DP&L Episode 280: Interview with Dr. Greg Lewbart about Textbook Authoring and TAA Institute
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
Release Date: 05/16/2026
DP&L Episode 280: Interview with Dr. Greg Lewbart about Textbook Authoring and TAA Institute
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 280 host Christine Tulley interviews Dr. Greg Lewbart, a veterinarian and board-certified zoological medicine specialist at NC State, about his three-decade journey as a textbook author and editor. Lewbart traces his path from working as a corporate fish veterinarian in the 1980s to publishing his first book on fish clinical cases in 1998 — now in its third edition — and editing contributed volumes on topics like invertebrate medicine, where he coordinates roughly 40 specialist contributors. He reflects on how the publishing landscape has changed, shares practical advice for...
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DP&L Episode 279: Summer Accountability and a Plan
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 279 of Defend, Publish, and Lead, host and Executive Writing Coach Christine Tulley tackles one of the most common struggles for faculty: the summer that gets away from you. With the best intentions but little structure, academic summers often slip by before meaningful writing or scholarship gets done. Christine explains exactly why that happens, from kids home from school to family travel to teaching obligations that bleed right into the new term. To help listeners fight back, she introduces a Summer Project Progress Tracker (given away at a recent free webinar) that uses simple...
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DP&L Episode 278: Parenting While PhDing with Dr. Jackie Hoermann-Elliott and Dr. Jenna Morton-Aiken
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 278 of Defend, Publish, and Lead, host Christine Tulley talks with Dr. Jackie Hoermann-Elliott and Dr. Jenna Morton-Aiken about their co-edited book, Parenting While PhDing (Rutgers University Press). The book tackles a topic largely ignored in academic literature — what it's really like to become a parent while pursuing a PhD. Jackie and Jenna speak from personal experience. Their book is designed for two audiences: graduate students balancing parenthood and the administrators who support them. The chapters are short and story-driven, with contributors spanning fields like STEM,...
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DP&L Episode 277: Interview with Dr. Pat Goodsen author of Keep Writing
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 277 of Defend, Publish, and Lead, host Christine Tulley sits down with Dr. Pat Goodson, health education professor turned prolific academic writing coach, to explore practical strategies for building a sustainable writing life. Dr. Goodson shares how her journey into academic writing began not from an English background, but from listening to struggling graduate students and eventually developing a university writing support program called POWER (Promoting Outstanding Writing for Excellence in Research). The conversation covers her latest book, Keep Writing: 101 Strategies for...
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DP&L Episode 276: Textbook and Academic Authoring Careers
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 276 Christine Tulley sits down with Dr. Wendy Tietz from Kent State University and Dr. Tracie Miller from Franklin University to talk about textbook authoring careers. This is a path many academics never consider, yet one that can become a defining and decades-long creative endeavor. Both guests share how they stumbled into their first textbook deals not through deliberate planning, but through candid feedback at the right moment. Together, they explore how textbook writing differs from other scholarly genres — particularly its collaborative, audience-driven nature and the...
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DP&L Episode 275: Do One Thing Today
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 275 of Defend, Publish, and Lead, Christine Tulley tackles the particular chaos of April in the academic calendar — a month packed with grading, end-of-year wrap-up, graduation requirements, and summer prep, all while writing obligations quietly fall by the wayside. Using the image of a pile of empty Easter eggs still sitting on her office floor, alongside an unpacked conference bag and two unemptied suitcases, she illustrates how small undone tasks create visual and mental background noise that compounds an already overwhelming season. Her solution is the "do one thing today"...
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DP&L Episode 274: Catch Up on What You Owe
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 274, Christine Tulley addresses the familiar end-of-March crunch that faculty and graduate students face — a point in the semester when obligations to others have quietly piled up. Her solution is a "catch-up list" of everything she owes other people, which she walks through in detail: back grading for two writing classes, course substitution memos for graduating students, a tuition remission form, follow-up materials from a workshop, thank-you correspondence, outreach to struggling students at risk of failing, joining a special interest group, and posting workshop information —...
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DP&L Episode 273: How Long Does It Take You to Start Writing in a Session?
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 273, host Christine Tulley looks at how long it really takes to start writing—and why it matters. She tracked her own startup time over four days. After a multi-day break, it took about 15 minutes to get back in. She reread five pages and made notes. On back-to-back days, it took as little as 2 minutes. What made the difference? Simple strategies like leaving her document open, using Word's "pick up where you left off" feature, and jotting a page number on a sticky note. Her big takeaway: track your own ramp-up time. Be honest. Some people need 30 minutes to settle in. That time...
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DP&L Episode 272: Choosing a University Press for Your Work
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In this episode Christine Tulley guides academic authors through the process of selecting the right university press for their work, a high-stakes decision particularly for tenure-track faculty at research institutions. She walks through key strategies: using the Association of University Presses' subject grid (available in Excel or PDF) to identify presses active in your field, visiting press websites to assess the fit of their current lists, sending brief author query emails to gauge interest, and evaluating a press's output volume and consistency as indicators of its health and...
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DP&L Episode 271: The Next 30 Days
Defend, Publish & Lead Podcast
In Episode 271 of Defend, Publish, and Lead, host and executive writing coach Christine Tulley shares a practical productivity strategy she calls the "Next 30 Days" plan, designed to help academics avoid the common springtime trap of giving up or procrastinating as the semester winds down. Drawing from her own schedule — which includes two workshops, a final book manuscript due April 7th, and limited working days due to travel and holidays — she walks listeners through how to audit their upcoming 30 days by identifying hard deadlines, mapping out available work blocks, ruthlessly...
info_outlineIn Episode 280 host Christine Tulley interviews Dr. Greg Lewbart, a veterinarian and board-certified zoological medicine specialist at NC State, about his three-decade journey as a textbook author and editor. Lewbart traces his path from working as a corporate fish veterinarian in the 1980s to publishing his first book on fish clinical cases in 1998 — now in its third edition — and editing contributed volumes on topics like invertebrate medicine, where he coordinates roughly 40 specialist contributors. He reflects on how the publishing landscape has changed, shares practical advice for aspiring textbook authors on crafting proposals, identifying publishers, and managing contributors (including the wisdom of preferring an upfront "no" over a missed deadline), and discusses his long involvement with the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA), which he discovered in 2005 after winning a Texty Award. The episode closes with a preview of Lewbart's upcoming learning lab at the TAA Summer Institute, where he'll guide attendees through the full textbook authoring journey, along with a time management tip drawn from his experience as a marathon runner: chip away consistently in small sessions rather than waiting for large blocks of time.
Resources Mentioned:
- Summer writing accountability group - just $25 for entire summer and sessions are recorded
- TAA Summer Institute Register for the TAA Institute for Textbook & Academic Authors, which will be held June 12-13. Get $50 off registration with code DP26.
- Summer Writing Season Is Coming! Join us for our annual FREE summer planning workshop Register to attend live or get the recording and tools
DPL Resources:
- Set your writing goals with us! Try us out in a free consultation.
- Check out our current and past workshops at Eventbrite for writing support content. A FREE webinar is posted each month. Missed a workshop? Request a workshop or webinar recording from christine@defendandpublish.com
- Don't forget about the wonderful resources at Textbook and Academic Authors Association. The organization can be found at: https://www.taaonline.net
- New to TAA? Join for just $25 using discount code DP26! You will also receive a copy of the eBook, Guide to Making Time to Write: 100+ Time & Productivity Management Tips for Textbook and Academic Authors.