Book Proposal Progress & Job News

Whew! What a day! I finally sent off my book proposal today to number-one-make-your-career-for-life publisher! I'd been working on it for months, then after that first draft had to set it aside while I worked on an initial batch of job applications, so over a month went by between the first draft and when I actually began the revisions suggested by supervisor #3. That was a good thing, I think, because it gave me some distance and let me see more clearly what needed to be edited and how to do it. In the end, my supervisor's suggestions were perfect and I'm feeling really confident about the final product. It's a lot better than the first draft, that's for sure. I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that it's been sent. Sure, I'm sending it over a month later than I had planned, so I'm no longer sure if I will hear back in time for MLA interviews, but at least it's done. There are still three other publishers to whom I want to send the proposal, but this was the most important one to send it to first, and the other three all want the proposal in another format (of course!), so that will take some time and may not get done at all given how time consuming job applications are.

Speaking of which, good news! I just got an email a few minutes ago informing me that I'd made the short list of the first school to which I'd applied. It looks like a pretty decent university with a manageable teaching load; the only downside is that it's on another continent in another hemisphere! Still, making the short list is a positive sign, right, and it surely must bode well for all the other applications I'm sending off too, right? Actually, the thing that makes me the most hopeful is having completely revised my job letter, slashing and editing and restructuring, so it looks nothing like last year's and it breaks the mould in some ways.

So far, as of a few hours ago, I have submitted 12 applications. There are still 40 more on my list of positions to apply to!!! There are about 3 which I'm still debating about or which have really late deadlines after MLA, but that still leaves 37 more applications to finish and send in the next few weeks. It's exhausting! Not to mention there's still that article due by xmas that I haven't touched in the past six months, and the second book proposal too.

All in all though, after today's successes, my spirits are much higher than they were at the beginning at job season! Gawd, people talk about the dissertation as if it's a marathon, but the diss is nothing compared to being on the job market, especially when it's not the first year, or the second, or even the third...