Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
Why crossover books are hard to write
Published about 9 hours ago • 6 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Hello Manuscript Workers!
What's in this edition:
How author Lily Kelting navigated peer review and marketing for her crossover book
Free resource: What scholarly writers need to know about trade publishing
As always, if you have a question or suggestion for a future newsletter, you can reply directly to this message. Thanks for reading!
This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing advisor. I help scholarly writers navigate the book publishing process with more ease and agency.
I hope you'll stick around for practical tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book, but if you'd like to adjust your subscription settings, you can do that at the bottom of this message.
Last month, I shared Dr. Lily Kelting's experience of finding out that her original dream book series was not the right fit after all. If you missed reading how Lily pivoted to an even better press for her book, Against Heritage: The Reinvention of Traditional Foods, you can read the conversation here.
After talking with Lily, I thought her publishing experience actually had two important lessons to share. The first was about pivoting to the right press; the second was about how to balance your desire to speak to multiple audiences while keeping your authorial point of view intact.
Read on for this continuation of my conversation with Lily about the challenges of writing a crossover book meant to reach both critical scholars and nonacademic communities.
Here's the description of Against Heritage: The Reinvention of Traditional Foods from the University of North Carolina Press website:
A provocative look at how traditional food movements erase culinary pasts
The rise of “heritage” foods—that is, the reinvention of traditional foods—has enjoyed a high profile thanks to the oft-praised efforts of chefs such as Sean Brock and René Redzepi. But Lily Kelting observes the popularity of heritage foods as something more: a global movement in response to climate catastrophe and the rise of right-wing, populist movements that center a return to the past as part of their ideology.
Weaving ethnography, discourse analysis, critical theory, and sensory, embodied critique, Kelting tracks and critiques the boom of traditional food revival movements in the American South, Denmark, and India. Ultimately, Kelting argues that the heritage culinary professionals wish to revive is equal parts nostalgia and invention: They engage, subvert, and ignore food histories in their creation of new food movements. As Kelting documents our contemporary moment, she shows how the conversations surrounding these new food movements leave out people already keeping their traditions alive. Against Heritage, then, serves as a reparative revaluation of the work of the cooks largely excluded from the contemporary media conversation about heritage revival.
And here's part 2 of my interview with Lily:
Laura Portwood-Stacer: You proposed your book with the idea that you wanted it to be a crossover title, read not just by academics in American Studies, South Asian Studies, or Food Studies, but also by readers outside the academy who care about heritage and food justice. Did that crossover framing present any issues during the review process?
Lily Kelting: Ha! Yes it did. In my proposal when listing potential audiences, I was like, “anyone who is interested in farm-to-table dining, the idea of local food, or food futures would be interested in this book. I think chefs would be a good market.” Famous last words! I absolutely knew that you aren’t supposed to say (or even think!) “my book is for everyone” but still I thought, “okay, food has mass interest, maybe people in the food, beverage, and hospitality industries would like to read my book about fine dining.”
Except, oops, the book is basically hundreds of pages critiquing chefs. Food industry people might understandably not be very interested in reading a whole book about what they’re doing wrong. I ended up getting mixed reviews from the peer reviewers. One of the reviews seemed like it was written by someone from outside academia or at least from someone in a very different field. I realized that by identifying too many different kinds of readers in my proposal, it might have led to the press soliciting reviewers who wouldn’t respond well to my approach.
LPS: Even though the first reviews were mixed, your publisher continued to support your project. How did they proceed?
Lily Kelting: The first thing they asked me to do was to write a response letter about the reviews and then make revisions. During revisions, I went in and defined every term in the book, checking to be sure the language and tone were at what I think is an advanced undergraduate level. I wanted to take the non-academic reader’s critiques about accessibility seriously. This is also when I added a second, more practical, conclusion.
The second conclusion is a toolkit inspired by the feminist killjoy toolkit from Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life. In the toolkit, I enumerate five ways that industry people (chefs, cookbook writers, media people and critics) can actually “reinvent” traditional foods in what I think is a better way than is currently happening. For each one, I give an example from the book of how someone is doing this well and an additional example. I do believe criticism requires being kind of a hater, but this was my attempt to remain optimistic and solutions-focused. I am very proud of the toolkit.
Because the first set of reviews were so divided, my editor sent my revised manuscript to a third reviewer. The third review was positive, prompting only very small changes.
LPS: Although your book is being marketed as an academic title, you still want your message to reach people beyond the academy. What other efforts have you made to get your ideas out there?
Lily Kelting: Part of the reason I was so bummed about the negative peer review and my fears that the book wouldn’t “cross over” was that I have been working outside academia as a freelance writer for more than a decade. I used to write for an alt-monthly and report for NPR in Berlin; now I am a very proud contributor to Vittles Magazine. So I was like, “you can fault my scholarship but please don’t say I am a bad writer!”
So I am working hard to be the crossover appeal I wish to see in the world. For example, I recently worked with a chef-friend in Goa to come up with a five course tasting menu around the book— their space, Alt Food Co, has developed this interesting tasting-menu/discussion circle format, so each course was pegged to a concept from the book and we had discussion questions like: “if you could put one food into a time capsule for the future, what would it be?” It was so fun and of course the food was delicious. So I am trying to be creative and collaborative as I bring the book out into the world.
LPS: Any final tips for other scholarly authors out there?
Lily Kelting: My only tip would be to have fun with it, which sounds so impossible but is actually the only way. I spent a lot of time concerned about how the book would be read, or what audiences it would land with, and now that it’s out it’s very clear that so much of this is out of my control. So I am just trying to focus on my part, which is having as much fun as I can getting the ideas out there.
---
I so appreciate Lily's candid perspective on writing and publishing her book, and I hope you too found it inspiring and instructive.
If you're an author who'd like to share your own publishing experience in a future newsletter, please reach out! You can always reply directly to my emails.
Upcoming course
My Manuscript Development Workshop is designed to help you clarify your book goals and make a revision plan that will get you through submission, peer review, and beyond.
I welcome authors of scholarly books, crossover books, and other academic texts (such as journal articles and book chapters).
Next session: November 2-30. Registration now open.
Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.