Are you "too busy" to write a trade book?

I hear this almost every week. Or some version of it….

“Yes, I want to write a trade book, but it’s not the right time. I’m finishing up three journal articles and two other book projects, plus I have my teaching load, and I don’t have leave until next year…. This is something I’d like to start thinking about in June, when my sabbatical begins.”

This makes total sense. And brings up an interesting question. When is the “right time” to start thinking about a trade book?

I DON”T mean the “right moment in your career” — like before or after tenure, or whether it should be your second or third book.

I mean something more prosaic and mundane than that. Like literally, when is the right time, in terms of the rhythms of your existing academic calendar?

On the surface, this might seem like a boring, logistical question. But actually, you would be amazed how often I see people fumble this.

Why?

Because trade books function on a very different kind of timeline from academic books — a different rhythm, if you will. And if you’re used to the world of academic publishing, you’re going to fundamentally mis-time this.

Let me explain.

One of the biggest differences between trade and academic publishing is that with trade, YOU DON’T ACTUALLY WRITE THE BOOK UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE THE CONTRACT.

This is a critical difference to absorb — and will affect your entire approach to the “timing” of when you’re going to do this.

Let me put this more simply.

To get an agent and a trade deal, “all” you need (and I put that in scare quotes because I don’t ever want anyone to underestimate the task) is a proposal and a writing sample. That’s it. That’s around 40-70 pages of writing.

Once you get an agent and publisher interested, THEN you write the book.

So waiting until the “right time” — until your “schedule clears” (hahaha) — or until you’re “on leave” to even BEGIN thinking about a trade book is not always the best strategy.

In fact, sometimes, that very busy year you’re having, right before your sabbatical? That’s EXACTLY the time to throw together a proposal and writing sample. Because if you time it just write, you’ll end up with a nice, juicy book deal JUST AS YOUR LEAVE IS BEGINNING.

And now you have a year to relax and write the book.

See how different that is from the academic publishing cycle?

In other words, rather than spending your sabbatical year researching and writing, and then, when things get busy again, “shopping the manuscript” — the order is flipped. You “shop the manuscript” (or rather, the proposal) during your busy year, and then spend the sabbatical researching and writing.

Now wait — before you start freaking out….

I’m not saying that you MUST do things this way.

It’s perfectly legitimate to “start” thinking about doing a trade book during your sabbatical. It’s perfectly fine to use that time to craft a beautiful, amazing proposal and writing sample, in the hopes of having a book deal cued up for when you return to campus.

But just understand that that means you’ll now be working on the book while juggling a lot of other things.

I’ve seen people do this successfully many times. But you have to make sure you understand what you’re getting into. And that means you HAVE to understand the nature of the trade publishing cycle.

This simple, subtle difference is just one of MANY ways that trade publishing differs from academic publishing — and one of MANY factors you shouldn’t take for granted if you’re serious about writing for trade.