Applications: Read the Instructions!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

How often are we told this? Starting with school exams, in fact ….

So I’m here to remind you of this basic advice. Even if you think you’ve got it right, read it again, and then re-read it. Sometimes things aren’t what they seem on first reading. (Said she, having carefully copied out the instructions, broken them down into separate sub-instructions, compiled a beautiful submission … only to discover that A included B and C, and my word-count would have to be reduced by 40% as a consequence. Computers can tell when your uploaded document is too long!)

I blame myself. I jumped to the wrong conclusion. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easily I lost those surplus words. Anyone need a ruthless editor …?

Hooray! My contributed chapter had minimum edits …

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Now, this doesn’t concern my own book. Oh no! This was a chapter I wrote as a guest contribution for an essay collection.

To understand my jubilation fully, you have to know that my last contributed chapter (different publisher, different editor) had HUNDREDS of edits requested. So today, I opened an email relating to another contributed chapter, with some trepidation.

But all was well – the most minimal changes were required. Blink, and you’d miss them. Ten minutes later, they were done ✔️

I expect the finished product will appear well before my own monograph – which is good, because on the face of it, I’ve published very little recently. Book-writing is all-consuming when you can’t do it every day!