Writing It!
The Podcast About Academics & Writing
Displaying Episode 1 - 10 of 12 in total of Writing It! with the tag “trade press”.
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Episode 51: Heather Clark Part II: Maybe you don’t have to “stay in your lane”
June 2nd, 2025 | 31 mins 14 secs
academic jobs, biography, english department, english professors, fiction, trade press
We speak with literary scholar Heather Clark about moving from biography to novel-writing, why it can be helpful to move back and forth between non-fiction and fiction, and why academic writers might want to rethink the “stay in your lane” approach.
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Episode 50: Heather Clark Part I: When the editor says, “We want a doorstopper!
May 19th, 2025 | 28 mins
archival research, biography, cold war, phd; literature, sylvia plath, trade press
We speak with literary scholar and biographer, Heather Clark, author of Red Comet, which was selected for the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2021" list and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. It won the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in 2022. We talk about how Clark made the case for the eleventh biography of Sylvia Plath to her agent, and what it was like for her editor to tell her that she actually wanted a doorstopper of a book. Clark tells us about how she treated Plath’s fiction and poetry in the context of telling Plath’s life story, and how Clark organized her research notes. Clark also tells us about the group biography she wrote after Red Comet, and her next biography subject.
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Episode 34: When Writing Becomes Like Painting
October 7th, 2024 | 43 mins 29 secs
biography, editing, jewish studies, religion, trade press
Harvard Divinity School Professor Shaul Magid began his undergraduate education as a painter. Over time, as he became an academic and a professor, Magid found that writing took the place of painting – that is, writing is his artistic and creative expression, and the thing that he’s basically always doing. We speak about how changing one’s institutions – Magid has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Indiana University, Dartmouth, and Harvard Divinity School—has changed his writing and for whom he wants to write. We speak about the appeal of biography, the value of writing for a broader audience and why the editorial feedback can be difficult to take, but ultimately worthwhile.
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Episode 33: Psychedelics & Writing
September 23rd, 2024 | 46 mins 44 secs
chapter structure, history of science, literary agents, margaret mead, psychedelics, trade press
We speak with historian Ben Breen (UC Santa Cruz) about the writing of his recent book, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science, We discuss how to think about chapter organization; writing about individuals’ lives without writing biography; discovering our main characters through the writing process; books that have served as models for writing; the wonderfulness of Terry Gross; not getting caught up in the apparatus of writing tools; and why it’s most important to just get the ideas down.
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Episode 25: The Book Seminar with Sam Freedman
June 3rd, 2024 | 57 mins 18 secs
academic press, book promotion, book proposal, columbia university, journalism, literary agent, trade press
Today, we’re speaking with the award-winning author, columnist, and professor Sam Freedman, of Columbia Journalism School, and the author, most recently, of Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights (winner of the 2024 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism), about his class at Columbia School of Journalism, The Book Seminar. We talk about what Sam teaches his lucky students (this very successful Columbia seminar has been offered for over 30 years, and has resulted in over 100 published books), and about his own decades-long career as an author, and the view of the publishing industry it has provided him. We address what it means to craft a good book proposal; the importance of making the case for your book’s readership; the benefits of landing in an academic press, even if you were aiming for a trade press; how to think about the “comp. titles/authors” section of your proposal; pre-publication blurbs; pitching an agent; planning your own book promotion; and finally, why timing is sometimes everything.
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Episode 23: From writing about a Chicago heat wave to writing about 2020: A conversation with NYU Sociologist and New Yorker writer Eric Klinenberg
May 6th, 2024 | 40 mins 50 secs
biographical availability, biographical profiles, journalist, new yorker, trade press
Today we talk to NYU Professor Eric Klinenberg about how his academic career led to other kinds of writing—and what he's learned from writing a book about a time that many people would rather forget.
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Episode 22: Maurice Samuels on the Challenges of writing Biography
April 22nd, 2024 | 38 mins 21 secs
academic publishing, biography, dreyfus affair, editorial feedback, french history, trade press
We speak with Yale Professor Maurice Samuels about writing biography, and the importance of finding stories we feel compelled to tell. Samuels talks about finding the right writing voice; when to share writing with colleagues and friends; potential benefits and consequences of publishing with a trade press; creating a table of contents that helps readers; the importance of footnotes; and how our career stage might influence the kind of books we write.
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Episode 18: “Why is this a must-read book?” How to show a literary agent/editor that your book is important: a conversation with literary agent and former editor, Susan Rabiner
February 26th, 2024 | 1 hr 27 secs
academic press, book proposal, editor, literary agent, narrative non-fiction, publishing, publishing trends, table of contents, trade press
In this episode we speak with Thinking Like Your Editor author and agent, Susan Rabiner about how academics can best present their book project to an agent or editor. We talk about what a strong book proposal, cover letter, and sample chapters need to do. We also talk about what it means to write your academic book with strong narrative; the significance of the table of contents; why academic writers cannot rely on facts alone to make a point; the importance of figuring out your “core audience”; understanding your book’s central questions; what to expect (and not expect) from a literary agent and from a trade press; why an academic press might be a better fit for your book; and why it’s okay not to earn out your advance.
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Episode 14: What’s so important about your book’s meta-data? Understanding publishing from the perspective of a university press
January 2nd, 2024 | 1 hr 5 mins
academia, academic careers, academic job applications, academic job market, academic journal, academic monograph, academic presses, academic publishing, acquisitions editor, agents, associate professor, book covers, book launches, book markets, book price, book promotion, book publicity, book publishing, book reviews, book-writing, co-authorship, cover letter, cover letters, creative non-fiction, creative writing, developmental editor, dissertation, editing, editor, editors, first book, full professor, honorariums, journal articles, literary agents, literary non-fiction, manuscript editing, marketing, meta-data, networking, non-academic job applications, non-fiction, non-traditional academic, peer-review, personal statement, post-tenure, publicity, publishing, publishing timelines, religious studies, revision, revisions, sample chapter, second book, social media, teaching statement, teaching statements, trade division, trade press, women's history, writing, writing academic book, writing biography, writing coach, writing feedback, writing groups, writing styles, “crossover books”
Today we’re speaking with UF Press Editor in chief, Stephanye Hunter and UF Press Marketing Manager, Rachel Doll. Among our many topics, we discuss recent changes in the academic publishing world; important considerations in titling your book; what you can reasonably ask/expect of your editor; how to think about writing an op-ed, before book publication; what kind of publicity you can do on your own—and at what point—before publication; what kind of book events are most appropriate for your academic book; how a press decides if yours is a “crossover book”; what to consider when making suggestions for your book cover; What is meta-data?
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Episode 13: Why publish with a ‘trade division’ of an academic press?
December 18th, 2023 | 47 mins 57 secs
academia, academic careers, academic job applications, academic job market, academic journal, academic monograph, academic presses, academic publishing, agents, associate professor, book launches, book markets, book promotion, book publishing, book reviews, book-writing, co-authorship, cold war history, cover letter, cover letters, creative non-fiction, creative writing, developmental editor, dissertation, editing, editor, editors, first book, full professor, honorariums, jewish studies, journal articles, literary agents, literary non-fiction, manuscript editing, marketing, networking, non-academic job applications, non-fiction, non-traditional academic, peer-review, personal statement, post-tenure, publicity, religious studies, revision, revisions, sample chapter, second book, social media, teaching statement, teaching statements, the rosenbergs, trade division, trade press, women's history, writing, writing academic book, writing biography, writing coach, writing feedback, writing groups, writing styles
Today we speak with Martin Siegel, author of the recently published, Judgement and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs about writing a biography over many years, and publishing with the trade division of an academic press.