Writing Archaeology: Telling Stories About the Past

by Brian M. Fagan

Archaeology’s best known author of popular books and texts distills decades of experience in this well-received 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, and how to get your work revised and finished. He also describes the process by which publishers decide to accept your work, and the path your publication will follow after it is accepted by a press. The new edition contains chapters on academic writing and on writing in the digital environment.

Genres: Archaeology

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Wendelle]

This is not a guide geared towards undergraduates or graduate students about how to write and publish a formal paper in archaeology. Rather, it is a guide to professional archaeologists who are looking to embark on general-interest writing in archaeology, and expand their audience beyond academia towards the mass-market audience of the general population. In other words, the target audience of this niche book are people looking to imitate the life of its author, Prof. Brian Fagan! It is a brief, nice book, with advice about how to write in an enchanting and imaginative manner, how to break into the writing world by starting with articles and op-eds, how to decide on a topic that will capture a market in a tough business, making a book proposal, managing the publishing process, and writing textbooks. For the layman, the attraction of reading this book could like in the glimpses behind the curtain of the publishing market, as well as the enchantments of Prof. Fagan's reminiscences (he experienced Great Zimbabwe under the moonlight, and Chaco Canyon after a storm. What a life.)

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative

[Abby]

I'm marking this as read mostly so that I remember it exists. Even I (unpublished nobody) know most of these things about writing, but it never hurts to hear them again. Fagan's presentation of his hard-won expertise is clear and easy to navigate, although I admit to skipping over the long quotes from his own books. You could build an admirable reading list of archaeology for the general audience from this book. The second edition that I borrowed also has a very nice summary of the potential of electronic publishing for more creative data presentation. Doubtless will need this book again eventually.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Käytännön ohjeita lähinnä populaariteoksen kirjoittamiseksi. Tosin Fagan tuo aika voimakkaasti esille nimenomaan omaa kirjoitustapaansa.

[Elizabeth Tangora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid advice, but mostly talking to people writing archaeology books, who may find the advice too simplistic.

[Chris Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on my website, DIGTECH-LLC.com