Grant Writing as Project Development for Academic Book Writers

Academic book writers sometimes consider the writing of grant proposal applications a waste of time; the odds of success are so low that they prefer to simply work on their book. Support materials on how to write grants will not help convince these writers to change course. And yet a grant proposal can be an extremely useful document to spur the development and completion of the book project. This short article refers to productivity guides to suggest the various ways grant writing can support writers: as a motor to articulate and refine ideas, as a document on which to solicit feedback, as a blueprint for the book, as a goalsetting tool, and as proto–book proposal. I argue that grant writing can be a satisfying career-long process that accompanies each step of each academic book project.