The writing tips I published one by one here have now been gathered up and published by Ed Simon in the *Pittsburgh Review of Books*. Happy to make them available here: pghrev.com/sixteen-writ... Be sure to check out the relatively new PRoB while you are there!

Publishing tip #4: Try to make personal contact with editors early, after a year or so of research. The ideal place to do this is in the book stalls at the AHA, OAH, ASA, etc., where editors always show up. Drop by, have a friendly conversation, mention your work, plant a seed.

Publishing tip #3: Don’t approach editors until it is completely clear in your own mind exactly what the contribution of your book project actually is. Do not overstate its importance and do not understate it. Be precise and seek the editor’s reaction to your summary.

Dear friends, please join us for the world premiere of our new documentary film, *Becoming Benjamin Lay*, Sat., April 11, 4:00 pm, Carnegie Library, 419 Library St., Braddock PA. Please help us publicize the event as we have a big venue to fill! Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/becoming-b...

Publishing tip #2: Ask all your friends and colleagues who work in your field or a related one about their presses and editors. When you are in the final six months of completing your project, make appointments with a few editors to make your pitch in person.

If anyone wants an e-book of *The Slave Ship: A Human History*, it is on sale today on Amazon for $1.99.

Here’s an interview I did with my friend Dave Clinch for *Socialist Worker*. A British edition of the book was published March 10 by @versobooks.bsky.social. socialistworker.co.uk/reviews-and-...

Translations of my books have been published by 30+ different foreign presses. Only one of them, Galmuri based in Seoul, South Korea, sends me photographs of the workers and labor processes that make the books. Here is their beuatiful and elegant forthcoming edition of *Villains of All Nations*.

I received the copies of the Spanish translation of my book, *The Amistad Rebellion*, published by the wonderful @traficantes-ed.bsky.social in Madrid. Happy to be able to tell my Spanish-speaking friends that the book is available for free download! traficantes.net/libros/la-re...

Happy to report that our new documentary film, *Becoming Benjamin Lay*, has a website! It contains all kinds of information, about the filmmaking team and upcoming screenings, a photo gallery, and a video archive (outtakes from our filming). Check it out here: becomingbenjaminlay.com

Suddenly there are a thousand (fake) book clubs out there that want to feature one or another of my books. They can seem convincing because they use AI to summarize the books they have illegally scraped. Everyone beware of these scams.

Publishing tip #1: Identify the presses that publish well in your specific field. That proves their interest. Find books that have had success and figure out how. When you are close to finishing your work, use those books as examples of how you would want your own book to be handled.

I've now finished the writing tips and can offer tips on another subject: publishing, based on forty years of experience with manuscripts, submissions, editors, agents, university presses, and trade presses. Any interest?

Tony Buba and I need your help to spread the word about the world premiere of our new documentary film, *Becoming Benjamin Lay*, Saturday, April 11, 2026, 4:00 pm. We have a huge venue and need to fill it! Carnegie Library, 419 Library St., Braddock, PA. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/becoming-b...

Last writing tip, #16: Find ways to combine narrative and analytical voices in your writing. This is hard to do but well worth working at. Adding deep context to storytelling will help, but it is still important to step back from the story to explain its causes and consequences.

Writing tip #15: Read broadly and deeply to master the cultures you are writing about. Your command of cultural detail, especially language and meaning, will add authenticity and depth to your writing. Much history from below is to be found in *A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue* (1785).

Thank you, @justinmeggitt.bsky.social! Looking forward to these events!

Here is a long, deep vein of maritime radicalism: revolutionary Russian sailors in Kronstadt in 1921 recreated an 18c pirate flag to represent their struggle, using the skull and crossbones with a pike and scythe, to say “death to the bourgeoisie.” Thanks to @erikloomis.bsky.social for the photo.

Writing tip #14: Go on reading your sources until you hear voices, then write a deeply human story about your historical subjects. Readers want to learn about real people, making real choices, in real circumstances. Make your actors complex and multi-dimensional.

Looking forward to this. Highest respect to the Zinn Education Project!

Read Freedom Ship by @marcusrediker.bsky.social to learn about the many enslaved people who fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South not by land but by sea. www.zinnedproject.org/materials/fr...

Writing tip #13: Do everything you can as a writer to control the circle of meaning with your readers. Be crystal clear in everything you say; edit ruthlessly to eliminate ambiguity. Readers are of course free to misread you, and they will. Clarity of argument will make that harder.

Two cool-ass things I learned reading the biography of Benjamin Lay (by @marcusrediker.bsky.social , highly recommended, great book) 1. History will reveal the monsters and the heroes. The dudes who wanted to own slaves and despised Lay for speaking the truth look like ignorant assholes

Writing tip #12: Economy of expression. Strunk and White said, “Omit needless words.” Blaise Pascal wrote to a friend: “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.” Use 3 words rather than 4; 2 words rather than 3; be ruthless. Shorter = more powerful.

Happy to share the trailer for our new documentary, *Becoming Benjamin Lay*, about the “Abolitionist, Quaker, Sailor, Dwarf, and Revolutionary." The world premiere will be held Sat., Apr. 11, 2026, 4:00 pm, Carnegie Library, 419 Library St., Braddock, PA. Join us! vimeo.com/1166424363?f...

Thrilled to announce the world premiere of our new documentary, *Becoming Benjamin Lay*, Sat., Apr. 11, 2026, 4:00 pm, Carnegie Library, 419 Library St., Braddock, PA. Please help us spread the word by social media/personal contacts. Tickets ($10) available here: www.eventbrite.com/e/becoming-b...

Writing tip #11: Suffuse your writing with energy. Use the active voice. Craft strong topic sentences for each paragraph and finish each with a flourish that drives home the main point. Embrace metaphor and poetic description. Use adjectives that evoke light and movement.

Writing tip #10: Very few writers of non-faction ever comment on this kind of thing, but almost every book has a complex and secret emotional life. The more the writer is aware of the deepest emotional wellsprings of the book, the deeper and more creative the book is likely to be.

Writing tip no. 9: Find a fragment of a poem from the time period you are studying, one that embodies a theme or two of your investigation, and write a paragraph, a section, or a chapter around it. Make that poem sing its historical significance.

Writing tip #8 : Embodiment. Anytime you can make an idea or a concept come alive through a person or an event, do it. An argument made through vivid, concrete human thought and action is much more powerful and memorable than a dry abstraction.

Today, March 10, is the publication day for the UK edition of my book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea*, by @versobooks.bsky.social . I’ll be in the UK the last two weeks of April. I'll post the dates/times of my book talks soon. www.versobooks.com/products/343...

Writing tip #7: When, during the course of research, you come across a story that is central to the theme of your book, go ahead and write 2-3 pages about it. If you do this consistently, you’ll accumulate building blocks for the book. You’ll eventually find a place for each one.

Writing tip #6: In my view, the essential unit of good writing is the paragraph. If you’re stuck, spinning your wheels, write one strong paragraph, just one, about whatever topic you are on. In my experience, this breaks the logjam and allows thoughts to flow onto the page.

Writing tip no. 5: When I know what I want to write about the following morning, I reread my primary sources closely the night before. This makes it easier to get started the next day, and sometimes the unconscious mind does a stunning job of sorting things out.

Writing tip #4: As I write a book, I bury myself in a brilliant work of fiction about the same time period, to fill my mind with its atmospheric literary power. As I wrote *The Fearless Benjamin Lay* I read Barry Unsworth’s epic novel about the 18c, *Sacred Hunger*, (for the fifth or sixth time).

Writing tip #3: Figure out what time of day you write best (very early morning for me), and write something every day, as little as a paragraph or a page. This is easier to do than you think. Consistency of effort matters; it is a form of discipline and should become a habit.

Writing tip #2: Three things to do to write for a broader audience. First, you need to want to. (Most people do not.) Second, you need to read and study gifted prose stylists and learn from them. Third, you must work hard at the art and craft of writing. It’s all pretty simple.

Writing tip #1: No matter where you are in the writing process, imagine your ideal audience and write for it – small, large, simple, complex: friends, family, community, scholars, activists, children, theatre-goers, the general public. You pick the combination & decide to whom you want to speak.

A few years ago, before I left Twitter, I published a set of tips on writing and another on publishing -- wisdom culled from forty-plus years in the game. Is there any interest out there in having me rerun those tips here?

My super-talented friend and fellow worker, David Lester, has created a short video about our forthcoming book, *The Black Schoooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel*, to be published by Beacon Press in June 2026. Pre-order here: : tinyurl.com/5n893x9m youtu.be/iMh38kMW2Ws?...

Here's a review of the Italian edition of my book, *The Fearless Benjamin Lay*, by Susanna Ralaima for *Culturificio*. She concludes: this “Atlantic David, capable of challenging the Goliath of his society, … still today forcefully calls us to civil disobedience.” culturificio.org/il-piantagra...

When I accepted the George Washington Book Prize at a black-tie dinner of 500 people at Mount Vernon in 2008, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito glared angrily as I explained how enslaved people were the nation’s real founding mothers and fathers. I guess he did not care for "history from below."

Here is my blurb for an important new book: “Like Julius Scott’s *The Common Wind*, Eva O’Donovan’s *Moving Toward Freedom* tilts our angle of vision, enabling us to see the histories of slavery and resistance in creative and inspiring new ways.” www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741144...

"Most of the histories of the Underground Railroad are meant to glorify the white abolitionists. My book emphasizes the initiative of the enslaved themselves and those working people who help them"—Marcus Rediker – on @thenation.com podcast bit.ly/4qFqI09 @vikingbooks.bsky.social

"We are talking about self emancipation from below" – Marcus Rediker, author of "Freedom Ship" – on @thenation.com podcast bit.ly/4qFqI09 @vikingbooks.bsky.social

Our forthcoming graphic novel, *The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad*, has its first review, in *Kirkus*, which aims at libraries and booksellers: “An evocative, incisive, and powerful piece of graphic history.” The book’s voyage begins with stout wind! www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

How "the determination of southern authorities to eliminate escape by sea was never equal to the political will of the enslaved to be free" – Marcus Rediker on "Freedom Ship" – on @thenation.com podcast bit.ly/4qFqI09 @vikingbooks.bsky.social

It was my pleasure to speak with my friend Jon Wiener about my book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea* for @thenation.com podcast. My part begins at 22:10. www.thenation.com/podcast/arch...

It was an honor to work with Jesse Jackson on a panel on the death penalty in Philadelphia in 2000 and again in 2003 at a panel on SNCC organizers at the OAH in the National Civil Rights Museum (the old the Lorraine Hotel) in Memphis, on the 35th anniversary of MLK’s assassination. RIP, Jesse.

Dear friends: I will visit the UK the last two weeks of April to conduct a book tour for *Freedom Ship*, to be published next month by @versobooks.bsky.social, and to screen my new film, *Becoming Benjaman Lay*, directed by Tony Buba. I’ll have info on specific events soon.