Publishing (and Promoting) a Book during a Pandemic

View this email in your browser » Publishing (and Promoting) a Book during a Pandemic This year challenged the way people do many things. For Justin Reich that meant rethinking how to promote his new book, Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education, published in September. With bookstore tours and readings out of the question, Reich came up with an idea to get the word out about his book. On March 24, I submitted the final copyedits for my new book, Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education. Schools across the country had begun to shut down, and many parts of the country would follow into lockdown soon after. The book release was planned for September, right in the midst of back-to-school season, and over the course of the spring it became very clear that I wouldn't be doing any kind of traditional academic book tour. While planes were grounded, I came up with the alternative of conducting an online book club. We would meet for one hour every Monday afternoon for ten weeks of discussion, one session for every chapter in the book. The goal was to create a format where interested readers could have some structure for reading the book with a community, get some expert commentary, and have a place for discussion and reflection. Each session had a one hour live conversation that we edited down and then released as a podcast episode. I hired my dear colleague Audrey Watters to serve as a co-host for the series, alternatively joining as subject matter expert or co-host for the discussions. Each session had one or two guests, sometimes joining as experts on the topics and sometimes joining as subjects from the chapter of the book. I encouraged guests to bring a sense of "friendly pugilism" to the discussion; I was worried that folks might be too friendly as guests, so I actively encouraged them to find points of disagreement that could make for lively discussion. Each episode had a basic run of show, at least to give us something to deviate from. We did introductions by asking guests to tell their "edtech story," a memorable experience from their teacher or student days encounter with education technology. Then either a guest or Audrey would give a short rundown of the main idea of the chapter, both to help orient people who didn't read the book in time and to provoke some thinking among listeners. The next section was "Stump the Chump," borrowed from the great Car Talk segment, where I asked guests to reflect on what I missed or got wrong in the book. Usually by this point, some good questions or lively dialogue would have gotten underway in the chat, and so at some point we could often continue the conversation using questions from the audience. Typically, that plan was enough to fill an hour of conversation. I was grateful for the terrific group of participants that came together…  Read more » STAY CONNECTED MORE RESOURCES    Subscribe    Facebook    Twitter    Instagram Awards » Catalogs » Events » Resources for Educators and Students » © 2021 Harvard University Press. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive the latest news on scholarship by Harvard University Press. We respect the privacy of our subscribers and we adhere to our privacy policy as well as Harvard University's EEA Privacy Disclosures. Our mailing address is: Harvard University Press 79 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.