Barbara and I are now on final descent with our new writing book, Detox your writing. We’ll have it to the publisher sometime next week. Yippee. Our process of final revision and proof-reading has been in several stages. About three weeks ago I amalgamated all of our ten separate chapters into one text. I put […] … learn more→

Smile. You can publish your own eBook — here’s how. When it comes to writing, the Internet is a double edged sword. On one hand, anyone who wants to can publish their work if they have the right blogging tools. This means there is close to zero criteria for new writing thrust into the world, […] … learn more→

The research excellence of academics is often measured by the quantity and quality of their scholarly publications. But how do we know that all authors listed on a publication have actually been involved in the research? Is our “publish or perish” culture encouraging the development of unethical, fraudulent co-authorship deals? The number of authors on […] … learn more→

Last week I had to give a very short talk about my top tips for early career publishing. In very abbreviated form, here are the first three things I said about some important scholarly practices that underpin successful writing and publishing. Be writerly. By this I mean to say that you need to think of […] … learn more→

On the day my book, Guyland, was published, my agent sold the film rights to Dreamworks. I was speechless, a first for me. It was also pretty gratifying, because I had been fighting with my publisher for months over the title. They had wanted something like Almost Men, which I thought was a great title—if […] … learn more→

Two of the world’s biggest English-language book publishers, Penguin and Random House, are forming a joint venture. Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House, will have 53% of the venture with Penguin’s owner, Pearson, having 47%. It is not a merger – each company retains certain ‘exclusive’ rights and, as is common with joint ventures, there […] … learn more→

When it comes to publishing, Charles Dickens was half right. It’s the worst of times, and it always has been. Ten years ago, when preparing for a panel on the future of book publishing, I jotted down some quotes from Publishers Weekly that still sound fresh, a decade and a technology revolution later. “Too few […] … learn more→

Soon, scholars worldwide will have an easier time creating, publishing, and sharing maps and other geospatial data, thanks to the release of WorldMap, an open source software platform that fills the growing niche between desktop mapping applications and more lightweight, nimble Web solutions. Developed by Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis, WorldMap allows scholars to share […] … learn more→