Publish Not Perish

Jenn McClearen, PhD
  • 5.0 (4)
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Publish Not Perish is the podcast for scholars who want to write more—without burning out. Host Dr. Jenn McClearen shares practical tips, honest reflections, and real stories to help you make steady, meaningful progress on your writing with more ease, clarity, and joy. www.publishnotperish.net

  1. Your Book Doesn't Need to Revolutionize Your Field | Ep. 31

    4D AGO

    Your Book Doesn't Need to Revolutionize Your Field | Ep. 31

    The moments that stall a book often look…reasonable. They look like being diligent: reorganizing notes, refining the outline, and doing just one more round of reading so you can feel ready. In this episode, I talk about the quiet threshold that often sits underneath all that preparation: the moment when you have to decide whether you trust your ideas enough to start putting them on the page. You worry that your ideas aren’t new enough, sharp enough, or important enough—and that if you draft, you’ll find out they don’t hold. I also name the impossible standard that tends to fuel this fear: the belief that your book has to revolutionize your field to be worth writing. And I offer a gentler, more accurate definition of what strong scholarly work actually does—how most meaningful books move conversations forward without needing to reinvent the whole discipline. Along the way, I unpack why “I need to read more” can sometimes be less about reading and more about self-protection, and I return to a distinction I come back to often: writing to think versus writing to communicate. If you’ve been stuck at the edges of your project, trying to get to certainty before you begin, I hope this episode gives you a steadier standard to measure yourself against and a little more permission to start drafting before you feel completely ready. Get the Support You Need to Write, Publish, and Flourish If you’re craving more support with your writing, here are a few ways we can work together: Writing Coaching—For scholars who want structure, accountability, and a sustainable writing practice that actually works in real life. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/coaching Developmental Editing—When you need an expert pair of eyes on the argument, structure, or clarity of your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/editing Book Coaching—Six months of coaching + developmental editing to help you make meaningful progress on your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/bookcoaching Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    14 min
  2. What It’s Really Like to Work With Me in Book Coaching | Ep. 30

    FEB 27

    What It’s Really Like to Work With Me in Book Coaching | Ep. 30

    If you’ve been reading Publish Not Perish for a while, you know I spend a lot of time thinking about sustainable writing practices, the emotional landscape of academic writing, and how we make meaningful progress on long, complex projects when life is already demanding so much of us. What I haven’t talked about as openly is what it actually looks like to work with me one-on-one, especially when you’re trying to move a book project forward. So in this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain. I walk through the difference between coaching and developmental editing, why I weave both together, and how that combination helps scholars move complex book projects forward with more clarity, structure, and sustained momentum. If coaching has ever felt a bit opaque or hard to picture, this episode should make things much more concrete. I also get into what the process looks like in practice—from the initial strategy session where we identify your goals and the obstacles standing in your way to the ongoing support that helps you keep making steady, real progress over time. Along the way, I dig into why so many academic writers find themselves stuck, what makes book coaching different from other forms of writing support, and why having the right kind of help can shift not just the project itself but your entire relationship to the work. If you’ve been quietly wondering whether this kind of support might be the thing that gets you unstuck, this episode is a good place to start exploring that question. Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    16 min
  3. The Hidden Cost of Too Many Projects at Once | Ep. 29

    FEB 19

    The Hidden Cost of Too Many Projects at Once | Ep. 29

    How many writing projects are you holding in your head right now—like, actively holding—not just the one on your desk, but all the others tugging at you in the background? In this episode, I’m talking about the hidden cost of carrying too many writing projects at once: the almost-finished article, the chapter that needs revision, the proposal you keep meaning to start, and the project you feel guilty for neglecting. Individually, each one might be manageable, but together they create a constant background hum of obligation that drains your cognitive and emotional bandwidth—even on days when you’re genuinely productive. We often treat these difficulties as a scheduling problem, but what I see again and again is that the deeper issue is scattered attention: too many open tabs on your brain’s desktop quietly pulling on you. Academia trains us to tolerate this, even to see it as ambition, but it comes at a real cost. So I’m inviting you to consider a different kind of progress—choosing what’s active and what’s explicitly dormant for now. You don’t have to abandon anything forever; sometimes naming what you’re not working on is what finally lets you focus, settle, and move forward without guilt. Get the Support You Need to Write, Publish, and Flourish If you’re craving more support with your writing, here are a few ways we can work together: Writing Coaching—For scholars who want structure, accountability, and a sustainable writing practice that actually works in real life. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/coaching Developmental Editing—When you need an expert pair of eyes on the argument, structure, or clarity of your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/editing Book Coaching—Six months of coaching + developmental editing to help you make meaningful progress on your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/bookcoaching Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    11 min
  4. Why I Don’t Tell Scholars to “Just Sit Down and Write” | Ep. 28

    FEB 12

    Why I Don’t Tell Scholars to “Just Sit Down and Write” | Ep. 28

    Today I’m unpacking a piece of advice that sounds simple—and sometimes even motivating—but often leaves scholars feeling worse when it doesn’t work: “Just sit down and write.” If you’ve ever tried to follow that instruction and immediately felt your brain seize up, your confidence drop, or your draft suddenly look unfamiliar, you’re not alone. In this episode, I talk about why the problem usually isn’t effort or discipline—and why it makes perfect sense that writing can feel hard to restart, even when you care deeply about your work. I share a gentler way to think about what’s really happening in those moments: not failure, not laziness, not a character flaw—just the very human challenge of re-entering a complex intellectual world. We’ll explore what it can look like to build a small “bridge” back into your project so you’re not trying to leap in cold, and why a few minutes of orientation can change everything about how a writing session feels. If writing time has been feeling tense, punishing, or slippery lately, consider this your invitation to try a different approach—one that helps you reconnect to the work you’re already in the middle of, with a little more steadiness and a lot more kindness. Get the Support You Need to Write, Publish, and Flourish If you’re craving more support with your writing, here are a few ways we can work together: Writing Coaching—For scholars who want structure, accountability, and a sustainable writing practice that actually works in real life. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/coaching Developmental Editing—When you need an expert pair of eyes on the argument, structure, or clarity of your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/editing Book Coaching—Six months of coaching + developmental editing to help you make meaningful progress on your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/bookcoaching  Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    13 min
  5. Writing is a relationship, not a test | Ep. 27

    FEB 5

    Writing is a relationship, not a test | Ep. 27

    In this episode, I’m sharing a shift that quietly changes everything for a lot of academic writers: moving from seeing writing as just a skill you perform to recognizing it as a relationship you live inside over time. So many of us are technically capable of writing and still feel stuck, resistant, or exhausted by it—and that disconnect isn’t a personal failure. It’s often the result of how we’ve been taught to approach writing as a transaction: produce the output, meet the deadline, get evaluated. When writing “works,” the relationship feels fine. When it doesn’t, it can quickly turn tense, judgmental, or even adversarial. I talk about what happens when trust erodes in that relationship—and why more tips, tools, or pressure rarely fix the problem. Instead, I explore what it looks like to replace judgment with curiosity, and how small reflective practices can help repair the relationship so writing feels safer and more workable again. This isn’t about lowering standards or forcing yourself to love writing. It’s about paying attention to how you show up, learning from what happens, and making it easier to return to the page over time. If writing has felt heavy or fraught lately, I hope this episode helps you see why—and offers a gentler, more sustainable way forward. Get the Support You Need to Write, Publish, and Flourish If you’re craving more support with your writing, here are a few ways we can work together: Writing Coaching—For scholars who want structure, accountability, and a sustainable writing practice that actually works in real life. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/coaching Developmental Editing—When you need an expert pair of eyes on the argument, structure, or clarity of your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/editing Book Coaching—Six months of coaching + developmental editing to help you make meaningful progress on your manuscript. https://www.jennmcclearen.com/bookcoaching  Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    12 min
  6. Letting Go of the Writing That Got You Here | Ep. 26

    JAN 29

    Letting Go of the Writing That Got You Here | Ep. 26

    There’s a particular kind of grief that comes with deleting pages you fought to write. In this episode, I talk about why that feeling is so common when you’re turning a dissertation into a book and what it reveals about the shift from writing to be evaluated to writing in service of an argument and a reader. I reflect on why cutting isn’t a sign that something went wrong but an essential part of how book projects take shape. I also spend time with the emotional and practical side of letting go: why we cling to material that no longer serves the book, how scarcity thinking around writing makes revision more painful, and why early drafts are best understood as thinking tools rather than finished prose. If you’re revising a long project and feeling stuck, this episode is an invitation to trust that cutting isn’t erasing your work. Instead, it’s creating the space your book needs to become what it’s meant to be. This episode is one in a series of turning your diss-to-book. Here are the others: https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/five-key-shifts-from-dissertation https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/diagnosing-dissertation-mode-in-your https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/trained-not-to-trust-ourselves Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    12 min
  7. Diagnosing Dissertation Mode in Your Book Manuscript | Ep. 25

    JAN 22

    Diagnosing Dissertation Mode in Your Book Manuscript | Ep. 25

    If revising your dissertation for a book feels harder than you expected, there’s nothing wrong with you or your project. In this episode, I talk about why dissertation writing trains you into very specific habits—and why those habits can linger long after the degree is done. I reflect on the deeper shifts required when moving from dissertation to book, not just in structure or scope, but in how you relate to your authority as a writer and how you imagine the reader on the other side of the page. I also focus on how to start seeing dissertation mode in your own prose, which is often the hardest part. I walk through a few common signals at the level of voice, citation, and structure and explain why these patterns are so difficult to spot when you’ve been living inside a project for years. I hope that this episode helps you approach revision with more clarity and less self-blame. Instead, it gives you a practical way to begin shifting from writing to prove yourself toward writing that invites, persuades, and carries an argument forward. This episode is part of a series on moving from diss-to-book. Here’s the first one, which I reference in this episode: https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/five-key-shifts-from-dissertation Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    11 min
  8. What Coaches Notice That Academia Often Misses | Ep. 24

    JAN 15

    What Coaches Notice That Academia Often Misses | Ep. 24

    In today’s episode, I talk about a part of writing that academic training rarely asks us to examine: how writers actually move through their work. We’re taught to evaluate arguments, evidence, and outcomes—but much less attention is given to what happens between drafts, or how writers interpret difficulty as it arises. I share how coaching shifts attention from the finished product to the writer in motion, changing the way progress unfolds—not by lowering standards, but by making it easier to respond to the real sources of friction. I also explore how this way of paying attention differs from mentoring and why difficulty in writing is so often misread. Rather than treating struggle as a problem to eliminate, this episode considers what becomes possible when difficulty is understood as information and something that can guide more precise, less exhausting choices. If you’ve ever found yourself working hard but feeling stuck, this conversation offers a different way of seeing what’s happening and how steadier progress can happen when you start paying attention to the right things. New Offering! Spring Semester Strategy Sessions If this episode resonated because you’re realizing that what’s getting in the way isn’t effort or commitment but the lack of space to step back and look carefully at how your work is actually unfolding, I’m opening a small number of 90-minute strategy sessions this spring! These sessions help you gain clarity about what matters most right now, how to use the time and energy you actually have, and how to move forward this semester without burning out. Here’s how it works: * Before we meet: Complete reflection questions (about 90 minutes) on your goals, constraints, and what’s worked in the past. * 90-minute session: We clarify priorities and develop a strategy that fits how you actually work—not an idealized version of you. * After the session: You receive a written plan synthesizing our conversation, plus tailored resources and recommendations. You’ll walk away with: a clear plan for the semester, a better sense of how to allocate your time and energy, and concrete next steps that feel doable rather than overwhelming. I’m offering eight of these sessions in late January and February. Booking closes January 26 or when spots fill. If you decide after the session that you’d like continued support, that $495 can be credited toward either my 10-week coaching program or my 6-month book coaching program—the strategy session is the first step in both programs. Learn more about the coaching programs here: https://www.jennmcclearen.com/coaching You’ll have two weeks after your session to decide if you want continued coaching support. So if you’ve considered coaching before, this is a low-risk way to experience working with me and see if it’s a good fit. Book your strategy session here: https://calendly.com/mcclearen/strategy-session-clone Of course, you might discover that the strategy session alone, with the clear priorities, realistic plan, and concrete next steps, is exactly what you need to move your writing forward this semester. That’s a huge win! Get full access to Publish Not Perish at www.publishnotperish.net/subscribe

    9 min
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About

Publish Not Perish is the podcast for scholars who want to write more—without burning out. Host Dr. Jenn McClearen shares practical tips, honest reflections, and real stories to help you make steady, meaningful progress on your writing with more ease, clarity, and joy. www.publishnotperish.net

Information

  • Creator
    Jenn McClearen, PhD
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jenn McClearen
  • Show Website
    Publish Not Perish

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