How to Write and Pitch a Book Proposal

Talk by Robin James, PhD Commissioning Editor, Palgrave Macmillan NYC.

Are you a mid-career or early-career scholar keen to author your own book aimed at an academic press, and eager to gain expert insight into the process of pitching and submitting a successful book proposal for peer review? Are you a Postdoc or soon-to-be-minted PhD looking to one day turn your dissertation into a book aimed at an academic press, but unclear on what the process entails? Are you a senior scholar looking to get inspired and brush up on your skills, whether for your own sake, or for the sake of your collaborators and junior mentees?

Join us for this special event with Robin James, Commissioning Editor with Palgrave Macmillan! In addition to offering an overview of how to pitch your project to an editor and turn your idea(s) into a successful book proposal aimed at an academic press, Robin will offer insight into the peer review and publication process. Robin is also keen to incorporate and address any concrete ideas or questions sent in advance via Jessica Holmes. She will of course also answer questions on the day of! 

Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be served. Please contact Jessica with any questions. 

Note that Robin will also be delivering a Public Lecture on popular music and digital culture entitled, “Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology, Tech, and Contemporary Biopower” on the same day (Tuesday April 28th) from kl. 15.15-17.00 (Multisalen). 

Bio

Robin James, PhD is Editor for Philosophy, Literary Theory, and Music & Sound Studies. She acquires monographs, edited collections, handbooks, Palgrave Pivots, open access titles, textbooks, and videos in a range of subfields across those disciplines. Her list focuses on social and political philosophy, continental philosophy (both contemporary continental and the history of continental philosophy), critical theory, pop culture, African-American and Africana philosophy, American philosophy (including but not limited to pragmatism), Latinx and Latin American philosophy, literary theory, and on music studies (musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, popular music studies), sound studies, and interpersonal communication. Robin is also author of five books, including Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology, Algorithms, and the Politics of Legitimation (Duke, forthcoming 2026), The Future of Rock and Roll: 97X WOXY and the Fight for True Independence (UNC, 2023), The Sonic Episteme (Duke 2019), and Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism, an expanded second edition of which will appear in spring 2027 from the University of Michigan Press.