Do you like what you do? Are you impressed with your writing, your research, and your ability to share your work with others? Maya Angelou defines success as “liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

In this week’s collection of articles we have found advice on making your research paper more impressive, connecting with others,  taking a chance and overcoming imposter syndrome, and ways your age affects your writing. We have also found guidance on marketing in times of crisis, technology trends impacting scholarly communications, and pros and cons of working remotely.

Whatever stage of your career you are at, find ways to be more successful – specifically ways to like yourself, what you do, and how you do it. Happy writing!

Top 8 tips to make your history research paper more impressive – 2020 guide

As we all know, writing a history research paper is often a daunting, complex, time-consuming, and stressful process, especially if you need to make it perfect. However, despite this, there are some things that you can choose to do in order to make the entire process easier.

The anatomy of a research recruitment email

There are two main types of research recruiting emails that you might send out. The first is a cold email, and the second comes with an introduction or recommendation. We’ll focus on the first, since this requires the most work — the same lessons from the cold email apply, but you have the benefit of including your reference.

So you want to blog – should I write a guest post?

But blogging is a big commitment. So maybe you have decided that you will begin by writing posts for other people’s blogs. This is a pretty shrewd strategy as it gives you the opportunity to try out this very particular kind of writing, and feel what it’s like having your writing open and available on the web. Guest posting also slipstreams on the readers that an existing blog already has – you have a ready-made audience and a potential network to ease into. So how do you go about writing a guest post? Well here’s a few things to think about.

Taking the chance, with David Weber

David Weber joined us at NASFIC to talk about the importance of risking failure on any path (especially a writer’s path) to success–whether you’re risking rejection in the submission process, or the possibility that the book you write won’t be the amazing thing you’ve been imagining. If you’re currently feeling the need to be out of excuses, this episode might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Overcoming imposter syndrome

As authors, we’re often seen as experts in certain areas. If we branch out into speaking engagements, editing, or coaching, this perception increases exponentially. And despite our credentials, experience and knowledge, it’s easy for us to doubt ourselves. Imposter Syndrome is real, and Elizabeth Hartl is here with some tips on putting it in its place.

The 3 acts of a writer’s life – or how your age affects your writing

Although at present, I can offer only a limited amount of personal insight into the how your age affects your writing (no doubt David could offer a good deal more himself), since I was asked I thought it might be a fun topic to explore. This is especially so in light of the fact that the readers who frequent this site present a vast variance in age—and also because this is, inevitably, a topic that touches us all.

Marketing in times of disruption (and how to avoid a #marketingfail)

By trade, I am a marketer. Marketers are trained to be empathetic so that we can better understand and communicate with our customers. What do you do when the emotions you and your customers share are sadness, anger, and fear? How do you market when you are unsure what tomorrow brings? Marketing, at the best of times is hard, and in a time of crises, it can feel near impossible. But market we must – colleagues depend on us to develop programs to bring in revenue, which keeps people employed and enables the mission of scholarly publishing to move forward. Customers depend on us to stay informed.

Smart users demand smart information

A panel of scholarly publishing executives discussed TechTrends 2024, STM’s annual forecast of technology trends impacting scholarly communications, for the recent STM annual US conference.

6 Pros and cons of working remotely – 2020 guide

Although, before you make such an important change in your life, you should first do some research to find out whether you are doing the right thing. You want to know about all of the cons and the pros of remote work. On the surface, it seems like the better option, but that may not be true for everyone. To help you secure your future and to make the right decision, here are those disadvantages and advantages.