Papa PhD Gold: Rethinking Selling and Storytelling in ScienceWith Anna Clemens

Welcome to this new episode of Papa PhD Gold! Here’s the big takeaway from this excerpt from my conversation with scientific writing expert Anna Clemens: Selling isn’t a dirty word in academia – it’s all about communicating your research in a way that connects with people, even if they aren’t specialists in your field. If you approach editors, funders, or stakeholders with clarity, enthusiasm, and a strong story, you’re not being sleazy, you’re making your hard work accessible and impactful. So, embrace storytelling, invite others to the party, and remember: refining your message through feedback is how you truly shine.

  David and Anna discuss practical strategies for pitching research effectively, tackling the stigma around self-promotion, and learning to think from the reader’s perspective—whether that’s an editor, peer reviewer, or even a potential funder. They also touch on the importance of feedback, the challenge of letting go of your favorite sentences, and how emotional reactions can stand in the way of clearer, more impactful science communication. If you’re ready to reframe how you talk about your research and embrace the skills that get your work noticed, this episode is for you. Key take-home messages:

• Selling Isn’t a Dirty Word: Selling your research is simply about communicating its value. Think of it as presenting your findings in a way that editors and broader audiences can truly see their significance, not exaggerating, but clarifying impact.

• Tell the Right Story: Good storytelling (not hype!) helps you realize and highlight the true significance of your work. Pitch at the right level – especially for general editors who may not be deep in your specialty – and make your message accessible.

• Embrace Feedback (and Ditch Your Darlings): Don’t get attached to specific sentences or ideas. Use peer and non-expert feedback to clarify your writing before peer review; sometimes the most clever lines aren’t the clearest ones!

If you’re looking to sharpen your academic communication and get your research noticed – for publication, funding, or public engagement – this episode is a must-listen.  This episode’s links:

• Anna Clemens | Website
• The Researchers’ Writing | Podcast

Episode Transcript

David Mendes:

One of the things that you mentioned that was interesting and that I think people should take note is when you are communicating with this general editor, you are not communicating with an academic. It’s someone who is working for a business. You said something that I think often is not a bad word. But anyway, it can be almost a bad word. Sell your article. You said that. And I do think people, you know, if you’re listening and this kind of give you chills hearing this, try to accept it in a way and say, in this specific framework of communicating with this person who is kind of a gatekeeper of. Does this article go to the next step or not? I need to. If it’s not you, if you’re not able to have this conversation in a less academic and more selly marketing way, maybe someone in your lab will. But I think it’s important to develop a relationship with these people where you can have a relaxed conversation and just talk. Like kind of popularizing what the article is about. This is kind of what I got from what you said, and it’s the first time I hear about it. And that’s why I kind of put a note to talk about it.

Anna Clemens:

Yeah, I love that it clicks up on that because you were right. Like, selling is the dirty word in academia. And if it makes you cringe, I mean, running my own business, I had to think about selling. I had to really examine my relationship with selling because of that. Because I come from academia as well. I have been there. I know how, like, selling and capitalism, things like that are frowned upon. And, And I mean, you know, I do agree, I do agree about. I hate bad salesmanship. But selling can also be good. Selling is not inherently bad. That’s what I want. Say if you think about, you have a problem, right? And you. Let’s say you go to the pharmacy of a skin problem and you tell them about your problem and they give you a really good product that solves your skin, I don’t know, eczema or whatever. You’re like super happy that it will help your problem and you walk away, you use the product, your skin goes better. You’re like, wow. I mean, this is selling. Selling isn’t only sleazy and bad. Telling us, basically. And I mean, I don’t talk about planning magic, actually. I talk way more about storytelling. But lots of people don’t like storytelling because they think it’s too much, it’s too salesy. And because storytelling is like, oh, it means like, oh, you’re like, exaggeratin