Publish Not Perish

Greetings, dear listeners!

January has a way of making us feel like we should already have our writing plans figured out—clear goals, steady discipline, and a strong start. Sound familiar?

In this episode, I want to gently interrupt that pressure. Instead of asking what you should produce this year, I invite you to consider a different starting point—one that’s quieter, more humane, and often more effective for long, complex writing projects.

This episode is about shifting attention away from ambitious promises and toward something that can actually support you as a writer in the context of your real life.

I talk about a few specific things that are worth noticing if you want your writing to feel more sustainable and less fraught this year—not as a system to optimize, but as information you can learn from over time. If your writing has felt inconsistent, frustrating, or harder than you think it “should” be, this conversation is meant to meet you with understanding rather than jumping to bigger goals before you can hold those goals.

You don’t need to fix everything at once. You just need a way to start paying attention—kindly, curiously, and without judgment.

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Publish or perish is a persistent hum in many academic ears, and for some of us, that hum is loud. Publish Not Perish is here to quiet the noise so you can focus on flourishing instead. Hosted by academic writing coach and developmental editor Jenn McClearen, PhD. https://www.jennmcclearen.com

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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 

Today I’m sharing the story of “Fatima”—a composite of so many scholars I’ve worked with over the years (and, honestly, a little bit of me too). Her dissertation sprint “worked.” She finished, defended, and landed a faculty job. But once she stepped into life as a new professor, the same strategies that got her across the finish line suddenly stopped working altogether.

I use her story to explore a tension I see all the time: the difference between being productive in the short term and building a writing practice you can actually sustain over a long academic career. I don’t get into step-by-step systems or productivity hacks here. You can find those any place you look these days. Instead, I invite you to reflect on how your current approach to writing is shaping not just your output, but also your energy, your health, and your relationship to your work.

If you’ve ever felt like the only way to make progress is to push harder, longer, and past your own limits, this episode is a gentle pause. A chance to ask a different question: what would it look like to write in a way that supports your life, instead of slowly consuming it?

In this episode of PNP: The Podcast, we’re diving into the urgency trap. You know that feeling that everything needs your attention right now—the ping of an email at 9 PM, the “quick” request that derails your writing time, the sense that you’re always behind no matter how much you do?

We’ll explore why academia runs on manufactured urgency, how it sucks energy from your important work and well-being, and what it looks like to reclaim your time for what actually matters. It’s time to step out of the constant rush, take a breath, and start shaping your days around what truly deserves your energy.

Today’s episode is a little different from the rest of my “leaving academia” series—because instead of talking about what I left behind, I’m sharing what I moved toward: building a business as a scholarpreneur, specifically, a writing coach and developmental editor.

I’ll walk you through how I found my way into academic-adjacent entrepreneurship, how I reconciled my skepticism about “business,” and what it’s looked like to build something that actually aligns with my values. If you’ve been craving a way to keep your scholarly work alive—just without the institution calling the shots—this episode will speak to you.

I’ll also share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way—the mindset shifts, the unlearning, and the surprising overlap between running a business and thriving as a scholar. My hope is that this conversation helps you imagine new possibilities for your own career path, whether that means starting a side project, offering coaching or editing services, or simply rethinking what scholarly or academic-adjacent work can look like.

For those considering this path, I recommend Paulina Cossette, who has a podcast and a course on becoming an academic entrepreneur.

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leaving-academia-becoming-a-freelance-editor/id1765526180

Course: https://acadiaediting.com/becomeaneditor/

In today’s episode, I want to talk about something that can feel tender, even somewhat disorienting—but also full of possibility. We’re talking about what it means to think beyond working in academia and how to understand the incredible set of skills your PhD gave you.

Because yes, academia gave you expertise—but it also gave you other important skills: the ability to learn deeply, think critically, manage complex projects, and solve difficult problems. And those skills? They’re valuable in more places than you might be able to imagine at this moment.

I share some reflections from my own transition out of academia and the mindset shifts that helped me see myself differently. We’ll also talk about how to approach a potential career pivot with the curiosity and strategy of a researcher.

You don’t need to have all the answers right now. You just need to start asking new questions—and to trust that the skills you already have can take you somewhere meaningful.

Content warning: I drop the F-bomb when talking about the Tr*mp administration because I don’t know how not to. Also, all my podcast episodes are marked explicit just in case.

This episode is a part of a series for the next couple weeks on leaving academia that I introduced earlier this week:

https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/its-time-to-talk-about-leaving-academia

If you’ve ever opened an email from a journal only to see the words “After careful consideration, we regret to inform you,” this episode is for you. In today’s conversation, I’m talking about what to do when your article gets rejected—and more importantly, why that rejection doesn’t mean the end of your project.

I know firsthand how gut-punching those messages can feel, but I also know that rejection is one of the most common—and least talked-about—parts of academic life. In this episode, I’ll share why rejection happens far more often than you think, how to take care of yourself in those first few tough days, and how to decide what to do next without losing confidence in your work.

My goal is to help you see rejection not as a verdict, but as information—something you can learn from and use to make your writing even stronger. Whether you’re deciding how to interpret reviewer feedback, wondering if your piece was a poor fit for the journal, or just needing reassurance that you’re not alone, this episode will meet you right where you are.

So if you’ve been sitting on a rejection and aren’t sure what to do next, take a deep breath, grab your favorite coping beverage, and join me. You might just walk away seeing this moment in an entirely new light.

Related Post:

In this episode of Publish Not Perish: The Podcast, we’re tackling one of the most challenging questions in academic writing: why does your research actually matter? Not just within your subfield or to a handful of experts, but to the world beyond it.

This episode is a continuation of the newsletter I sent out earlier this week:

https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/why-should-anyone-care-about-your

In this episode today, I revisit four deceptively simple questions I shared in that newsletter—about who’s affected by your research, what might change if people saw it differently, what larger pattern it reveals, and who beyond academia might need this knowledge—and explore what makes them so challenging to answer.

This isn’t about adding another checklist to your writing process; it’s about uncovering the deeper meaning behind your work and reconnecting with why you started it in the first place.

Along the way, I share my own struggles with significance, the resistance that surfaces when we ask hard questions, and why sitting in that discomfort is often where the most powerful insights emerge.

In this episode, I’m continuing the conversation I started in this week’s newsletter called “Writing Should Be Hard.” You can read the newsletter from Tuesday here:

https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/writing-should-be-hard

In this follow-up podcast, I go a little deeper into why writing feels so challenging and how we often slip into easier tasks that make us feel productive while sidestepping the harder intellectual work our projects really need. I also share some ideas about how to recognize those patterns, approach them with compassion, and build your capacity to stay with the work that matters most.

If you’ve been wrestling with doubt, avoidance, or the discomfort of not knowing exactly what you want to say yet, this episode is here to remind you that the struggle is part of the process and that you’re not alone in it.

When it comes to research and writing, many of us struggle to determine whether we're doing necessary intellectual work or simply procrastinating with more reading, thinking, and research.

Don’t get me wrong. Reading, thinking, and researching are all essential parts of the process, and it can be difficult to determine how long we should spend in this phase, which I refer to as the discovery phase. I discuss this experience in the newsletter from earlier this week:

https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/the-real-reason-your-writing-projects

(That newsletter also has a download for paid subscribers on how to estimate how long writing projects will take you!)

In this episode, I share how to spot the difference between discovery time and wheel-spinning. You’ll hear the signs that you’re making real intellectual progress and the signals that you might be avoiding the hard work of writing. Most importantly, I’ll talk about how to navigate that gray zone with more confidence so you can honor the creative mess of scholarship while still moving your projects forward.

In this shorty episode, I’m unpacking the idea that many of us hold of balance as as a destination that one day we’ll arrive at. We often imagine it as equal time for research, teaching, family, and self-care every week—but real life doesn’t work that way.

Balance is a practice that requires constant adjustment and recalibration for different seasons of life. I’ll share how this plays out in academic life and invite you to see balance not as the arrival point, but as presence, intention, and knowing what can slide this week so you can focus on what matters most.