CK: Who or what inspires you as an author?
Chip Stewart: “As an academic author, as one who’s
doing scholarship – that’s the kind of writing I’ve been doing – it’s really my
colleagues in the field. So other academics, other scholars. My goal as a writer,
particularly when I’m doing legal scholarship, media law scholarship, it’s to
some day have a judge put one of my articles in an opinion practically. I want
to be a help. I want to answer questions other people haven’t asked or haven’t
answered yet. So that’s really the goal of my scholarship. So when I’m writing,
I’m always trying to get there. That said, that’s kind of the practical aspect
of who I write for. When I write, I like to tell a good story. It’s always cut
through all the writing I’ve done. It’s drilled into me from my undergraduate
journalism degree that every bit of good writing has some sort of story element
to it. I like to have fun. I like to start with a lead or a lead section or set
a scene or something like that, even if it’s a legal memo or some work of
scholarship or magazine article or whatever. I like to have fun with it.”
CK: What authors and/or books have influenced you as an
author and writer?
Chip Stewart: “In my professional work, my academic writing,
you can just turn over my bookshelf here. I like Anthony Lewis. Anthony Lewis
won a couple of Pulitzer Prizes. He’s a New
York Times columnist who wrote about the development of the First Amendment
and free speech as it came out in the Times
v. Sullivan case. I read this as an undergraduate, latched on to it. I
actually got to meet him a few years ago, really enjoyed it. So Anthony Lewis,
at least professionally, is one that I admire. He tells a great story about the
development of First Amendment law and libel and that sort of thing. Writing
good stuff, important stuff in a very accessible way, a narrative way, is
admirable. So I like him a lot. There’s a couple of judges I like to read who
are terrific writers. Frank Easterbrook is one of them. He just has a good
flair with words. He’s got a dash of humor. He’s not all dry and dull. The
Supreme Court judges are all dry and dull. I’ve always enjoyed the way with
words, the pacing, the phrasing Ernest Hemingway used. When it comes to writing
dark bits of journalism, Hunter S. Thomson I like a lot. And I just love kid’s
books. I think it’s because I have children. But I’ve done some scholarship on Harry Potter. I think J.K. Rowling
tremendous. Sometimes I think she could have used a stronger editing hand than
what she had. Neil Gaiman, who wrote Coraline,
which might be the scariest book I’ve ever read, he’s just a tremendous writer
and storyteller.”
CK: How do you think technology is changing print culture
with authors and readers?
Chip Stewart: “It’s hard to read on [Smartphones]. I still
do. I read news on them. It’s frustrating to read long form on a Smartphone. I
have an e-reader. I got a Kindle for Christmas. It’s OK. I actually downloaded
a book on it that I wanted to read and jumped around in it a bit, and then I
saw it at Half Price Books and went and bought the book. I’m just more
comfortable with the book in hand. I like the way books feel. I like the way
they smell. I like the way I can just pull them around, and if I drop it in a
body of water, it only costs me a few bucks to replace. It’s just kind of how I
am. I think we’re always going to have a print culture, it’s just going to be a
matter of how we consume that print. I know some people do better on e-readers,
and that’s fine. We’re headed that way anyway. But in terms of the technology
itself, from a writer’s perspective. I know you can write differently for the
web, but when I write it’s not really for web consumption. I write long form
for journal articles – 20 to 40 to 50 pages long – or I’m writing books that
kind of thing that may not translate as easily to an e-reader. So I haven’t had
to do as much writing for web audiences yet. If I am writing for the web, it’s
usually on Twitter, and you’re already forced to write short on there. I stay
within the 140 character limits.
CK: How do you think the technology is changing the
audience?
Chip Stewart: If I wrote an academic article before, it was
going to go into a print journal like these – printed version goes into
libraries, most likely to law libraries, where to find it you have to go to a
law library to look it up. One of the reasons I chose this journal was because
it’s also open access online. There’s a print version, but there’s also a PDF
version you can download and the whole world can see it. All of a sudden,
you’re able to write for a broader audience. Maybe it’s still legal scholars
and academics, but when I get involved in a conversation on Twitter, for
example, on copyright or photographs I can say, ‘Hey I wrote an article on
that,’ and link to the website, and all of a sudden, it’s professionals able to
read through. I try not to be too dense on jargon and that stuff. Legal stuff
can get there. Because it’s accessible to the general public – and I think it
should be, the idea of open access. When we write, anybody should be able to
see our scholarship. It doesn’t do any good to put research and learning and
that sort of thing behind a paywall where the general public can’t get it.
Besides I like the idea of people reading it. The web makes all of this accessible
in one way or another to everybody, and I think that’s a good thing. It does
change up a bit of understanding who your audience is.”
CK: How did you find a publisher and how long did it take to
find one?
Chip Stewart: “I started by asking my friends. I went to my mentor, my
Ph.D. adviser. He gave me some contacts and a couple different publishers. And
I started looking around some in my office and seeing who does communication
law and gave them a call. And I knew a couple just from going around to
conferences and seeing their booths. Then I was going to a conference in
Chicago. I met with four different publishers in Chicago. Had breakfast with
them, grabbed coffee with them, just pulled them aside, and talked with them
for 15, 30 minutes or an hour. And I gauged their interest in my book and my
proposal. Some wanted to move things around a bit, some had a bit longer review
process. One said, ‘You know, this is really interesting, but not the sort of
thing that we do. We’re looking more for kind of regular manuals for
professionals, not as much student guides and texts.’ And then the one I
started going with just came to me and was just really enthusiastic, and said, ‘We’re
very interested. This is an area we are trying to build up. How quickly can you
have a full proposal or draft chapter to us?’ Overall, it took a couple months
to find a publisher. Got them book proposals in July, met with them in August.
Had a deal by the end of August. Had it reviewed and accepted by their editorial
board by around December, and had a contract in hand and a manuscript done by
June, so we moved pretty fast.”
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