A really common piece of advice given to scholars when talking about their research (whether in a book proposal or other context) is to answer the "so what?" question. I kind of hate that formulation and here& #39;s why:

So many of the scholars I work with are writing abt the history & experiences of real people. Often they& #39;re people from communities that have been marginalized bc of racism, nationalism, etc. To read that scholar& #39;s book proposal and say "so what?" would be, IMO, deeply insulting

I try to force myself to find another way to get at the issue. It& #39;s not "so what?" because of course the information this scholar has uncovered and synthesized is important and matters to them and to a lot of other people too.

What I might really be trying to ask is "who is this important to and can you tell me *why* it& #39;s important to them?" Or, "how could this knowledge you& #39;ve generated make a difference to the people you& #39;re writing for?"

I don& #39;t ever want my questions to imply that the work isn& #39;t important or won& #39;t make a difference. I just need the scholar to help me—a person who doesn& #39;t know what this scholar knows— understand what is really driving this work and why they think it needs to exist in the world