Rocio Rosales

Associate Professor of Sociology

The two major things I reflect on here relate to obligations I felt to my department as an assistant professor and resources available to first-time book writers. Regarding the first point, I often felt an obligation to take on students because they would seek me out with pleas to be their advisor, reader, committee member. Because I was one of the two ethnographers, I felt compelled to take on students working in that methodology regardless of the substantive topic. I also took students seriously when they insisted that I was their only option given their substantive topic. Though I do not regret serving as their mentor/advisor, I do understand now that 1) they would have been fine and found another advisor and 2) I did not serve them as well as I could have because I was still learning how to advise/mentor. I wish I had waited 2-3 years to take on students. A good introduction to this advising/mentorship is to serve as a committee member with a chair who is known to be a good mentor/advisor. In this way, one can learn how to advise/mentor from the chair while fulfilling some duties as a committee member.

The second thing I wish I knew relates to the resources available for book writers. I learned about subvention funds that can be requested to pay for book-related expenses (indexer, copywriter, development editor, artist fee if using art for book cover). I also heard of people using research funds for book development workshops – inviting 2-3 scholars to read different chapters of the book and give comments during a day-long workshop. Funds can be used to pay an honorarium, flight, and hotel for these scholars. I think if I had known about these resources, I would have created a different timeline for my book so that I could have taken advantage of a book workshop. I would also ask presses their average timelines to production – this was not a question I had in mind when seeking out a press for my book but it can matter (especially if a press is known to send a manuscript out for review several times).