Writing It!

Episode 73: Luck & a Lot of Preparation: What It Takes to Move to Trade Press for Book Two with Prof. Max Mueller

April 6th, 2026  |  1 hr 1 min

american religion, literary agent, mormon history, religious studies, tenure and promotion, trade press, wakara

We talk with Max Perry Mueller, associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Classics & Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about why he made the move from academic press, for this first book, to a trade press for his second book, and what that involved. We talk about finding an agent, the agent-author relationship, writing a trade press book proposal, creating your own peer review, how Max writes differently for trade versus academic, why we don’t always get the book title we want, why shorter is better, getting tenure and promotion credit for your trade press book, the role of an academic mentor in writing, and the money reality for first-time trade press authors.