The Ins and Outs of Book Publishing in the 21^st Century

Nonfiction books are an important source for acquiring any appreciable depth of knowledge, but they require subject-matter experts to write them. This talk will introduce the three major categories of books published by academic presses: the textbook (such as MTW's "Gravitation" published by Princeton University Press), the professional monograph (such as Steven Weinberg's "Quantum Theory of Fields" published by Cambridge University Press), and the trade book (such as Clifford Johnson's "The Dialogues" published by The MIT Press). We will explore which type of book a scientist may choose to write, and why (hint: it's about impact), why and how scientists should pitch their book idea to an academic press, and how authors and publishers can partner to make the author's book a success.