I am reviewing manuscripts for academic publishers – a few thoughts. 1) For scholarly books the most important chapter is the intro. This cannot be stressed enough. It lays down the theory of why you are writing, why it matters- so lots of flair and historical and literary depth.

2) We use intros for our undergrad classes and rarely assign the whole book 3) It will be mostly grad students, specialists and tenure committees (maybe) who read the whole book. 4) Make the intro do most of the work- the rest of the chapters important as they are, are in support

5) In other words, think of your 30 single spaced page intro as a long thesis/proposal, your book's DNA. Do it well and the rest will follow. Part of the trick is to really rework your intro after you are done with the writing. My two cents, other opinions very much welcome.