Genesis of a Book Idea
I’m super excited that my book, How to Use Storytelling in Academic Writing: Techniques for Engaging Readers and Successfully Navigating the Writing and Publishing Processes is out. Since folks often wonder how people come up with book ideas, I thought it might be interesting to describe how it came about.
I started reading writing books over twenty years ago, when I was an assistant professor. Some of the first books I read turned out to be among the best—including On Writing, by Stephen King, and Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott—along with classics like Stunk and White’s, The Elements of Style. I eventually started giving these books to my doctoral students, too.
Fast forward to my time as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Journal. At one of our annual editor’s meetings, Jason Colquitt, the Editor in Chief, asked for topics we could write From the Editors columns (FTEs) about. FTEs are short pieces at the beginning of each AMJ issue where one or more editors offer advice on different topics related to publishing in AMJ. I said I’d like to write an FTE on using storytelling techniques in academic writing based on all the writing books I’d read, and my colleague Joyce Bono said she’d like to join me, as she liked to read writing books, too. The result was our 2013 FTE “Being Scheherazade: The importance of storytelling in academic writing.” We discussed three storytelling tools—the human face, motion and pacing, and titles—and several aspects of the writing process. Since FTEs are short we couldn’t get into a lot of detail, but it was really fun to do. Plus, by quoting King and Lamott I was able to publish the words “farts” and “shitty” in AMJ, which made my twelve-year-old self happy. At this point I still wasn’t planning on writing a book on writing, but I think it planted the seed.
Fast forward again a few years, and one of our Penn State doctoral students, Alex Reinhardt, asked me if I would help her with her writing. She gave me a piece she was working on and I went through the first part of it, tracking my copy edits and adding notes highlighting her tendencies. I then instructed her to look for more examples like those I had identified and correct them herself, and we’d talk about her changes. She’d never had anyone do that for her before, and it seemed to be a kind of epiphany that led to much improved work. This experience also got me thinking about developing a writing class, and writing an associated book.
The idea gestated for awhile longer, and then I started talking about it publicly with friends, which is the first step towards committing to doing something. When negotiating my move to the University of Tennessee in 2018 I raised the issue of developing such a course, and they were supportive. So, in the summer of 2019 I developed a book proposal, and at that August’s Academy of Management annual meeting in Boston I went to the bookseller’s Exhibition Hall, walked up to representatives from four or five different publishers, and gave my short idea pitch. I ended up just collecting business cards, because in every instance the commissioning editors I needed to speak with were off at meetings, or three-martini lunches. That evening I emailed my proposal to all of them; one, Alan Sturmer from Edward Elgar, promptly emailed me back with some interest. We were unable to get our schedules meshed at AOM, but we spoke by Zoom shortly thereafter. Based on his feedback I refined my proposal further, he accepted it, and I was off.
I wrote four chapters in the fall of 2019; developed them, and all the additional chapters as course sessions in my writing class that spring (during which I wrote two more chapters); and I wrote the final eight chapters last summer, submitting my manuscript just over a year after submitting my proposal to Alan. The pandemic curtailed all my usual travels, so I was able to submit the manuscript four months ahead of schedule. My wife Sarah, my friends Ted Baker, Jeff Lovelace and Yeonji Seo, and my students Ace Beorchia, Jaewoo Jung, Emily Landry, Trey Lewis, Ashley Roccapriore and Justin Yan read early drafts of every chapter, and provided fantastic developmental feedback along the way.
So, that’s how this book came to be. If you read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.