Real Talk about Writing a Book, Episode 1

[I’m going to be republishing a set of articles originally posted to LinkedIn over the next few weeks; follow me over there if you’d like! This one is from June 2025.]

I have been thinking about my book [now called, tentatively, FOOD WARS: THE GLOBAL BATTLE AGAINST INDUSTRIAL FOOD MARKETING] for literal years. The seeds for the book were planted in fall 2019--almost 6 years ago! Since then, I’ve been reading about writing, doing research, talking about my research, and writing related articles.

The 📘 became a real thing in my mind in summer 2022, when I wrote a preliminary proposal for a Fulbright award (long story short, didn’t work out). But I kept plugging along, thinking, talking, reading, writing. I spent a yearlong sabbatical thinking, researching, talking, and writing. Last summer I participated in a book proposal accelerator program with Laura Portwood-Stacer and finished my proposal in the fall.

I sent a query for representation to 3 agents as I considered writing a more general-audience book (one very politely and kindly rejected me, but with encouragement! and the others ghosted me).

I then sent the proposal to my top 4 academic presses. One rejected me, one ghosted, and TWO sent it out for peer review, woohoo! I got 2 great offers and signed with Oxford via Sarah Humphreville in March (YAY!).

All this time, I’ve kept writing. And thinking. And talking about my book with my family, who is kind of over it already. I am on track to finish the first draft of the book by the end of next month (!). BUT HERE’S THE PROBLEM:

I can’t tell if I’m writing anything new or interesting anymore! I have been in these trenches for so long, even I’m not laughing at my jokes anymore.

So, I think it’s time to get some help. If you are interested in reading an early draft to give some feedback (happy to trade labor!), and you’re available in July, please let me know.

And the rest of you: Stay tuned for more real talk about writing a book.