Fall 1999: Alan Dundes

Quotations:

". . . a lot of my things–-even the book on India, which I consider my best book–-went to, I think, six university presses before it finally found a publisher. So, even though you’re experienced and you’re a veteran and you’ve been a lot and you’ve had a reasonable publication record, you can’t just send out the manuscript that you think is fine and then somebody’s going to publish it. Doesn’t happen."

"My philosophy–-and I’m glad I have a chance to say it–-my rule has always been, whether it’s a book or an article, if it comes back (and, as I say, most of them do come back because people don’t like Freud or they don’t like me. . . who knows?) my rule is I send it off the same day. The same day--and I already know who I’ll send it to. I have number two. I send it to the best journal or the best publisher. Then, when it comes back, I don’t wait around because you get depressed when it comes back and somebody says, "You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re wrong," or whatever. You know? I get tired. My wife tells me these things; I don’t need to hear it from these other people."

"So, I just say, "Oh, it’s going off to journal number two." Of course, I don’t tell journal number two that it’s come back from journal number one. I just hope it isn’t the same reviewers. "Oh, we’ve already said this is a lousy piece of work. Why are you sending it to us again?" But that’s my rule. Send it off the same day."

https://youtu.be/LXdRTtl9RQo