University Press Week 2026, November 9-13, celebrates the collective vigor of our global scholarly publishing community. Mission-driven, creative, and collaborative practices enable university presses worldwide to PowerUP every day, using our energy to fuel publications, projects, and initiatives that amplify our authors’ voices to inform our current moment and shape our future.
Make sure to check out blog posts from other university presses in the Association of University Presses’ (AUP) UP Week blog tour and browse the PowerUP gallery and reading list here.
Sometimes it might feel like just a drop in the pond, but we’ve all had the exhilarating experience of seeing the knowledge we help produce and disseminate making ripples, large or small. Whether a lively discussion at an event, an impassioned response in an op ed, or an inspiring act of community engagement, we’re proud to see the work thrive and enter into the wider conversation after it’s left our hands.
In the most recent post in her blog series, acquisitions editor Alison Syring leads readers through the ins and outs of academic conferences, beginning with the question: How should I think about exhibits as an author?
I’ve been away from this blog longer than I planned, mostly because of conference travel during late spring and early summer. This slowed down my work on in-office tasks, which slowed down fun tasks like blog writing.
I attend about six conferences regularly, some annual and some biennial. When I attend conferences, I am usually away for about a week, including travel and exhibit time. (I also often take off an extra day when I return, because travel can be really tiring!) I prioritize tasks like meeting new and existing authors, talking with series editors, and checking in with other presses and editors while I’m at conferences, because this is work I can only do at these in-person events. Conferences are also events that scholars can approach differently as authors depending on the stage they’re at with the book project.
While you are still working on your book proposal or manuscript, browsing the exhibit hall can give you a great idea of which press might be the best fit for your project. Because presses have limited space at their exhibit tables, they bring the newest books and those that best represent the kinds of books they want to acquire more of. For example, when I began attending the American Academy of Religion meeting, I took some books from the Illinois backlist that represented the kinds of books I was interested in acquiring in the future. Now that we have a full table of new titles that can showcase my interests in the field, I bring fewer backlist titles.
When authors are considering fit at a press, it’s helpful to look at the exhibit table in terms of comparable titles. A comparable title—or comp title—could be a book on a similar topic or in conversation with that topic. It could also be a book that uses a similar approach or methodology, or that writes toward a similar audience. You might take photos or make lists of books on display that fit with yours, or you might collect booklists or catalogs from presses that look promising.
Book exhibits can also give you other information about the publishing program at a press. I often bring fliers or proofs for upcoming books, so you can get a sneak peek of what is coming down the pipeline. I sometimes bring fliers for series, so you can see if there are specialties at a press and series editors you might speak with in addition to the acquiring editor.
You might also pay attention to what books look like at each press and compare them to the expectations that you have for your book. For example, many of the books I publish in history come out in hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions at the same time. I bring the paperback edition to most scholarly conferences because this is the more affordable format for individuals. (For certain specialty books we might do a hardcover printed case original; for lists like Lincoln studies or other biographies, we might do a jacketed hardcover original. Again, looking at the table and talking to press staff can help you understand why they might have done a particular format and how that might affect your book.)
If you plan to have lots of images or color in your book, you might pay attention to presses that have books with those elements. I have done several books recently that are highly illustrated, like Painting Paranoia, though we usually need subvention funding to offset the higher printing costs. All these observations could inspire questions for meetings with editors.
Even if you aren’t done with your work yet, it isn’t too early to start talking to editors. If you understand your project’s argument, it could be a good time to see which editors might be interested. Editors have to attend conferences, and I would much rather spend my time talking to potential authors than sitting in the booth by myself! Even if we don’t connect on the project you pitch, we could have other connections down the road.
If you want to meet with editors, your best bet is to reach out before the conference, as many editors book up their meeting spots ahead of time. If an editor reaches out to you, I suggest you take the meeting unless the press seems like a real mismatch. If nothing else, the meeting could help you learn about scholarly book publishing more broadly. Oftentimes if I meet with an author whose book doesn’t quite fit what I’m doing, I suggest a press that might fit better.
If you don’t make meetings ahead of time, you might be able to catch editors at the booth. I often leave the last exhibit day open for walk-up meetings, or I fill up gaps in my schedule as people stop by. If the timing doesn’t work out, I also schedule zoom meetings or phone calls for after the conference. Sometimes other press staff attend conferences, such as marketing personnel, and they will be great resources too.
Once you are working with an editor and your book is under contract, it is important to attend conferences for different reasons. Visiting the exhibit hall and attending panels to stay up to date on new work will help your book be timelier. Presenting papers based on work that might appear in your book can also be valuable, as you often get feedback that can be useful as you write and revise.
Authors often ask me about organizing panels for their books. I recommend saving these kinds of panels for when the book has been published, so that we can leverage that work toward marketing and promotion. However, there could be times when it is useful to organize panels before publication. For example, I published a coedited volume, Latter-day Eloquence, earlier this year. The coeditors organized panels for the book during the Mormon History Association meeting in 2025, which drummed up advance interest, and they planned additional panels for the meeting in 2026 to drive sales. This strategy required a lot of planning for the coeditors and interest from the association, and it also leveraged the fact that the book has many contributors so that different people could be involved in each panel.
Once your book has been published, it is especially important to attend conferences to promote it. Especially if your book is targeted at a scholarly audience, conferences are often the main in-person events where your audience can interact with your book. Presses usually offer conference discounts, so it’s also a great time for people to buy it.
It’s helpful to let your editor and/or the marketing director at your press know well in advance which conferences you will be attending so that they make sure to bring your book. While your attendance might seem obvious, it is always best to check in. I review programs to make sure that I’m taking books for authors who are attending a conference, but not everyone who is attending will be on the program. Also, your editor may not be the one attending your conference, so alerting marketing is especially helpful. For example, my colleague Dominique Moore acquires many titles at the intersection of Black studies and religion, but she doesn’t attend the American Academy of Religion meeting.
Letting your press know about conference attendance is also important if you plan to attend a conference that doesn’t fit squarely in your discipline or your book’s primary audience. For example, I don’t always see historians of religion at the American Academy of Religion meeting, so I might not bring their books if we have a large list of new publications. But if an author lets me know they are attending this year, I’ll make sure to add it to the list. The same goes for backlist titles. While we don’t always have room for books we published five years ago, I will try to find space if I know an author is attending.
Advance notice is essential if you want to have an event. Some conferences host receptions for new books that presses can participate in, and other times we plan our own receptions and signings. If you want something like this, it’s best to mention this to your editor or marketing director as early as possible, for example, when your book moves into production or on your marketing questionnaire. For some exhibits, we start planning a year in advance, and we often need to budget for additional expenses like receptions. The sooner you let us know, the more achievable something like this will be.
If the conferences you attend also offer panels for published books, like author-meets-critics sessions, this is a great panel to pitch for the year your book comes out. It gets your book great (free!) attention in the conference program, and it will encourage attendees to engage with your work.
Whether you do an author-meets-critics session or another type of panel, mention your book when you present. Bring fliers or other promotional material and let attendees know that your book is on sale at the press’s booth. Word-of-mouth encouragement from the author is so valuable in helping your book stand out in a crowd.
Beyond these typical conference-based events, we have also worked with authors to support offsite events during conferences. For example, my colleague Martha Bayne acquired the book Lingering Inland, a collection of essays by contemporary writers who focus on Midwestern locales and writers. The editor of this collection organized a reading at a local coffee shop during the Midwestern History Association meeting earlier this year, and Martha and I brought books to sell. I really enjoyed this event because it fit the book so well.
Attending conferences is an important aspect of marketing and promoting scholarly books, both for authors and presses. But not all authors have the resources to attend every large conference, or maybe any at all. Conference fees are high, as are travel expenses, and authors whose primary responsibility is teaching may not be able to take time off for a conference during the semester. If you can’t get to the main conference for your book when it comes out, consider regional conferences or symposia, or meetings in places that are more affordable or at times that work better for your schedule. If your press doesn’t regularly attend these meetings, still let your editor or marketing staff know. They may be able to send your book for display at a cooperative table, or they may be able to send you marketing materials that you can distribute at the meeting.
Above all, it is important that authors communicate with the press about their ideas as early as possible. Different presses have different capacities and may not be able to achieve your exact ask. At the same time, we can often find ways to work together on promotions that work for your book, especially if we know in advance.