On Friday, March 5, from 11 a.m. to noon, the Cal State San Bernardino College of Arts and Letters will present a panel discussion about how to write and publish books from the perspectives of two successful CSUSB faculty authors and acquisitions editors from two esteemed academic publishers.

All interested can join the Zoom panel at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/83883806415.

Open to all, the Zoom panel will be moderated by Rueyling Chuang, dean of the College of Arts and Letters and co-author of “Communicating Ethnic and Cultural Identity” (Rowman & Littlefield).

Panelists will include:

  • Parastou Feizzaringhalam, currently interim associate dean of the CSUSB College of Arts and Letters. A professor of English specializing in applied linguistics, she joined CSUSB in 2007 after receiving her Ph.D. from Penn State University. She has co-authored two major books (as Parastou Feiz), “Discourse Analysis: Putting our Worlds into Words” and “Grammar, Meaning and Concepts: A Discourse-Based Approach to English Grammar,” both by Routledge.
  • Fred E. Jandt, former dean of CSUSB’s Palm Desert Campus and professor emeritus of communication studies. He has published more than 30 textbooks with large and small publishers, and academic books and trade books with major publishers. His most successful textbook is “Introduction to Intercultural Communication” (Sage, nine editions) and his most successful trade book is “Win-Win Negotiating: Turning Conflict Into Agreement” (Wiley, eight translations). He is represented by the Lois De La Haba Agency for trade books.
  • Jennifer Abbott, a commissioning editor in literary studies at Taylor and Francis/Routledge. In her 14 years at Taylor and Francis, she has worked with hundreds of authors and editors across several disciplines, guiding each through the publishing process, from the earliest stages of a book’s life, beginning with the proposal development, appraisal and peer review, through production and publication. Over the last 10 years, she has witnessed firsthand the dramatic changes in the publishing industry and the rapidly evolving library, student and professional marketplaces.
  • Lily Norton, the acquisitions editor for speech, mass communication, and media studies at SAGE Publications. She joined SAGE in 2018 after successful sales roles at Pearson Education and Oxford University Press. She started her career in editorial at Pearson and is looking forward to signing new authors, developing first editions, and creating new digital solutions for her communication program.

Panelists will discuss best practices for crafting a proposal and writing a book-length manuscript from the perspectives of authors and editors. They also will share their experiences, challenges, and success stories, with a question-and-answer period to follow.