41: Should You Write Your Academic Book During Your Postdoc?

A postdoc can seem like a great opportunity to write an academic book. After all, you have so much uninterrupted time where you can do deep work on a long project. If you have to go back on the job market, however, you might be wondering if writing your academic book is the best strategic choice. Like everything else, it depends on your goals. 

In today's episode, Jane answers a question she was asked: "Should I devote my postdoc to working on my book?" She goes through what factors you should consider to determine what the pros and cons of focusing on your book might be. While the question here is specifically about postdocs, the advice will be relevant for anyone making a decision about the timing of their next writing project. 

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Transcript

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In today's episode, I'm going to answer a question I got recently about the best time to join my program Book Brilliance, which is an editing and coaching program for people who are writing books. I got a really interesting question, and I want to break it down on today's episode because I think that other people are probably wondering the same thing too. So let's get into it. I'm your host, Jane Joanne Jones, a writing coach and developmental editor who's here to give you some tough love about the way you write. This podcast is for women and non-binary scholars in academia who are writing academic books, but feel as if the process is a little or a lot like a mystery. If you're ready to trade your confusion and frustration for ease, clarity, and purpose, you're in the right place. Let's head into today's episode. Okay, so it is April right now, and we are doing early enrollment for my coaching and editing program called Book Brilliance. And I'm just going to give you a little bit of background on that for context for this episode. Book Brilliance is a six-month coaching and editing program for academics, women, and non-binary scholars who are writing books. And it gives you the essential curriculum you need to write your book from the writing perspective, you know, how to craft a book, what should go in a book, how to start writing the actual chapters. And then we work through your writing plan, where you actually plan the writing of the book and create a realistic schedule and timeline, and learn the art of project management as pertains to books. And we also coach you on your thoughts about writing a book, about stepping into your expertise, about protecting your time so that you can actually complete this book in time to earn tenure or promotion. And also your hesitancy you might be having about dealing with feedback or asking people to look at your work, and so on and so forth. I'll drop the link to the program in the show notes so that you could see the full description. But to get back to our question, I was on a call the other day with somebody thinking of enrolling in the program and they're currently on a postdoc. And their question was, you know, I'm on a postdoc. Is this the best time to join the program? And the reason I want to answer this is because I think people really believe, like, oh, postdoc uninterrupted time. Of course I should, you know, spend time working on my book. And it's not that easy. So I want to go through a couple of reasons why you might want to join a program like this on your postdoc, but also some things you should consider. So let's say you have a one or two year postdoc. I mean, that's how long most of them are, and you're in a book writing discipline, right? So the first question I'm going to ask you if you come to me during the beginning of your postdoc and say, should I join Book Brilliance now? is what are you going to want to have to go on the job market? Right. Let me say that again. What materials and preparation do you want for the job market? Do you want to have a couple of articles under review or even maybe published if it's a two-year postdoc before you go back on the job market? Right. If that's the case, then you might want to focus on articles. Do you want to have a strong book talk, right? Or to say that your manuscript is under review somewhere, right? Do you want to be able to give your job talk based on your book? Do you want to have an advanced contract for your book? Keeping in mind that not all presses give advanced contracts. That's research you would have to do early on. But is that something that you think would help you going on the job market? Right. So think carefully about the materials you would want. What I told the person who was on this call with me, and what I would tell you in the same situation, is that if you really want to have a strong job talk that is based on your book, then it's a great time to join Book Brilliance because we are going to, within the first 60 days in the program, actually the first 45, I think at this point, help you figure out like your argument, the stakes of your argument, your framing, right? So who you're in conversation with, why that conversation matters. We are going to help you nail that early on in the process. And that's what you're going to need to give a talk based on your book, right? That's what you're going to need to explain like, why does this matter? Why is this argument persuasive? Like, why should you believe me as the author? And also, you know, since it's a job talk, like how this fits into the place you're going, you know, so how it helps make you a good fit for that department, as well as a person who is going to intervene in your discipline in a meaningful way, right? Like that's what's important for a job talk. So if that's something you want to really hone in on during your postdoc, then yes, it's a great time for you to join Book Brilliance. And of course, if you want to make significant progress on your book manuscript, because you have this uninterrupted block of time and maybe get an advanced contract, or at least be in conversation with editors and have your proposal under review, like your proposal plus your two chapters, then yes, a program like Book Brilliance would be so helpful for you. As for articles, it really depends on what the articles are about. You know, if they are adjacent to your book, then thinking through the book might be really useful for you. If you are more of a no, I want to be in article mode exclusively and like get out some articles, then I might say, you know, take a beat and wait. Wait a little while to join Book Brilliance and focus on, really focus on the format of articles, because that is different than books, of course. And if that's where you want to devote all of your attention, you should. Now, let's get into some other things that you can consider, which of course, one is time. You know, if you're on a postdoc where you're not teaching, or even if you're teaching one course, that's an opportunity, right? That is an opportunity for you to immerse yourself in book writing. If you listen to this podcast, you know that I do not believe that you need to have long blocks of uninterrupted time to write your book. I will direct you to some of the episodes where I make that case that you don't need a sabbatical to write a book. You don't need a postdoc to write a book. However, if you have one, use it to your advantage, right? That's like saying, like, oh, I don't need an extra$5,000 to pay my rent or mortgage this month. And then someone comes to your house and hands you$5,000, you're gonna say no. You're gonna be like, no, give it to me. Give it to me, right? And this is the same thing. You know, it is not necessary, but it is luxurious and wonderful to have it. So if you have it, you should use it. Don't turn it down on principle, right? So if you have this postdoc and you're like, this is what I can really dig into the book in a way that quite honestly, you're not going to be able to do in the same way on the tenure track simply because they're different, right? Like being on the tenure track and having service commitments, moving, right? Like if you get a postdoc, you have your on your postdoc, right? You get a job, you have to move. So that's a disruption. Then you're acclimating to a new campus, that's another disruption. You're having your new preps, right? It could be to your advantage to have the foundational work on your book done before that point. So that when you start the job, your book is already in progress, right? So that is also something to consider. Like, how do I want to set myself up for the job I'm going to get? Right. Or how do I want to make the most progress on this book to be very pragmatic right now? Make the most progress on this book because I may not get the job that I want to get. So, can I do a lot of work on this book so that I can get it done and have my book? You know, that might be something that you want to consider. And I think that that's completely reasonable. Now, another factor to consider, which is a little different, is research. Right. So think about finishing a dissertation, because you're on postdoc, so you most likely just finish your dissertation, and you realize that what you wrote for your dissertation is not your book, which is always the case. A dissertation is never a first draft of a book. But consider that you have to do additional research, right? Like empirical research. So you're saying to me, Jane, I'm gonna go out and do X number more interviews, right? Or I'm gonna go back in the archive. You know, I need to collect this new body of research, right? Like, not necessarily substantiate what you already have, but go out and collect something new. Like maybe you want to add a new dimension to the book. In that case, I'm going to talk to you on our enrollment call about how much you expect the book to change, right? Like how much do you expect your idea and your framing and your argument to transform? If it's a lot, if you're like, this is gonna be unrecognizable, then I might advise you to wait until that research is done. But truly, it depends, which is why I always encourage people to just talk to me on an enrollment call. Like, I'm not gonna force you to join a program. I can't, I don't have that power. Right. So think about how much the book is going to change or has the potential to change. And of course, I'm going to say that with the understanding from coaching over a hundred people, is that books change all the time. Right. So when I give you this advice, I'm not saying wait until you are so sure of your argument and your data and then join the program. No, like we're there to help you make sense of your argument and how your data supports your argument, right? But I also don't, and this is not just for postdocs, this is for anyone. For instance, if you're working on a second book, we generally don't like you to come into the program. And so most of your evidence and data is collected because it's just number one, it's time consuming to collect all that. You're not going to have the time to devote to the program. And number two, you want to feel like you can make an argument based on what you have. Okay. And if you aren't there yet, then you just might not be ready for the program yet. You don't have to have a hundred percent certainty of what your argument is, but we want you to have some, maybe like 50%. You know, research changes all the time. And having a little bit of outstanding research does not mean you can't join the program. And I'm saying this specifically, I am literally in my office giving a side eye to my historians because I encounter so many of you in my programs, and I adore you all, but who are always like, no, I have to go back to the archive. I can't say anything yet, can't write anything yet. And it's like, yes, you can. It's okay. You can write it because you can revise it. That's literally how books happen. You write and you revise, you change your mind and you adjust. Okay, so to recap, you know, I like to keep these short, to consider if you are doing a postdoc right now and thinking about joining Book Brilliant, some things to consider. What do I want to have when I go on the job market? How do I want to set myself up for my tenure track job? What do I want to hit the ground running with? What do I want to do with the time I have during my postdoc? It's a special type of time. Fewer interruptions, more opportunities for deep work. How do I really want to use this time that I probably won't have again anytime in the near future? And finally, what is the state of my research? Again, this kind of goes back to the time question. Like, what do I really need to get done during this postdoc? Do I need to go out and do more research? And do I need to prioritize doing that? All right. So, like I said, I will put the links to the Book Brilliance program, which is we're opening it for enrollment to the general public very soon. Right now we're in wait list enrollment. And the link to some other podcast episodes where I talk about how to use your time that you have to write your book. But as always, thank you so much for listening. And I will see you in the next episode. Take care. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you like what you heard, please share the podcast with a friend. Or if you're an Apple listener, leave a review. It helps other folks find the podcast so we can continue the conversation and make sure that when it's time to write your book, you could do it on your terms, your way.