How a textbook actually gets written, part 1: The Origination

In the morning, I wake up, light my candle, put the kettle on to boil, and then gaze out over the moors . . . no, just kidding, that’s the Bronte sisters. 

Writing a textbook is no where near as romantic as that. In all honesty, as there is very little money to be made writing your average text book, step one is to work this thing in around your day job. That’s write (haha!): take your average day, and find somewhere to cram in another few hours. The first time we wrote this book, I would stay up until 2 am, wake up with my baby at 5am, and do it all over again the next day. For months (welcome to doing anything else, and having kids).

Don’t get me wrong, I know that the Bronte sisters worked hard and we have in common the early rising part, but this blog article is meant to give you a glimpse into writing a text book that (as I’m sure Emily, Charlotte, and Anne could agree with) is a labor of love. 

As I mention on the website, Amanda Shelby was really the inspiration for this. In all honesty, I was quite content to simply author chapters for other people’s textbooks. Amanda and I naively began with the idea that we could just put down in writing our ideal book. However, if you want three opinions, ask two anesthesiologists, so it turned out there was a lot more to that.

1. Decide who your audience is: This seems obvious at first. I mean, in our case, it’s people that do anesthesia, right? Well, there are A LOT of people who do anesthesia . . . technicians (some experienced, some not), students (again, some experienced and some not), general practioners, residents training in anesthesia, board certified anesthesiologists . . . you get the picture. Your content goals and language are going to vary based on which of those groups you’re talking to. We focused on techs, student and general practioners for ours. 
2. Put some limits on what you’re going to speak to that audience about: Yes, we all start out grandly wanting to put our brain on paper. But can you speak on every animal? Unlikely, so choose your focus species. Do you want this to be portable or a tome of knowledge? That impacts how people will use this reference, so decide early.  
3. Define what content is relevant, in that context: This is the fun part. In anesthesia, equipment, pharmacology, and physiology form the basis for our specialty. But there is so much art in each of these subjects to be passionate about. Stages of anesthesia, preventing barotrauma, and handling anaphylaxis are among some of the many gems most people gloss over but make a huge difference in a subject like anesthesia.  
4. Pitch it to a publisher: This is easier said than done. First of all, even if you know the big veterinary publishers, who do you reach out to in that company? Always start out with someone you know. Do you have a colleague who has published in your subject area? (or at all)? Ask if they can make an introduction between their editor and yourself. This is the first step to ultimately providing a publisher with things like a “trial chapter” which then gets reviewed, to see if you’re an author that is publishable. 
5. Find friends who will help you: The first go around, Amanda and I did all the content ourselves. It was exhausting, and I’ll be honest, it’s hard to keep the creative fire burning throughout 300 pages of text. Finding friends who will agree to co-author parts of the book makes for a richer, more enjoyable book. Plus, the publisher prefers collaborative efforts in many cases.
6. Be there for your co-authors: However, if you’re going to enlist all of these people to assist you (in our case, six other authors), you need to provide support for them, especially first time authors. Helping them with things like a framework of what you expect (such as an agreed upon chapter outline), relevant time lines, and suggesting supportive technology (such as a reference manager) helps them on their journey to understanding authorship. 
7. Sit down with the wonderful content they’ve shared with you, and now, you’re ready for the hard part to begin: As we’ll discuss in the next blog . . . 🙂