Hi, I'm Scott Smallwood
I'm the co-founder and CEO of Open Campus, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to covering higher education for local communities.Here's more about our collaborative model for public-policy reporting — which combines a national newsroom that knows a topic deeply with local newsrooms that know their communities deeply.Before creating Open Campus, I spent two decades at The Chronicle of Higher Education as a reporter and editor.When I'm not trying to figure out how to lead a small nonprofit newsroom, I help authors with their book projects.My book coaching philosophy is similar to my long-time editing approach: I want to help you write the best version of your book — not someone else's and certainly not mine. That means, at times, I can be an editor, a cheerleader, a deadline-setter, a listener, and a coach. I draw a lot on white boards and bar napkins. And I seem to end up banging a lot of salt shakers against ketchup bottles on restaurant tables to talk about characters and narrative.I've got experience in helping academics translate their ideas to a general audience and helping journalists tap into the universal themes that propel a book-length manuscript.
Some books I've helped with:
