed and had conference calls about the chapters and offered authors feedback for their next draft. Final drafts are due to Sage by November 2005. At that time, the book will be reviewed by external reviewers, authors will receive additional feedback and final revisions will be due to us by mid-spring so that we can produce a final copy of the entire book for Sage by June of 2006. Promotion Since we are not particularly gifted in marketing and promotion, we decided that we needed to go with a publisher that was. Sage is very good at marketing its books, so we are hopeful that they will help us promote the book. Benefits We’re excited about the contribution that this book can make to the field of family science. Working on the book only enhances our enthusiasm for a resource like this one and confirms our initial impression that we are filling a gap in our field. This book investigates the impact of cultural diversity on the field of family science in order to transcend simplistic categorizations that have juxtaposed white families in opposition to families of color and vice versa. It consciously emphasizes cultural aspects over racial impacts on family life so as not to reinforce the myth that race is a biological truth. It examines the implications of cultural diversity for all families and the future of the discipline itself. We believe that individuals and their families must be understood in the context of historical differences with respect to access to power, resources, status and culture of various groups. Furthermore, there are many individuals 40

who have multiple religious, ethnic or class affiliations that are not captured under our current systems of categorization.

authors, authors from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as at different levels in their careers.

This raises questions about the knowledge we have about families and how we best train students to understand issues facing families and how to provide the kind of services that are needed by culturally diverse families. In this book, we propose to break new ground by investigating how concepts of cultural diversity have shaped family science from a theoretical and applied perspective. In summary, this book

Pitfalls

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Delineates the increasing cultural diversity of American families and examines the impact of these demographic changes for the field of family science; Outlines the unique experiences of culturally diverse families in the United States in order to enhance understanding, direct future family research, and serve these families through responsive policy and practice; Identifies shared family experiences across groups; Discusses implications of cultural diversity for the future of the discipline of family science.

We have a broad spectrum of chapter authors for the book. We have female and male

Life circumstances arise such that some authors are unable to make initial deadlines and there is always some anxiety about whether or not they will produce what you envision. There is not enough information on some of these topics, making writing some of these chapters very challenging. The information that does exist often breaks data down by race, making generalizations about racial/ethnic groups – something that we were trying to avoid. Bahira Sherif Trask, is associate professor, Department of Individual and Family Studies, 102 Alison Hall, West, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19176 USA; phone: 302/ 831-8187; e-mail: [email protected] Raeann R. Hamon, is Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Human Development and Family Science, Box 3047, Messiah College, Grantham, PA 17027 USA; phone: 717/766-2511 x2850; fax: 717/ 796-4790 e-mail: [email protected]

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Tailoring Course Content to Students: The Family Dynamic: A Canadian Perspective (4th ed.)(Nelson, 2006) by Margaret Ward Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada ___________________________________________________________________ For several years, I taught an introduction to family studies under various course names. I was frustrated by the lack of a suitable text. Most of my students were in diploma, not degree, courses in human services fields, such as early childhood education, correctional services, nursing, child and youth work, and social services. They needed a practical approach at a relatively easy reading level. Available texts had a number of drawbacks. If they were applied and readable, they were American. Canadian laws and regulations, as well as the racial and ethnic mix differ markedly from those in the United States. Canadian texts generally aimed at students in upper university years, often with a prerequisite in sociology. Many of my students couldn’t manage the reading level or the theoretical approach. For one year, I used a brief outline (about 90 pages double-spaced) I had written, which was sold at cost in the college bookstore. The following year I was told that it was against policy to require student to buy such material and the budget would not cover a free handout. I was encouraged by publishers’ representatives to write a textbook. Later editions came at the initiative of my publisher. Finding a Publisher Publishers’ representatives were very helpful in getting the book into print. They provided me with guidelines for writing a book proposal and told me how to submit it. One physically took the proposal to the appropriate editor, and provided support and encouragement during the LONG waiting period. The first editor to whom I submitted the proposal turned it down because the company felt there was not a large enough market for the book. The acquisitions editor at the second publisher sent the proposal to several professors for review. As a result of their suggestions, I revised the book outline. This revised proposal was accepted by Nelson Canada (now Nelson, A Thomson Company). The Process of Writing the Book The first edition. It took about five years to bring the first edition to print. There were two delays – first, a death in my immediate family and second, my editor’s decision to wait for the results of the latest Canadian census. Otherwise, the

interval would have been about 3 ½ years. In writing each edition, I started with Chapter 1, and worked my way through the book, looking for statistics and other new resources and checking materials in my files. For the first edition, I also made heavy use of my teaching notes. Because this was a textbook, I needed to include objectives, summary, list of key terms, and discussion questions for each chapter. Part way through the writing process, the editor sent the partial manuscript for review. The feedback prompted some changes in my presentation of the material. I decided, with the approval of my editor to include cartoons and boxes with often diverting material to amplify the text. The work wasn’t nearly over when the manuscript was submitted. I had to write for permission to copy excerpts from other sources. I also had to respond to comments and queries by the copy editor, proofread the first print version, index the book, and create an Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank. The fourth edition. Once I had completed the third edition, I started accumulating materials for the fourth. By this time Internet resources had become more important. I frequently checked the Statistics Canada website for any relevant new publications. I collected newspaper and magazine articles that might be used in text boxes or that reported the publication of new reports. I also indexed my journals on my computer. Copies of the third edition were sent to reviewers for general comments and suggestions for improving the text. As soon as I had signed the contract, I printed out mountains of downloaded papers, and sorted out other materials. I also had the tedious task of reformatting of the version providing me on disk to match the format requested for the manuscript. As I worked through the book, I consulted the reviews, did literature searches of my own materials, checked the Internet and libraries to fill in areas in which I had deficiencies. Although the general format of the book was preserved, I reorganized and did a total re-write for most of one chapter. Other revisions were not so drastic. I did, however, have to include the most recent statistics and update many of my references, often with slight alterations to the text to reflect the latest research. For the first time, the book has 42

photographs. I was asked to review them for suitability; one was changed at my suggestion.

marketing department of important conferences where the book should be on display.

Permission requests (with follow-up letters or e-mails), editing, proofreading all followed as with other editions. One permission was refused for each of the third and fourth editions. In one case, I found a substitute and received permission. In the other, I wrote new text for a box. In addition, the payment requested to reproduce two excerpts used in boxes was very high (I pay for the permissions out of royalties) and so I wrote alternates. I did not have to index the book this time.

Benefits and Pitfalls

For the Instructor’s Manual, I checked to ensure the information agreed with the revised text and looked for new audiovisual resources. Of course, the Test Bank needed revision, and my editor wanted to know how many new questions were added. I also needed to provide websites where students could locate information; links are provided on the publisher’s site. The timetable for the revision was more condensed than for the first edition. I met with the Acquisitions Editor and Developmental Editor on June 2, 2004, and signed the contract for the book. The completed manuscript was due, along with a list of permissions required, on February 10, 2005. Then the manuscript went to the Production Editor who was responsible for copyediting and getting the book into print. April 16-29, 2005 was devoted to my review of the copyediting, and June 1-27, 2005 to proofreading. The ancillary materials were due by the end of September to be available when the first copies of the book arrived in October. One complication in this process came from the Canadian government over the legalization of same-sex marriage. Sentences were included in two places in the book that could be altered to fit the circumstances. The change was made more than a month after I returned the proofs. Promoting and Marketing the Book Because The Family Dynamic is a textbook, the publisher has taken the primary responsibility for marketing. I have, however, been required to provide information to be used in promoting the book. One detailed questionnaire asked me to specify the intended audience, the level and length of course, my book’s competitive advantage, the benefits for students and instructors, and changes in the new edition. In addition, I was asked for an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of competing texts and an explanation of why my book was better than the competition. I make the effort to remind the

I found a number of benefits in writing a textbook. First, I had the resource I wanted for my classes, appropriate for the level and interests of my students. Second, there was the satisfaction in seeing a work I had created (with input from all the editors and their assistants). Third, I worked with a whole series of good people and learned how much editors can help in turning out the best possible product. Fourth, my computer and Internet skills have significantly increased. Fifth, I made contacts with people like an artist/cartoonist who adapted his work and captions to suit my needs. Sixth, working on successive editions means that I need to keep in touch with my field and keep mentally active. Finally, and perhaps not least, the royalties are a nice addition to my income. There are, however, drawbacks as well as advantages. One disadvantage that caught me by surprise was the need to find new teaching resources. I had gone and put all my best examples in my book. I don’t like reading to my class from a book, even mine; so I had to find or invent new material to accompany the text. There are significant costs in writing, paper, computer supplies, resource materials, photocopying, courier (to make a deadline). One of the most expensive can be the cost of using other peoples’ material. Many sources grant permission for free, but many do charge substantial fees. Any book requires a significant amount of time to produce. As I have described in my discussion of the process, there is far more involved than just writing the material. I found these demands extremely stressful while I was still teaching. Even now, after retirement, each revision takes over my activities for about a year and a half. If the textbook is successful, it seems to take on a life of its own, even to being a kind of tyranny. That is, the publisher has a timetable for successive editions, and the author is drawn into revision process over and over. On balance the benefits–pride, enrichment of life, and a sense of a job well done–far outweigh any drawbacks. Margaret Ward is retired professor, Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario, CA, 1001 Main St. W., Apt. 406, Hamilton, ON, L8S 1A9, CA(905) 526-8517;email: [email protected] 43

About the Editor Jane F. Gilgun, Ph.D., LICSW, is a professor, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA. See Professor Gilgun’s books, articles, and children’s stories at Amazon Kindle, http://www.pdfcoke.com/jgilgun, and http://www.lulu.com/jgilgun. She has many videos on http://www.youtube.com/jgilgun.

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