I am writing a novel about growing up in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. My published novelettes are also about this topic. Ten years ago, I published a novel about Irish immigration with a regular company which closed, then I published the same novel myself (The Passing Light) with an independent publisher. I publish academic texts with regular publishers. 
My first book on the international market was self published in 2004. It has become the reference work in a short film that was made about the topic of the memoir: Katharine Hepburn. I am in the film! 

Since that time, I have self published with different companies, but I have had three manuscripts accepted for publication, one monograph and two multi-author volumes based on my panels for NeMLA with international publishing companies. Advice includes methods of meeting with representatives of academic publishing companies to suggest new books based on your papers. I continue to email these contacts whom I meet at conferences from different companies to discuss my manuscripts. Devote time for research as a regular practice to develop areas of scholarship. Continue to write and to craft as a regular habit. Find a cause. Serve others through the process of writing. Ask authors for endorsements. 

Sample Endorsement from Stephanie Powell Watts:  “In her collection of essays featuring the work of literary giants like Toni Morrison, and Emily Dickinson, editor Maryann DiEdwardo and her contributors map out the terrain of grief and injustice and make convincing arguments about the efficacy of literature to heal wounds.  These ambitious essays are at once erudite, engaging, and remarkably hopeful” (Stephanie Powell Watts, won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her debut story collection, We Are Taking Only What We Need (2012), also named one of 2013’s Best Summer Reads by O: The Oprah Magazine.)

Sample acceptance letter:  “Dear Dr. Maryann Pasda DiEdwardo, I am pleased to inform you that Hamilton Books has agreed to publish your book, Spatializing Cultural Landscape to Advocate Human Rights: Margaret Atwood, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, and Stephanie Powell Watts. We will publish your book in an attractive paperback with a full color cover and as an ebook.”

Mikayla Mislak

Assistant Editor

Hamilton Books

An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield

4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200

Lanham, MD 20706

301-459-3366 ext. 5313

MMislak@rowman.com