Kimberly Hirsh

💬📚📓📝

No dissertation is worth a lifetime of revision.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

It’s my defense-aversary! I’ve been a PhD for two years. For me, getting the PhD was much bigger than having the PhD has been. Perhaps I’ll write up more reflections on this later.

🔖📝 Read On Pitching and Rejection by Nicole Chung (The Atlantic).

pitching is not just about figuring out what editors or publications may be interested in—figuring out what you are most interested in is vital.

I haven’t been sharing a lot of travel adventures not because I haven’t been having them, but just because making the time to share is tricky.

But here! Have some photos!

🔖 Read Lois Before Clark: In Defense of the Superhero Girlfriend.

Dreamed I decided to get obsessed with Lois Lane, decided this meant I should actually get obsessed with her, knew this essay by Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield was the place to start.

🔖📝 Read “I Hate the Idea of Healing” A Conversation with Maggie Smith

One thing that mothering has taught me is that I can’t be precious about where I work. When I work, I cannot demand uninterrupted space and time…If I got completely derailed every time somebody needed me, I’d never do anything.

Finished reading: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett 📚

My first finished Discworld. Reading Piers Anthony feels like coming home (miss me with your takes on him, please, I know his flaws). Reading Terry Pratchett feels like visiting a treasured friend. A lot of fun here.

🖖🏻📺

Data: *has a personal problem* *does extensive research* Captain Picard, I have done all the research but I do not have the answer to my problem.

Picard: What do you think about the problem, though?

Data: *blinks*

Just another reason I identify with Data.

📓 Read Subjectivity and Reflexivity: An Introduction by Franz Breuer, Katja Mruck & Wolff-Michael Roth (Forum: Qualitative Social Research).

A quick introduction to a pair of special issues. Interested to see how the conversation’s advanced.

💬📚📝📓

Revision is unromantic, time-consuming, tiring. It is also the only way to make one’s writing better.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

💬📚📝📓

Learn how to revise and you will produce a better first book. Remember it and you will enjoy writing the books to follow.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

Full-on happy misty-eyed over this week’s Picard. 🖖🏻📺

Hey Internet! I’m interested in your perceptions. What are my superpowers? What are my areas of expertise?

The Barbie Selfie Generator is pretty fun.

💬📚📝📓

Revision is a job for optimists.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

💬📚📝📓

Writing isn’t a record of your thinking. It is your thinking.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

💬📚📝📓

…the operating instructions of scholarly publishing rarely form a part of graduate training…

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

Want to read: Malice House by Megan Shepherd 📚

Looking at my Scholarly Pipeline (Notion template I made, pay what you want) for the first time in a while & I’ve got an idea for a piece of scholarship that all I noted down was “JME Geekery.” Anybody else have any idea what I might have meant?

It’s been almost two years since I defended my doctoral dissertation. Before it was written, an editor had expressed interest in it. After it was written, I was very tired. I just couldn’t touch it. But we are in a critical moment for information literacy, and I think my research has some good contributions to make, so I’m going to start writing a book proposal.

For this project, I will be opening up my process and my reflections but not the content of the book proposal (and, if I get a contract, the book) itself. I’m starting by reading (like I always so). I’m going to read about how to turn a dissertation into a book and I’m also going to get myself up to speed on the FanLIS literature.

Won’t you join me?

💬📚📝📓

Write everything you want published as if there are people who make decisions and work within limited budgets—their checkbooks, or their libraries’ acquisition budgets.

William Germano, From Dissertation to Book

Want to read: Pre-Raphaelite Painting Techniques by Joyce H. Townsend 📚

I blog for a lot of reasons. One of them is because blogging is a little like writing letters to your future self.

My current research contract (technically a postdoc) ends in early January. I constantly agonize over what to do next.

But it turns out past me knows what I want to do next. What both past and present me want to do is something I’m still figuring out how to turn into an income.

It took a couple years, but I finally created a page on my website curating all my writing about dissertating in the open.

Teenagers at this park are listening to the Macarena. Do I feel old or 15?