Is your writing making a difference? As an academic author, you likely want to add new ideas, new discoveries, and new knowledge into your discipline that can inch your field forward. But until it’s finished and published, it can’t make a difference. As Jon Acuff shares, “90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.”

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we find ideas for continuing to write as you enter exam season, and for writing rhythmically while defining your own author voice. We explore why articles get rejected and how to come up with the perfect book title. We learn how to combat our inner critic and to leave a writer’s group gracefully. Finally, we see some advancements in the publishing industry.

Whatever is holding you back from sharing your writing with the world, face it today and in the week ahead. Make a plan to contribute those ideas to your field. Published is better than perfect. Happy writing!

Exam Season and Writing: How to Make The Best of Both

Exam season is coming up, which means that writing often takes a backseat. However, Liv Will, university student and writer, has some advice to make the best of both!

What is Rhythmic Writing?

Rhythm is one of the most underrated aspects of writing, but readers sense the rhythm in our words, whether they realize it or not. Rhythm attracts readers to certain authors.

What Is Voice in Writing?

In writing, “voice” refers to the mixture of tone, word choice, point of view, syntax, punctuation, and rhythm that make up sentences and paragraphs. Novels can have many voices, like those of the author, the narrator, and the individual characters. When developing voice in writing, you may choose to break conventional grammar rules in favor of the narrative value from voice.

Why journal articles get rejected #1

Some journal articles never get sent out for review. They are rejected at the outset by the Editor. Why is this? Well, there’s a short and a somewhat longer and a very extensive answer to this question. The short answer is that the paper “doesnt fit the journal”. But this post give the somewhat longer answer which explains a little more what “fit” actually means.

How to Come Up with the Perfect Book Title

Struggling with coming up with the perfect title for your book? You’re not alone. In few words, you have to catch the interest of potential readers and, hopefully, get them excited to read your book. It’s not easy! But there are obvious and practical considerations that will help you in this endeavor.

Camp Care Package: You Are Not Your Inner Critic

“You are not your inner critic. Please don’t mistake its opinions for your own. Your inner critic is a fantasy dragon created from negative ideas and opinions you unconsciously collected over the years. It’s an overzealous, nervous, dysfunctional bit of brain programming that runs on fear. It’s not your fault it’s there, but once you see it for what it is, you can slay it. Take your power back! Never trust what it says. When it sends a puff of smoke your way, laugh. You are the ruler of your realm. No dragon can dethrone you.”

How to Gracefully Leave Your Writing Group

You’ve been avoiding this for so long, but the problem is now unavoidable. Your fists clench on workshop day, your jaw tightens before every critique. You skim workshop submissions and check out of group discussions. Your anxiety has gotten so bad, you’ve “forgotten” a few submission dates or had “unavoidable scheduling conflicts” with Netflix or your dog. Some days, you feel like the world’s biggest jerk. On others, you dream up elaborate escape plans. Deep in your marrow you know the truth: it’s time to leave your writing group.

Ethics in Publishing Gets Its Own Journal

Fraud, plagiarism, misinformation, and misdirection – they are all toxins polluting scholarly publishing like chemicals tainting a water supply.  A new journal from faculty and students at George Washington University hopes to provide counteracting doses of probing research and thoughtful analysis.

Elsevier Foundation invests in early career researchers

he Elsevier Foundation, funded by Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, is investing more than half a million dollars this year to support inclusive career progression through a series of innovative partnerships, which will nurture early career researchers’ (ECRs’) ability to secure funding, expand their networks, gain recognition and increase representation in their field.

Soaring Book Sales Take A Fall

NPD Bookscan has reported that unit sales of print books fell in the first quarter for 2022, down 8.9% from the same period in 2021. In 2021, first-quarter book sales soared 29.2% over the same period in 2020. Unit sales were 183.9 million in the most recent quarter — down from 201.9 million in 2021, although 16% more than for the first quarter of 2020.