From Dissertation to Publication: Sample Cover Letter and Book Proposal

by Reena Patel

For aspiring authors who are new to the world of publishing, enclosed is the cover letter and book proposal that landed me my first book contract. I sent proposals to 13 separate university presses, and at various times during the course of a year, three separate presses expressed interest in the book. In the end, Stanford University Press accepted Working the Night Women in India’s Call Center Industry, and it was published in 2010. The samples I share are geared towards individuals looking to publish with an academic press.

13 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 24, 2014

About the author

Reena Patel, Ph.D. is a feminist scholar and currently serves as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S Department of State. She also advises companies on gender issues in the workplace.

Raised in Massachusetts, she is a first-generation American from an Indian family. Her parents emigrated from East Africa over 40 years ago. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with a business degree, she went on to work in San Francisco and thereafter Hawaii. She then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana on an IT development project funded by USAID.

Reena currently lives in Madrid, Spain and in her spare time, she loves to take road trips and eat tapas.