My essay in the Chronicle of Higher Ed
A new take on book publishing, with origins at Substack
In December I was approached by an editor at the ideas and opinion section of the Chronicle of Higher Education about writing on the current state of university presses.
The editor mentioned having seen some of my work on Substack, so in that spirit it seemed worth sharing a link to the Chronicle essay, which has now been published, here on the platform where many of its ideas were originally developed. (Registering free for the Chronicle should give you access to a certain number of articles, so I hope readers won’t be deterred by what may look like a paywall. Educators may also have access via institutional subscriptions.) I’m grateful to the Chronicle for its outreach and editorial guidance, and I welcome any feedback on the piece in comments on this post.
As I say in the essay, “the way higher ed talks about its university presses is the way it talks about books.” I think the stakes here are real—and I hope anyone with an interest in reading, publishing, and education will find something of value in my piece.
Love this piece. In an early draft for our essay about how conglomeration diminishes publishing’s appetite for risk, Melanie Jennings and I had highlighted THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES. It was one example for how university presses can be nimble enough to find and promote the excellent fiction that readers crave. Our final version ended up not having the space to go into it, but it was really nice to see CHURCH LADIES obliquely referenced here, especially from one of the people who made its publication possible!
I am so thrilled for you! Woohoo!