I didn’t plan to have an above average number of publications this year. It sort of happened; each work that goes through the publication process has their own timeline, and we can’t quite tell when they will make it out into the world. That said though, I am mightily chuffed that the Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Cinemas that I co-edited with Patrick F. Campos is now officially published, with contributions by leading lights of the field, including Bliss Cua Lim, Sandeep Ray, Amir Muhammad, Tan Pin Pin, Olivia Khoo, and many others. Patrick and I did our best to ensure a good enough regional coverage beyond scholarship from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand – which dominate Southeast Asian studies more generally, by bringing in under-represented research from Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Singapore.
For anyone asking if editing a book of this nature is a good idea, I’d say not really. It’s a lot of work (mainly reminding, sending out emails to the long list of authors while making sure no one is left out, chasing authors for edits, revisions, permissions, proofreads). Some authors may drop out, and you’re left with sourcing substitutes, a process that can derail the book project’s timeline (under contract). It is why edited volumes take a long time to reach the publishing line. Four years from start to finish is typical.
Being a well-connected editor helps, because contributions are more often than not favours academics do for one another. If you know each other in person, requests and reminders are a little easier to navigate via email. Getting the right balance of contributors matters. It’s often a question of luck who would agree to commit to contributing to an edited volume. You’d want several ‘big names’ to give the project some heft, and hopefully they’ll deliver. If you’re even luckier, these established scholars won’t make you wait too long for their contributions because they’re typically high in demand from other editors who are putting together similar projects.
Patrick and I were fortunate to have cooperative production editors at Taylor and Francis who respond to emails quickly and willing to negotiate with our terms. For example, I insisted on the cover to be a picturesque outdoor film screening in a regional festival outside of a major Southeast Asian city (see above). The production team initially demurred, and offered some bland, non-descript images from Alamy that I rejected outright. It felt important to stand our ground on these kinds of decisions as co-editors who’ve put in an immense amount of work (for little reward). Not all Routledge publications permit these kinds of design decisions by authors and editors, so best take advantage of these limited allowances. And how: it felt hugely gratifying to receive several complimentary hard copies of the Handbook with our chosen cover design when they arrived, a tangible mark of creative control over our work that cannot be beat.
