How to be a successful academic book series editor at Aldus Press

An academic book series is a series of topical books,  published at often irregular intervals. The books by themselves are self-contained in their topic and content. They are thus an ever-growing number of individual anthologies that, together, form a developing canon of knowledge. The series editor is the embodiment of the series, the person who ‘sets the course and steers the ship’.

What makes a successful series editor?

Five elements go into the making of a successful series editor.To start a series, a series-editor begins by working with the publisher and, possibly a small group of peers, to define the series itself.  The subject area, as well as aims & scope, needs to be defined. Here, often, a trade-off is made. In general, a publisher would desire a broader subject area hoping to be able to publish more, whereas a series-editor might want to be focusing strongly on a niche. In line with the aims & scope, form an editorial policy regarding desired quality, review policy, English language only or also other languages, frequency, and so forth. All this information is published on the publishers’ website and promoted, both by the publisher as well as by the series-editor. This process usually is summarized by a descriptive title that, quite often, reflects the group of series. Think Anthologies in Medicine, Anthologies in Religious Studies and so forth. Read More