How to Write Academic History for a Public Audience

Do you want to write good history for a general audience?  Alane Salerno Mason, the Executive Editor at W.W. Norton, offers some advice.

1. Keep your introduction brief, and introductory
2. People the story
3. Let the people move
4. Honor chronology
5. Don’t bury your favorite details
6. Avoid subtitles
7. Don’t talk down to your audience
8. Accept that some subjects are inherently of minor interest and others fall into genres that have become overcrowded
9. A book should not be one’s first and only attempt to address the public.
10. Break any rule when to do so serves a higher purpose

Check out Mason’s post at W.W. Norton to see how she unpacks these points.