March 2006

Getting Book to Press a Collaborative Effort, Terry Price Says

Terry Price smiled broadly as he held up a copy of his first book, “Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership,” released in August 2005 by Cambridge University Press. In academia where the “publish or perish” maxim weighs heavily on the minds of many faculty members, the publication of a book is indeed cause for celebration.  

But getting a book ready for publication can be a daunting, all-consuming task. Price credited the collaborative effort of staff members, students and faculty colleagues with the successful publication of his book. 

In “Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership,” Price focuses on the exception-making behavior of immoral leaders. Price, a philosopher, uses a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on research in philosophy, psychology, classics, political science, business and religion, among other disciplines, to support his argument that leaders often deviate from standard rules of morality because they mistakenly believe these rules don’t apply to them. 

Price began work on his book during his junior research leave in 2002. Jepson faculty colleagues played a key role early in his research, Price said, offering insights from their various disciplines. Boatwright reference librarian Lucretia McCulley and Jepson academic coordinator Cassie King helped him obtain books, journal articles and news clippings to assist him in his research. Boatwright Library employees Nancy Vick and Noreen Cullen filled numerous interlibrary-loan requests.   

Once he embarked upon the writing phase of the project, Price used some Jepson funding to hire two students to assist him. Michael Clements (’04), who majored in journalism and minored in leadership studies and is now a second-year law student at University of Richmond, read and commented on Price’s arguments. He compared them to the arguments of other scholars Price cited in the book and then made editing suggestions. He also checked innumerable quotes word for word and comma for comma for accuracy.  

Alison Smith (’05), who double majored in leadership studies and political science and is now a graduate student in political science at Boston College, spent hours creating the index. Price marked the terms and concepts he wanted to appear in the index, and Smith worked through the manuscript four or five times to include all references in the index.  

Both Clements and Smith learned a lot from working on Price’s book. “It was a great learning experience for an undergraduate,” Clements said. “I am now doing research for a law professor, and this experience prepared me well. It helped me understand the process that goes into writing a book, such as all the fact checking and quote checking.” 

Smith agreed. “I was excited to be a part of this book project,” she said. “Eventually I want to write something of value for consumption, so this was a good exercise for me.”

Price, for his part, praised Clements and Smith for their conscientious efforts. “Mike and Alison provided invaluable support to bring this project to completion. Their work reflects the sophisticated skills and attention to detail that our students have.” 

In addition to his students, Price also praised two Jepson staff members for their contributions. Administrative assistant Nancy Nock proofed and edited the index Smith created. And King, like Clements, did a lot of fact checking and quote checking in addition to proofing and editing the manuscript three or four times. “No one I have ever worked with is more committed to getting things right,” Price said of King.  

Two editors at Cambridge University Press, Clements, Smith, Nock, King and faculty colleague Douglas Hicks all proofed the final version of the manuscript before it went to press.  

“Although students, staff and faculty all worked on different aspects of “Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership”,” King said, “Terry was unquestionably the driving intellectual and creative force behind the book. The rest of us just dealt with the technical components.” 

“The amount of detail work that goes into the publication of a quality work of nonfiction is mind boggling,” King said. “In my line of work as a researcher and editor, I often come across poorly edited and researched books and articles that are full of inaccuracies, despite the fact that they have been written by scholars from some of the nation’s top colleges and universities. Working with Terry on this book project was all the more gratifying, because he is 100 percent dedicated to producing an accurate, well-written, quality publication.”