Jodi McAlister
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jodimca.bsky.social
Jodi McAlister
@jodimca.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.3K following 2.3K posts
Romance author, romance scholar. Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature & Culture at Deakin (Naarm/Melbourne). My newest rom-com, An Academic Affair, is out now.
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jodimca.bsky.social
Jodi McAlister @jodimca.bsky.social · Oct 22
Okay USA, I know you have plenty of other things going on at the moment, but my new book An Academic Affair will be released in your country in only a few weeks (11 November!!), and if you wanted to pre-order it, I would simply love that.
www.simonandschuster.com/books/An-Aca...
A trope graphic for An Academic Affair (a blue cartoon cover rom-com featuring images of a white man and woman glaring at each other while holding large stacks of books). The tropes read: enemies to lovers, fake marriage of convenience, one bed, he falls first, academic rivals.
jodimca.bsky.social
If you're hungry for more sex cardigan content, allow me to completely altruistically point you in the direction of An Academic Affair.
Sex cardigans: can the Wicked sequel make bulky knits strangely alluring?
It’s not the sexiest of garments. It arguably looks more like a discarded fishing net. And yet it has cast a spell over the internet
www.theguardian.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:51 PM
jodimca.bsky.social
This is a great piece by @bethdriscoll.bsky.social on our ongoing attachment to the print book.
Should we ‘get over’ print books in the digital age – or are they more precious than ever?
Print books embody culture. We see it in social media trends for annotating books, community publishing and wartime destruction of books spanning the Nazis to Gaza.
theconversation.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
asauthors.bsky.social
We are pleased to announce that entries are now open for the 2026 ASA/HQ Fiction Prize, offering one winner a publishing contract with HQ and a $10,000 advance against royalties. Entries close on 30 January 2026!

Find out more: www.asauthors.org.au/news/2026-as...
2026 ASA/HQ Fiction Prize now open - Australian Society of Authors
The ASA and HQ, a publishing division of HarperCollins, are thrilled to announce that the 2026 ASA/HQ Fiction Prize is now open for submissions.
www.asauthors.org.au
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 AM
jodimca.bsky.social
A lot of people have very correctly noted that most authors do not make close to a living wage. This is true in the US, the world's biggest Anglophone book market - so you don't even want to *know* how little authors whose primary market is non-American make.
November 26, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
aetataureate.bsky.social
almost every novelist you read who's not from the airport fiction or bestseller sections is working a full on day job, including multi-award winners and absolute legends, or they have a spouse or trust that supports them. virtually across the board. just normalize in your mind that's how it works.
peterbcounter.com Peter Counter, Nightmare Host @peterbcounter.com · 1d
I know we know this, but authors need to get better at talking about how they actually make their money. Stop pretending it's from the books.
November 25, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
alyssaharad.bsky.social
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
blipstress.bsky.social violet allen @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
alanbaxter.bsky.social
I know a LOT of authors and can count on one hand how many live off their book sales. The rest of us have other jobs (or other sources of income and support).
peterbcounter.com Peter Counter, Nightmare Host @peterbcounter.com · 1d
I know we know this, but authors need to get better at talking about how they actually make their money. Stop pretending it's from the books.
November 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
jodimca.bsky.social
My Marry Me, Juliet trilogy are all set on the same season of a covid-impacted reality show, and you can bet some people Did Not Like It. Wholeheartedly agree that loss and grief are being processed more obliquely in a lot of romance.
authoremmabarry.bsky.social Emma Barry @authoremmabarry.bsky.social · 2d
I wrote a rom-com that acknowledged covid (Chick Magnet), and that was a... polarizing choice. So I absolutely believe it's getting sublimated into other varieties of loss and grief.
oliviawaite.com Olivia Waite @oliviawaite.com · 2d
Shorter version: people are using cancer in romance backstories because it’s less fraught than using covid: discuss
November 24, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jprstudies.bsky.social
🚨 Just one week left to send in abstracts for the Special Issue "Romancing the Posthuman". Don't miss the chance!
jprstudies.bsky.social Journal of Popular Romance Studies @jprstudies.bsky.social · Oct 20
📣 Important update regarding this CfP: the submission deadline for our Special Issue "Romancing the Posthuman" has been extended until 30 November 2025!

🔗 Find all the relevant information through the JPRS website: www.jprstudies.org/submissions/...

#RomanceResearch
November 23, 2025 at 8:47 PM
jodimca.bsky.social
I've had a wave of these with the US publication of An Academic Affair, and I've become kind of fascinated with their profound meaninglessness. "Sadie and Jonah fighting for tenure while pretending to be married? That's not a plot, that's emotional calculus" - what does that even *mean*???
November 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jerseygirlbooks.bsky.social
Currently Reading: An Academic Affair by @jodimca.bsky.social @bookofthemonth.bsky.social @netgalley.bsky.social @atriabooks.bsky.social #Romance #BOTM #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #BookBlogger #BookSky www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
An Academic Affair: A Novel
From the “masterly” (The New York Times) Jodi McAlister…
www.goodreads.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jodimca.bsky.social
With An Academic Affair just coming out in North America (out now!! did I mention it's out now?!?!), I've done a fair few interviews, but I especially enjoyed this one with the Nerd Daily - where I talk about my book, the books that formed me, and Australian romance more people should read.
Q&A: Jodi McAlister, Author of 'An Academic Affair' | The Nerd Daily
We chat with author Jodi McAlister about An Academic Affair, which is a charming new romance about two English professors who embark on a fake relationship…only to discover that it may be harder to pr...
thenerddaily.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
beo.hm
Based on the book series by Rachel Reid - Heated Rivalry is going to melt screens (and hearts) when it premieres next week in Australia. Starts Friday November 28th on HBO Max.
November 19, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jasonaw.bsky.social
this is too on the nose
November 18, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
guion11.bsky.social
Just finished this and wowowow this book is wonderful. My favorite professor called literature the Great Conversation, and this book made me so nostalgic for her seminars. A+
jodimca.bsky.social Jodi McAlister @jodimca.bsky.social · Oct 22
Okay USA, I know you have plenty of other things going on at the moment, but my new book An Academic Affair will be released in your country in only a few weeks (11 November!!), and if you wanted to pre-order it, I would simply love that.
www.simonandschuster.com/books/An-Aca...
A trope graphic for An Academic Affair (a blue cartoon cover rom-com featuring images of a white man and woman glaring at each other while holding large stacks of books). The tropes read: enemies to lovers, fake marriage of convenience, one bed, he falls first, academic rivals.
November 18, 2025 at 9:49 PM
jodimca.bsky.social
My goodness do the author scam emails and the predatory academic journal scam emails come from the same playbook. Just had four that could have been from the same madlib: "We are so reputable and will get your (book/research) in front of so many people! Guaranteed (sales/impact)! Just pay us $$$$."
November 18, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
rpanchasi.bsky.social
whenever i’m feeling even the slightest bit pleased with myself i just need to visit the duplicate items folder of zotero to be reminded how impressively inefficient i am👏🏽
November 18, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
drdrehistorian.bsky.social
Australian/NZ academia has deep and entrenched problems, but throughout my career I have learnt the most bonkers things about US academia and this “job interviews in hotel rooms” stuff is right up there

Every interview I’ve ever had has been in a meeting room or office like normal goddamn people
jackiantonovich.bsky.social Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 10d
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
audrajwolfe.bsky.social Audra Wolfe @audrajwolfe.bsky.social · 10d
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 17, 2025 at 1:48 AM
jodimca.bsky.social
I have an assignment where I ask my students to identify a potential real trad publisher for their work. No matter how clear I am on which direction the money should flow, some invariably identify pay-to-players. Sounds like I'm also going to have to add a scam awareness component to that class...
Lost in the plot: how would-be authors were fooled by AI staff and virtual offices in suspected global publishing scam
Book publishing websites in Australia, the UK and New Zealand appear to be using fake testimonials and AI staff pages to lure aspiring writers into handing over their money
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jodimca.bsky.social
I've got an essay in People!! It's about the sexiness of listening, tying together some of my academic work on audio erotica with my new rom-com An Academic Affair.*

*out tomorrow in North America!! people.com/audio-erotic...
Audio Erotica Is Having a Moment — A Romance Expert Reveals Why Listening Is So Sexy (Exclusive)
"In romantic relationships, something just about everyone wants is to be truly heard," explains author and love and sex expert Jodi McAlister. In an exclusive essay for PEOPLE, the author of 'An Acade...
people.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
helgagrace.bsky.social
4 f/f romances feat. dating show contestants who fall in love:
Can I Steal You for a Second? - @jodimca.bsky.social
Here For the Wrong Reasons - Annabel Paulsen & @lydiaetc.bsky.social
Never Ever Getting Back Together - @sgonzalesauthor.bsky.social
Hot Summer - Elle Everhart #books #queer #readadv
The cover of the book "Can I Steal You for a Second?" by Jodi McAlister. The background is a bright pink with a suggested outline of a spotlight at the top and a camera on the left. A brown-skinned woman stands at the top left and a white-skinned woman stands at the bottom right. The cover of the book "Here for the Wrong Reasons" by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang. The background is a bright pink and the illustration features two white women holding hands with a white man visible between them in the distance, with his back turned. There are shadowed suggestions of lights and cameras in the spaces around the characters. The cover of "Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Sophie Gonzales. The art is an illustration of a grand staircase and balconies in blue and pink, with the back of a white man holding a rose at the bottom of the staircase, and two white women above him on either side of the staircase at the first landing. The cover of the book "Hot Summer" by Elle Everhart. This illustrated cover features a pair of white women floating on a large inflatable cushion in a pool dotted with rose petals. A brown-skinned couple are chatting in the background in the pool. The title is presented as if it were pink neon against a cut-out heart that shows a summery sky and open water. A person holding a boom mic comes in from the top left.
November 15, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
mostlybree.kitrocha.com
Wow I have not even clicked through to see who this is, but "we invented the idea of a romance series" is the boldest claim I've seen since that time someone claimed a book had invented oral sex in romance. 😂
lindaholmes.bsky.social Linda Holmes @lindaholmes.bsky.social · 12d
I’ll say this much: This reads exactly like what it is: people who discovered romance five years ago and decided they had all kinds of amazing new ideas to “fix” it. Connections between books? That feel kind of cozy to the reader? How did no one ever think of that?? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/b...
Publishers don't usually offer such ways to extend the story, leaving readers with what Mazur called "a book hangover," only partially cured via online discussion groups and fan fiction. 831 Stories wants to build in that kind of obsessiveness from the start. "We really want romance readers to want to collect all the books, to want to have an understanding of the entire set of characters, to understand the Easter egg in Book No. 8 that references Book No. 2," Cerulo said.
November 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Jodi McAlister
jodimca.bsky.social
An Academic Affair is out now in the US and Canada!

I'm really proud of this book - a romantic comedy set in academia, the world I live in - and if you wanted to pick up a copy, that'd make my day. bookshop.org/p/books/an-a...
A copy of An Academic Affair, sitting on top of a stack of more copies. It's a blue cartoon cover rom-com featuring a white man and woman holding large stacks of books looking at each other.
November 11, 2025 at 9:13 PM
jodimca.bsky.social
This one doesn't have the panache of "emotional destruction studies", but I do appreciate being implored to "fully read" their AI-generated email about how they'll bribe people to read my book with "coffee + croissant vibes".
Here’s the truth: it’s not getting enough attention not because it’s not brilliant it’s because not enough people are talking. I’m not here to chase you with pushy emails or spam. I give authors space to decide without pressure. I just want you to fully read this, so your reply isn’t rushed. 🧠💥 And yes, when a book hits hard like yours, I include a small token of appreciation for readers’ time think coffee + croissant vibes ☕🥐. Pure, honest engagement.
November 14, 2025 at 3:03 AM
jodimca.bsky.social
Drawing together some of my academic research with some of the things I'm trying to do in my academic romance is a lot of fun, and I got to do it in People.
November 13, 2025 at 8:46 PM