Books editor’s blog: a popular touch can win scholars a trade deal

I have long been fascinated by the many ways in which academics make difficult research accessible – and indeed pleasurable – for broad non-specialist audiences.

For the past three years, I have been a judge for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Research in Film Awards and have found it an utterly fascinating experience. It has certainly raised interesting general questions about engagement and outreach, but I have also been constantly surprised, stimulated and moved by the individual films while learning much about everything from the impact of gentrification in London to the role of food in different religious traditions and even Taiwanese pop music.

Another obvious route for academics who want to communicate beyond a small self-contained circle is to produce a book with a trade publisher that is priced, presented and marketed accordingly.

It is no secret that many academics have gripes about their experiences with university and other academic presses and dream of a different kind of publishing. For those with expertise in the right kind of subject area and who are willing to learn a different range of writing skills, going down the trade route can prove rewarding. To take just one example I cited in an article a while ago (“Publish and be ignored”, THE, 24 April 2008), Mary Laven – professor of early modern history at the University of Cambridge – struggled to interest a university press in a book about nuns during the Counter-Reformation. Yet when it was published by Penguin as Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent, it “received excellent reviews, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, secured translations in six languages – and sold film rights”. Who wouldn’t want their book to be “a genuinely successful crossover title” that is “cited on reading lists but also widely read outside universities”?

A new prize, claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, offers an additional incentive for young academics who hope to achieve something similar.

The Profile and Aitken Alexander Non-Fiction Prize will go to “the best debut trade non‑fiction proposal from an academic” (or pair of academics) writing in English. It is “open to those with a PhD or an equivalent qualification, graduate-level lecturers in a University or College, and senior researchers at an institute or think tank”. Submissions “must be focused on a subject in which the submitter holds a post-graduate qualification”.

These initial submissions, to be delivered by 30 April, must “take the form of a 3,000-4,000 word outline or essay setting out the intended subject, argument and approach for a non-fiction trade book”. The authors of the three judged to be the best will be given guidance from the Aitken Alexander literary agency in producing an expanded book proposal. The final winner will receive a £25,000 advance and a publishing agreement with Profile Books, care of Aitken Alexander Associates. Full details can be found at https://profilebooks.com/profile-aitken-alexander-nonfiction-prize.

I am delighted that I have been asked to be a judge for the prize. I confidently predict much intellectual stimulation – and an early glimpse of some of the academic stars of the future.