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Writing archaeology : telling stories about the past.
LIBRA CC82.6 .F34 2006
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Fagan, Brian M.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Archaeology--Authorship.
- Archaeology.
- Physical Description:
- 175 pages ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Walnut Creek, Calif. : Left Coast Press, [2006]
- Summary:
- America's best known popular author of archaeology books and articles distills his decades of experience in this brief guide designed to help others wanting to broaden the audience for their work. Brian Fagan's no-nonsense approach explains how to get started writing, how to use the tools of experienced writers to make archaeology come alive for the general public, and how to get your work revised and finished. He also describes the process by which publishers decide to accept your work and how to best position your writing for success. Finally, he traces the path your book takes through the publisher's production and marketing systems to its ultimate purchase by an interested reader. Dealing with several genres of popular publication-articles, columns, trade books and textbooks-Fagan shows both the differences and similarities in the writing and publication processes. While speaking directly to those interested in penning for a broad public, Fagan's sage advice will be of great value to all archaeologists and their students.
- Contents:
- 1 Come, Let Me Tell You a Tale 13
- Storytelling 15
- Approaching a Story 17
- Constructing a Story from Nothing 22
- The Hard Slog 25
- How Do I Learn How to Write? 26
- 2 Articles and Columns 29
- The Outlets 29
- Op-Ed Articles 31
- Submitting to Major Magazines 31
- Proposing a Story 35
- If Your Idea Is Accepted 36
- Writing the Article 38
- Above All, Meet the Deadline 42
- After Acceptance 43
- Columns 44
- Encyclopedia Articles 45
- 3 Genesis 47
- Trade Books 48
- How the Trade Market Works 49
- Having the Idea 53
- The Passionate Narrative 50
- 4 The Proposal: Narrative and Outline 63
- How Publishers Make Decisions 65
- The Elements of a Proposal 66
- The Narrative 67
- The Provisional Outline (or Table of Contents) 72
- 5 Chapters, Editors, and Agents 79
- Specimen Chapters 79
- Finally ... Read Through Everything 82
- That All-Important Person-the Editor 83
- To Agent or Not to Agent 85
- Contracts 88
- 6 Writing the First Draft 91
- Writing as a Habit 91
- Work Space 93
- Procrastination and Writer's Block 96
- Research 99
- Outlines 103
- Narrative Techniques 103
- 7 Revision, Revision 109
- Revision Strategies 111
- Tackling the First Draft 113
- The Second Revision 115
- Get Others to Read It 119
- The Final Draft 120
- A Word on Prefaces 120
- Submission 122
- And Now What Happens? 122
- The Final Manuscript 123
- 8 Production and Beyond 127
- Production and Production Editors 127
- Copyedit 129
- The Cover 136
- Proofs 137
- Publication 138
- Marketing and Promotion 138
- 9 Textbooks 143
- How Textbooks Are Sold 145
- Something on Coauthors 147
- The Process of Textbook Writing 149
- Review and Final Changes 158
- Production 158
- Revised Editions 160.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 1598740059
- 1598740040
- OCLC:
- 63293173
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