November 9, 2007

Contributors First, Publisher Second

To the Editor:

Clement Vincent clearly outlined some of the risks in editing a book, particularly for untenured faculty members ("Don't Judge a Book by Its Editor," Careers, October 26). He listed three mistakes that he realized he made while working on his first edited volume.

However, he did not articulate the two key mistakes he made before submitting his proposal to the publisher. First, he should have contacted potential contributors to the volume before he submitted the