Genre and impact: Academic writing in trying times

US university press publishing has changed a great deal over the last decades. While the review process may have stayed the same, what publishers are looking for is constantly shifting, with the growth in interdisciplinary thinking and digital forms and changes in readership. More scholars are looking to be read outside their subfields, which requires a different approach to writing. Scholars often start projects by looking for a promising niche for research. They do the archival or ethnographic or critical work, and then write up their findings. However, as scholars, few of us read that way. Instead we are looking for books that will help our own thinking. An editor at Duke University Press since 1991, Ken Wissoker will offer advice on how to shape a book manuscript for highest impact at this moment. He will also explain the process at US university presses, explain about submission and the review process, and say a little about how publishing looks in this late/post pandemic. There will be plenty of time for questions.