Allison Van Deventer

What's in this (very good) article is bad enough, but Doug Wilson is so much worse than most people realize.

Check out this article: www.vice.com/en/article/i... (heads up: abuse, sexual violence)

and the Sons of Patriarchy podcast: www.sonsofpatriarchy.com

It's probably not cool, but I love this poem: www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/un...

Stand Up for UC We must stand together to protect our students, staff, faculty and our mission.

I’m heartened to see this.

What's in this (very good) article is bad enough, but Doug Wilson is so much worse than most people realize.

Check out this article: www.vice.com/en/article/i... (heads up: abuse, sexual violence)

and the Sons of Patriarchy podcast: www.sonsofpatriarchy.com

If you sign up, you'll get the recording afterward even if you can't make the live version.

You can learn more about our fall workshops here: www.allisonvandeventer.com/workshops

@katelynknox.bsky.social

Identifying your audience and target publishers: A FREE webinar. Friday, Sept 5, 2025, 12-1:30pm ET. Academic Book Central. Katelyn E. Knox and Allison Van Deventer. Small picture of Allison and Katelyn smiling together at a conference.

Who's your book's primary audience? (What does "primary audience" mean, anyway?) And which publishers can deliver your work to that audience?

These questions come up over and over in our workshops, so we decided to offer a free webinar to address them!

Join us on Zoom on Sept 5! bit.ly/3Uk0KBS

This looks so helpful!

The good news is that when they get a few years older, you can tell them you're watching shows with kissing in them, and they run shrieking up to bed despite the ice cream

This book looks AMAZING. Back when I was teaching in a history/literature program, every year we lecturers would glom onto the very few poetry specialists among our colleagues, saying WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO TEACH POETRY, PLEASE GIVE US A WORKSHOP!!!

My proposal is: another, second summer that begins at the end of the regular summer

Facilitated Dissertation-to-Book Workshop: Sept. 22 to Oct. 31, 2025 Support and Accountability

I've been reading through feedback from previous cohorts of the Dissertation-to-Book Workshop, and a theme that keeps coming up is that authors feel GOOD about their books when they're done.

They've gotten unstuck. They're confident. They've realized they can say what they wanted to all along.

Facilitated Dissertation-to-Book Workshop: Sept. 22 to Oct. 31, 2025 Support and Accountability

I've been reading through feedback from previous cohorts of the Dissertation-to-Book Workshop, and a theme that keeps coming up is that authors feel GOOD about their books when they're done.

They've gotten unstuck. They're confident. They've realized they can say what they wanted to all along.

Annual reminder that you can freeze smoothies in popsicle molds and call them "breakfast popsicles," you're welcome

I'm hugely in favor of creative thinking when it comes to finding ways to make scholarly books better!

What I call a "book audit": a 2-hour Zoom meeting in which we use my book question/chapter answer exercise to structure a deep dive into the book's argument and structure.

Agree to a set amount of editing per chapter. For instance, "I will spend 3.5 hours on this chapter and comment on the most pressing issues."

(The Zoom approach also works when the constraint is on my end: for established clients, I can often fit in a quick read and a Zoom even when I don't have room in my schedule for a comprehensive edit!)

A variation of the above: I quickly SKIM a chapter (or just its introduction!), then we meet on Zoom to discuss the author's concerns and hash out a plan. I did this with two authors in May, for multiple chapters each, and they made phenomenal progress!

Give feedback on Zoom rather than in written comments. I read the manuscript (usually a chapter) but don't write anything down beyond a quick list of points to discuss, and then we meet on Zoom to discuss it (and workshop solutions via the chat / screen share / Google Docs).

Focus on the introductions and conclusions of chapters + the section headings. You can make a LOT of progress by getting the major building blocks of the chapters in order.

Excellent suggestions in @goldenrod-ed.bsky.social's post for working with a developmental editor on a limited budget—and so many links to useful resources!

As a developmental editor, here are a few other things I've done with clients on a strict budget:

I'm so sorry!

Make that FOUR sets of reviewer reports that recommend publication and make helpful suggestions that show the reviewers understand the book!

Thank you, reviewers and acquiring editors, for the good work you do

Facilitated Dissertation-to-Book Workshop: Sept. 22 to Oct. 31, 2025 Support and Accountability

Registration is OPEN for the 6-Week Dissertation-to-Book Workshop, starting September 22!

Would you like a practical method for clarifying your argument, threading it through the chapters, and assessing your structure? Would you like to do all this with a supportive community? Join us!

Read more here: www.allisonvandeventer.com/workshops

Sign up by September 12 to get the Early Bird discount (15%)!

Questions? Feel free to DM me!

Note: @katelynknox.bsky.social, my fearless co-author and co-facilitator, is taking a break from workshops this year because she won a fellowship to work on her next book! Congratulations, Katelyn!

You’ll spend 6 weeks poking and prodding your manuscript, asking tough questions and making confident decisions. We’ll show you, step by step, how to build an argument that emerges from your evidence and develops in each chapter. And you’ll do it with a supportive group of other authors!

Facilitated Dissertation-to-Book Workshop: Sept. 22 to Oct. 31, 2025 Support and Accountability

Registration is OPEN for the 6-Week Dissertation-to-Book Workshop, starting September 22!

Would you like a practical method for clarifying your argument, threading it through the chapters, and assessing your structure? Would you like to do all this with a supportive community? Join us!

Grass beach at Talloires, France.

Bay at Talloires, France.

Bay at Talloires, France.

Next installment of Van Deventer European adventure: Talloires, France, is incredible. Located on Lac d'Annecy, there are beautiful view in every direction, and it's incredibly easy to take good pictures (even for a terrible photographer like me!).

I don't want to sugarcoat anything but it bears acknowledging loudly that day in & day out, despite literally everything, scholars keep researching, writing, & publishing work that, in ways big & small, implicit & explicit, via its sheer existence, is a defiant F U to the current administration.