I’m writing today instead of Wednesday because many of us are about to unplug in order to spend time with family and/or friends for the holidays.

Before we disperse, I want to share the place I’m at with you, artistically, which is why I filmed the above video so you can meet me at this junction where I’m trying to write something new while promoting a new book. It’s a fortunate place to be working from but it’s also a real challenge, because the way I start new manuscripts is messy and unbalanced.

Always has been, and I fear it always will be.

This is a stage I get to with every manuscript that becomes a book, and also every manuscript that fails. I’ve just sent new material to my agent, and even though I’ve been working on this new project for a few months with great confidence and joy, the minute I pressed “send” I saw everything wrong with the first 50 pages, and regretted what I sent, and the fact that I sent it at all.

Classic.

I have done this with every new thing that I write, but normally, I let my ego override my doubts and wait for my agent to text me saying she had to drop her other clients’ projects because she can’t put my new work down.

Clearly I am growing as a person, because that’s not what I did this time. (Also, that scenario never plays out, but it’s fun to think it might.) This time, I texted her immediately to admit I’d sent her flawed material but would she mind reading the first two chapters to weigh in on the voice and world?

This is what happened after I sent that text to my agent. She called and asked me this:

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Hello and— well, usually I say “Happy Wednesday” but that adjective is aspirational. We aren’t exactly living in happy times.

Aside from talking with friends and protesting and donating what I can and staying in community, one of my coping mechanisms for existential stress is work. With a new book on the horizon and the week-long writing workshop I run in New Mexico kicking off in just a month, I have no shortage of work to escape inside of. But if I only do work (which right now would be extensive emails, preparing article pitches, spreadsheet updating, admin and other busywork), my creativity will rust and my soul will decompose, which is why I’m sticking to my weekly schedule of generating new creative writing on Monday and Tuesday mornings, come hell or high water.1

I have an online class (currently discounted) that teaches writers time management and accountability— it’s developed for people who have little of either. Click the link below to find it: it’s called “Time Management for People with No Time.”

Time Management course

I’m not much of a short story writer, so “writing time” for me means starting a new book, or rather starting something which might (or might not) become a book some day. The project I’m working on (it feels both risky and presumptuous to call the thing a “novel”) is an idea I’ve been holding in my heart for a few years, and for the moment it’s pouring out of me like it’s preordained. I have 15K words so far—approximately six chapters. I’ve been desperate to attend to this manuscript, to re-read it, finesse it, make it better, build new chapters every week, which is why I was surprised to wake up Monday morning reluctant to meet my writing desk.

If you watch the class I linked to above, you’ll learn that for about seven years now—which is roughly how long ago I left advertising to write and teach full time—I have been keeping a Draconian schedule where I block off three hours on Monday and Tuesday mornings to do my own creative writing—nothing else. I have been keeping to this schedule so religiously that I nearly bit my husband’s head off when he called me on Tuesday morning with a complicated tax question. (“It’s Tuesday!!” I said, not nicely. “I can’t talk about this now!”) It requires an actual emergency to pull me from this schedule, and “not feeling like writing” isn’t one. So Monday, I trudged up the stairs knowing that I would write for three hours regardless of what came of it because that is my work ethic. For the record, I still felt resistance to the work that needed doing.

So once I wrote on Monday (badly) and again on Tuesday (less badly), I interrogated the reluctance I was feeling, and here’s what I’ve come up with. Five pieces of advice for when the writing feels like drudgery, and the writing itself is crap.

Before I share this advice, it feels important for me to note that I don’t believe in writing blocks. I believe in the existence of problems inside the manuscript that are keeping you from being able to write the story the right way. Sometimes, we have the courage, energy and insight to identify and fix those problems, sometimes we do not. But if we don’t address them, the problems won’t get solved, so the writing starts feeling burdensome until it eventually feels pointless. Think about it in terms of a car. If there’s something going on under the hood that we can’t see (or decide to ignore), eventually, the car will stop running properly, and then it will break down. That’s not the car’s fault: it’s ours.

So why is my writing sucking so hard this week? And does that mean my entire project sucks?

No, it doesn’t. But it does mean something. Here are my five thoughts.

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It has been eight years since I last published a novel with a Big Five publishing house and holy cannoli, I forgot how concentrated and intense the experience is. My novel, ALAN OPTS OUT, doesn’t come out until May of 2026 but my nervous system is functioning as if it’s publishing this October. I have seen covers, we’re working on jacket copy, I’ve filled out my author questionnaire (this helps the publisher understand how to market the book and to whom). Basically, we’re moving full steam ahead, but somehow, I’m still editing the book.

Did you ever hear the expression “You hold on tightest with an open hand”? I don’t know who to credit it to, but when I was in middle school, all the emo girls (I was one of them) had this written in metallic sharpie on their backpacks. When it comes to this novel, I’ve got my fist around it. I was supposed to turn in the second round of my novel edits last Friday, and I didn’t. I couldn’t. I could not release the manuscript. I had more primping to do to it, more preening. I could not, in the parlance of Brokeback Mountain, quit this book.

But I had to. We are on a treadmill here and I’m the one running.

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As a refresher, when you have a traditional book deal, this is basically what the editing timeline looks like:

• Once book deal is closed: You’ll have a big picture conversation (phone, email or both) with your editor about the major things that need to happen to get the book in better shape and you’ll get a sense of how long you have to do this.

• Manuscript delivery: Once the above developmental notes are incorporated, you send the manuscript to your editor, copying your agent.

• Editorial revisions round 1-??: The amount of times you go back into revisions before heading to copyedits depends on how much the publishing house cares about your book, how good your editor is, what your timeline is, and the state of your book. I’m fortunate to have a new publisher (Little Brown) who believes in this title and an extremely talented, eagle-eyed editor, Sally Kim, whom I’ve published two novels with before, so our back and forths are extensive and collaborative because Sally cares, deeply, about what we put into the world. (If you’ve ever read a baggy novel, it was not edited by Sally Kim.) I’m on round two of editorial revisions- I think there will be one more?

• Copyedits (1-3 rounds)

• Galleys/ARC printing1 then Publication

For a May 2026 publication, in a perfect world, my book should be in copy edits. (I have a friend with a Big Five title coming in April, and she already has page proofs.)2

Instead, I have been working like a madwoman on my second round of edits, which looked straightforward in the one-page summary my editor gave me, but ended up (for me, at least) touching on every single aspect of my novel and taking a full month of total concentration and dedication and I’m still yearning to edit what I handed in.

Ugh! I don’t helicopter parent my child, but I helicopter the shit out of my writing. This is a good thing (I’m pretty sure it is a good thing?) but I might have gotten carried away this round. Here’s a list, in no particular order, of the things I was obsessive about in this bout of novel edits.

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As I explain in the video above, given that I delivered my new novel to my editors in the end of June, I thought (based on how editing my past five books has gone) that I had at least until the end of July, if not later, before the second round of edits arrived. Well color me panicked because both my US a…

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Hello and Happy Wednesday.

When my first novel came out with Simon & Schuster in 2014, I was new to the world of publishing. I didn’t have an MFA, had lived outside of America for nearly all of my twenties, and was coming into the whole publishing thing without a lot of knowledge or savvy industry-type friends. Trickier still, I was living in an extremely rural town in southern Massachusetts, cut off from physical outlets like bookshops or reading series that might have patched the gaps in my publishing education. I was also pregnant and extremely overworked, freelancing for like 30 different clients. Frenzied, somewhat isolated, and without a lot of confidantes, I managed to debut, but I made a lot of mistakes.

Suffice it to say, I would have killed for the supportive cohort that the authors I interview in today’s video established for themselves pre-publication. In the winter of 2025, Simon & Schuster author used her publisher’s catalogue to get in touch with S&S authors with 2025 summer pub dates to see if they’d be interested in joining a support group for their debuts.1 They vowed to be transparent with one another, but also discreet and positive. Since their founding, they’ve been meeting every other week on Zoom and maintain an active Slack group. One of the group's first collaborative projects was to create this reel that captures the positive energy the authors craved (editor was Daria Lavelle):

Given that I’m a Simon & Schuster author myself and wrote a guidebook to demystify publishing, Debbie got in touch with me this spring to see if I’d host their cohort for real talk about publishing. Spoiler: I said yes!

I’m super excited to share the video of my conversation with this S&S cohort. We had a lot of people join us live (thank you!), and I know even more will benefit from this group’s advice after the fact. In terms of what you’re in for, we cover these topics and more during our 90-minute chat:

• How to deal with feelings of competitiveness and jealousy toward fellow writers.

• What the authors did or didn’t know about publication timelines (but what they sure as heck know now!)

• Ratio of publicity/marketing efforts they had to tackle themselves versus what their publisher handled.

• For those whose books have already published, are they launching straight away to something else? How will they help keep their first book alive in the world when they do move on to a second— or to another project entirely?

• Are pre-order campaigns still a thing and is there any way for them to be fun?

Here’s a little bit about the authors you’ll meet during the talk:2

• Debbie Urbanski, Portalmania, 5/13/25, IG handle: @debbieurbanski, Genre: cross-genre speculative short stories. In this collection, portals appear in linen closets, planetary gateways materialize in boarding schools, monsters wait in bathroom vents, and transformations of women’s bodies are an everyday occurrence in this collection of cross-genre stories that questions our current definitions of love and intimacy. 

• Madge Maril, Slipstream, pub date is 5/20/25, IG: @madgemarilwrites Genre: contemporary romance. In the high-speed world of Formula 1, documentarian Lilah teams up with racing driver Arthur Bianco for a whirlwind of revenge—and perhaps something more.

• Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste, 5/20/25, IG handle: @daria.lavelle.author Genre: Upmarket speculative fiction. When grieving dishwasher Konstantin discovers that his food can resurrect ghosts for one last meal, he sets out to open an NYC restaurant serving closure, never expecting to fall in love—or to wreak total havoc on the Afterlife.

• Julia DeVillers, Meet Me at Wonderland, pub date is 5/20/25 @juliadevillers on IG and Tiktok, Genre is upper middle grade. A girl with a summer job at her family’s amusement park crushes on a coworker who’d rather be working anywhere else in this fun and flirty middle grade rom-com.

• Lucas Schaefer, The Slip, pub date 6/3/25 IG handle: @lucaseschaefer (also on X, Threads, Bluesky). Genre is Literary Fiction. A haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.  

• Christopher Tradowsky, Midnight at the Cinema Palace, pub date 6/10/25 @tradwowsky (IG & Threads) Genre is literary fiction. Three queer cinephiles explore gender and sexuality in this love letter to San Francisco in the 1990s. 

• Rose Keating, Oddbody, pub date 7/1/25 Genre: story collection. Ten stories take you on a bold journey through the intricacies of sex, shame, and womanhood.

• Libby Buck, Port Anna, pub date 7/1/25 IG handle: @libbybuckwrites. Genre is Women’s Literary Fiction. In this modern fairy tale of hope and second chances, Gwen, forty and weighed down with regret, restarts her life in a haunted cottage by the sea.

• Lidija Hilje, Slanting Towards The Sea, pub date 7/8/25, IG: @lidijahilje, Genre is literary fiction. A hypnotic debut that sets a decades-long love story against the wild beauty of an emerging Croatia, exploring desire and longing, the fragile nature of potential, and what it means to come of age in a country younger than oneself. 

• Kerry Cullen, House of Beth, pub date 7/15/25, IG handle @kermichele (also on TikTok and bluesky) Genre is literary/contemporary gothic, queer. A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else.

• Joe Pan, Florida Palms, pub date 7/22/25, IG handle @joepanwrites (also on TikTok and bluesky), Genre is literary crime thriller. The Outsiders for our cultural moment, a coming-of-age tale where boys without heroes become men without dreams. After three young friends are coerced into running drugs to make ends meet, their brotherhood quickly spirals out of control.

• Catherine Dang, What Hunger, pub date 8/12/25, IG handle @dangitcat (also on TikTok as @dangitcatt). Genre is literary, horror/coming of age. A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood, for fans of Jennifer’s Body and Little Fires Everywhere.

• Antonio Michael Downing, Black Cherokee, pub date 8/19/25. Genre is literary fiction. Betty meets Queenie in this courageous coming-of-age story about a Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.

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Without further ado, let’s get to our talk!

This discussion was recorded live on Tuesday June 3rd at noon EST. Thanks to all who joined, and thank you so much, Debbie for helping me with all things tech-related before and after the call.

If you enjoyed this conversation and are looking for a supportive community like this wonderful cohort, consider subscribing to Before and After the Book Deal if you don’t already, or buying the book this newsletter is based on. We’ve got support in spades for you!

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It’s giveaway o’clock!

Like what you heard? Want to read some fiction?

Simon & Schuster has kindly put together a giveaway of the cohort’s books—including my own debut, I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN HERE WITHOUT YOU, which came out with Simon & Schuster in 2014. Here is the link to enter—the giveaway ends June 9th.3

And that concludes our talk!

Thank you so much—panelists and attendees—for joining our “Debuting in Community” chat.

Did you learn something new? Were you inspired? Frustrated by something you learned about the publishing experience? Have questions that didn’t get answered by our panelists and are hoping that they’ll answer them now? Let us know in the comments— we’ll try to get some Q’s for your A’s.

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And let’s give these authors a round of applause as they head out to publish— or recover from a pub date just behind them. I’m wishing them the best.

Tune in next Wednesday— we’ll have the publicist and events manager at Creature Publishing, Will Roth, talk to us about publicity at indie presses. You’ll love his tips and advice—he doesn’t use the P word once during our talk!4

xoxo

Courtney

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Hello and happy Wednesday.

Before we continue the financial literacy series I started last week, I have three things to plug:

• Enter the massive giveaway for “Give a Horse Book Day”! My memoir THE YEAR OF THE HORSES is part of a giant giveaway organized by 30 authors for “Give a horse book day” on May 10th. Between the anthology HORSE GIRLS edited by Electric Literature’s own Halimah Marcus, the memoir HORSE CRAZY by Sarah Maslin Nir and the stunning sports memoir CROSSING THE LINE by Kareem Rosser, someone out there is going to get some truly phenomenal books. Know what’s even better? The winner also gets to designate a charity of their choice to receive a second box of books. To enter you do need to live in the continental United States and it probably helps if you have an interest in horses or love someone who does, otherwise, it’s super easy to participate. Simply enter here!

• There are two weeks left to apply to my Turning Points writing workshop in New Mexico taking place this fall! All application information for this very special workshop is available through my website.

• Would you rather write in Greece instead? Not a problem! My colleague Brian Gresko’s got you covered. Only two spots left.

Get away and write!

Now on to today’s post.

How I make money as an author - Part 2

When we left each other last week, I had moved from a hot and noisy apartment in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn to a charming but poorly built log cabin in the Massachusetts Berkshires. That post was the first installment in me sharing how I have made money as a writer. This is chapter two.

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Hello and happy Wedneday.

I’m numbering this post #1 of I don’t know how many because I want to dedicate a good portion of this spring to discussing financial literacy for writers, a subject—as proven by the AWP panel I was involved with on this topic—that is being under-taught and under-shared in writing programs and most workshops. Happily, financial literacy for creatives is at the core of everything I do both in my publishing guidebook Before and After the Book Deal and the Substack I named it after.

Honestly, if I had to give a reason for any success I’ve had in this industry, the first answer would be my work ethic. I have extremely solid time management skills and I work like a Russian ballerina on my craft. But the second reason for my success is that I never expected my writing to support my life financially.

I want to repeat that, because there is a huge difference between these statements:

I never expected my writing to support my life financially.

vs.

I hoped my writing would support my life financially.

Since my elementary school years when I was making books using cardboard and wallpaper with “About the Author” sections on the back, I hoped I would one day “make it” as a writer, meaning that writing books and articles would one day be my full-time job.

That is a very different mindset from expecting my writing to pay the bills for me. I’m afraid that this expectation mindset is one of the major obstacles for writers, especially students going through the MFA system where teaching financial survival skills to creative people is still woefully taboo.

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While I never came into publishing expecting my book deals alone to support me (I still don’t for reasons I’ll explain in a separate post), I did come into this expecting my skillsets around reading and writing to support me. Why? How? What did that look like? Let’s get into it.

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Hi there and TGIF.

I wanted to pop in with my top tips for those of you headed to AWP next week. Not just tips for the sprawling and highly social conference itself, but specifically for the conference being in Los Angeles, which is a tricky city to hold a literary conference in.

I’m gonna jump right into it, because those of us attending need to plan and pack.

1. Bring a snowsuit. Not an actual snowsuit, but a light sweater and/or a serious scarf or neck warmer because the air conditioning in the conference center is usually set to arctic temps. Especially for panelists who might be feeling nervous—goose bumps from the AC won’t help, so bring layers you can fit into your bag.

2. Bring a water bottle. Last year, bottles of water at the conference center were $8 each, so don’t leave your reusable bottles at home.

3. Bring caffeine from somewhere else. If you don’t have a lot of time between panels, just know that the lines for the conference center coffee shops tend to be long as heck. So maybe pack some chocolate or a can of Joe.

4. Pack protein-filled snacks. Given the price of Conference Center Poland Spring, you can imagine how much a pack of nuts runs at the conference. AWP generally involves a lot of nerves and nervousness, tons of running around, and for those who drink alcohol, it involves a lot of that—plus, regular meals are hard to come by when you’re going from panel to panel. I’m a protein freak, so one year I just kept a jar of peanut butter in my backpack and would take spoonfuls of it, but I can’t recommend this approach because the peanut oil leaked all over my backpack and the books I had inside it. So pack a different snack.

5. Make sure you want to go where you are planning to go before you get into that Uber. Here’s the problem with holding AWP in Los Angeles (I speak from experience because I attended AWP in Los Angeles in 2016). The city’s the perfect size for a hedge funder conference, because finance people can usually afford to gallivant around the city taking twenty-minute long cab rides seven times a day. Us writers though? We can’t. When AWP is in smaller cities, the great thing is you can actually see where people are going once panels are done. Like, you’ll actually see a nice pack of people walk out of the conference hotel and stroll down two blocks to go to whatever pub is hosting an off-site event. The stakes are low if you don’t like the off-site party you followed this crew too—or you can’t get into it because it’s at capacity— you can just walk back to the hotel bar and regroup with your friends (or make friends at the hotel bar where everyone congregates when they don’t know where else to go). In LA, the financial stakes are much higher in terms of party chasing. If you take a $30 Uber only to arrive at The Hot Stuff Literary Mega Bash and learn there’s no chance in hell that you’re going to get in, then you jump in another cab and end up splitting a $40 ride to a karaoke party that turns out to have migrated somewhere else…you’ll quickly rack up some serious expenses with little to show for all that time in cabs. If this isn’t your first AWP and you already have writer friends, try to secure someone who can text you from the front lines. (“How long is the wait at the BOMB party? Where are people considering going next?” “What’s the vibe at the hotel bar?”) If you haven’t had the opportunity to make writer friends yet, call the bar! Ask them if they know how long the wait is to get in for whatever party; what is the crowd like. Such a call could save you tons of cash.

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6. Pack business cards or make your own. I know, I know. This recommendation feels so 1990s. But you are going to meet SO MANY PEOPLE at this conference, and do you have the time in 2025 to be typing a bunch of names into Instagram trying to remember who you met and wanted to stay in touch with? No, you don’t! Because it’s 2025, you might not even be on Meta-owned sites anymore! I’m a huge fan of business cards especially for people who have published a book or have a service to offer (book coaching, editing, copyediting, professional hugging, what have you.) While it might seem really old school to hand someone a business card, I actually find it more welcome than someone asking to enter my deets into their phone. That, to me, is not only a huge leap forward in the intimacy department, but it doesn’t work. Inevitably, I end up with post AWP text messages like, “Hey!” that I delete and block because I think they’re spam, only to later realize that the text was probably from one of the nice people I met at AWP. If you don’t have business cards on hand, you can create your own and pre-cut them to hand out to quality folks. (Not to everyone, you don’t want to go around spamming people— but if you met someone great and they’re dashing out of the room, it’s honestly so convenient to just hand them a little card even if it’s just your handwriting on a scrap of paper.) You just need your name, email address, phone number if you’re comfortable and social media handles— if you’re tech savvy, you can even pre-make your own cards with a QR code connecting to your favorite social media site or newsletter.

7. Pay people for their time. I’ve volunteered at booths at AWP and I can tell you that the writers who come to the book fair booths, take the free pencils or erasers or whatever is on offer, fondle some of the publications and get the booth workers to divulge what kinds of work they’re publishing, then drift away with a meek thank you without having bought anything? Your name will be remembered as someone who isn’t serious, wastes other people’s time and doesn’t understand how the book world works.1 Success at AWP as an emerging writer is as simple as this— if you want insight on why your work wasn’t accepted to a particular magazine or press, or you want to hear more about what kinds of work the outlet is seeking, you must buy something from the table first. Literally, this is the most effective tip I have for you that could be a major game changer. Buy something from the table before you ask your questions. By buying something first, you will 1) lift the booth worker’s spirits and 2) make it clear that you have earned the right to pick their brains and 3) participate in the publishing world in a meaningful way. Plus, once you take the magazine or books home, you’ll have a tangible example of what the press is publishing. The first time I went to AWP in 2010, I had been submitting to magazines I’d never even seen in person and when I got to the book fair, I nearly died once I started touching, buying, and reading the mags I’d been submitting to. I was so far off the mark! I was sending humorous pieces to outlets that didn’t publish humor; I was sending experimental work to places that did straight narrative… in short? I was wasting people’s time. That first AWP, I bought so many books and magazines, I had to ship them home because they wouldn’t fit in my suitcase, but my acceptance rate completely changed once I read—and started subscribing to—the magazines I bought. I remember signing up in person for an annual subscription to The Normal School, and the next time I submitted something to them (with a little reminder that we’d met at their AWP table and that I was a subscriber), I got personalized feedback to my submission, ditto with McSweeneys, Tin House and Hobart— which I also bought books from and magazine subscriptions to back in 2010. I ended up penning humor columns for both Tin House and Hobart only two years later—and Tin House is the publisher of two of my books. SO BUY BOOKS FROM THE BOOTHS!

8. Keep records of your expenses for your taxes, if you decide to pay them in 2025 lol. Following off the above, if you can prove to the IRS that you are a writer or are actively working to become one, your lodging, meals, transportation and book purchases could qualify for tax exemptions. SO BUY BOOKS FROM THE BOOTHS!

9. Ship books home as needed. Don’t let luggage space keep you from buying books and magazines, especially on the last day of the fair when most publications are drastically reduced, and especially in a political climate where literature is endangered. Fixed rate priority shipping from the USPS is quite reasonable, and the shipping cost could be a tax deduction (see above). Trump wants to kill the USPS (I would take a bullet for my local post office) so let’s give the post office all the business that we can!

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Okay, I’m off to do my Friday things. A reminder that these are my two panels at AWP— I can bring bookplates if anyone wants me to sign one in person and then bring it home and stick it inside a book of mine? I’ll also have business cards ;)

Safe travels and happy AWP-ing! Feel free to share this with friends who are also headed to Los Angeles, especially if they’ve never been to AWP before.

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Courtney

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In just a little bit, I’m going to offer my not so humble opinion on the memoir rules that Meghan Markle breaks with her new Netflix series, “With Love, Meghan,” but first, some exciting news and housekeeping.

• I have exciting personal news! You know that novel I’ve been revising so much that I made an in-depth video regarding how and why I was revising it? It just sold at auction to Little Brown!

The deal announcement came out “above the fold” this week in Publishers Lunch, meaning it was one of the top deals of the day. I don’t have the exact publication date yet but it will be summer of 2026 which—in publishing land—is a pretty quick turnaround!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I have been working incredibly hard on this novel, so I’m absolutely thrilled about this news. Thank you for the support and cheerleading that got me to this point! I’m equally excited to share milestones with you as I prep a novel for Big Five publication.

• New Press Alert for women!

If you’ve been getting responses on the query and submission circuit that your memoir is “beautiful” but there’s “no path to market for it,” listen up: this news is for you. The founders of Third Rail Press personally heard from agents and editors so many times that their memoirs about grief and loss, while beautifully written, were “unpublishable” that they decided to found a press for womens’ stories because they knew (like, knew) that the publishes were wrong. They’re currently raising money via Kickstarter to fund the next three books that they are publishing (I blurbed one of the first books they’re putting out, Blue Hour Homecoming and it’s gorgeous- I adored it). At the time of writing, they are at $22,729 and their goal is 27K by March 17. The rewards for backers are pretty awesome: signed books, workshops on deconstructing drafts, pitching, and publishing, and even a full manuscript edit. Find out more about the press (and donate, if you can!) here. Not only will you be donating to a great cause, you might be donating to the very press that ends up publishing your book!

• Regarding your question mark submissions from last week:

Last week, I invited paid subscribers to post the first two paragraphs of their manuscripts and promised to provide feedback regarding the red and green question marks on the first twenty submissions. (You’ll have to read that post to understand the question mark reference.) There were a lot more than twenty submissions, and I highly suggest going back to the post and looking at the suggestions I made to those first entries. It’s thrilling to see the different projects we’re all working on and such fun to read their teasers—without exception, all the entries I commented on made me want to keep on reading. There is great stuff happening in the comments section to that post; congratulations to all who shared and thank you especially to the people who took time to complement others on their writing and their stories. Big gratitude to everyone who joined me in that feedback exercise!

Now on to Meghan Markle.

First of all, a disclaimer. If you admire Meghan Markle, I don’t suggest reading on. While I personally find Meghan Markle a supremely attractive person and think she has elegant taste, she has always bugged the crap out of me. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to explain why, especially because I’m sensitive to the fact that some of you enjoy her, but I do find it necessary to explain why her new show— “With Love, Meghan”—breaks several cardinal rules of prescriptive memoir.

Wait, but “With Love, Meghan” is a TV program, it isn’t a memoir? What are you saying?

What I’m saying is that lifestyle television programs are basically prescriptive memoir in a visual format, thus the rules for the literary medium apply to TV, too.

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Accordingly, I’d like to run you through what I think Meghan does wrong in her new series from a memoir point of view so that you wont make the same mistakes in your own nonfiction writing.1 Are you ready? Here we go.

The 3 things Meghan Markle gets wrong about prescriptive memoir in her new Netflix show

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I want to start off with some writing-related opportunities and news.

• The Madrid-based independent bookstore “Desperate Books” is running the Prize for short fiction with the most amazing jury I’ve ever seen. First prize takes home 2000 euros, a week’s residency at the glorious Civitella Ranieri Foundation, a manuscript assessment and a sit-down with the literary agent Ed Wilson. You can read submission guidelines here. Submissions stay open until April 13th.

• Marketing expert is offering a scholarship(s) to her “12 weeks to book launch success program” for writers from traditionally under-represented voices in publishing. The next course kicks off February 24th. Click here to learn more about the program and to apply for the scholarship.

• My destination writing workshop Turning Points is now open for applications! We accept people writing (and thinking about writing) in nonfiction, memoir and fiction. Though this is an application-based program, we don't judge off writing samples. Your ability to be a meaningful member of an intimate group is more important than your CV. Learn about our program and apply through my website. (Applications stay open until May 1st for our October 18-25th workshop in New Mexico. Thanks to the generosity of alumni, we have two partial scholarships available this year.)

Now to the subject at hand: Audiobooks!

This week, I wrote the following note which continues to engender discussion here on Substack

A few people responded with questions regarding audiobooks in general, and because I have a whole chapter dedicated to audiobooks in Before and After the Book Deal (the book my Substack’s based on), I thought I’d share it with you. You can listen to it via the link at the top of this article or you can read the transcript. (A huge sheet of snow falls off my roof during the recording—sorry about that particular sound.) The chapter covers:

• The general landscape of audiobook acquisitions.

• Auditioning to read your own audiobook.

• The reality of recording from different authors’ points of views.

• Information on creating your own audiobook independently or via Amazon.

The chapter is free to listen to above.

What follows are some updated thoughts and tips that I have about audiobooks since auditioning for and successfully narrating two of my books, myself.

My top five thoughts on all things audiobook-related, especially if you want to narrate the book or produce it independently:

Read more

Hello and thank goodness it is Friday and that January—which has been four months long—is handing the baton to February.

This post marks the conclusion of our January querying intensive. Before we get into today’s post on decoding agent rejections, I want to remind everyone what we covered this past month, and list additional resources for querying writers.

Topics covered in our January 2025 querying intensive:

• Week one: We discussed how to write a query letter for any genre in 2025.

• Week two: We went over query letter do’s and don’ts.

• Week three: A marathon Q&A session on all things querying. Be sure to read the questions and my answers—there’s a goldmine of information there, plus, you’ll find people who are going through the same thing you are. Solidarity in querying! Querying is hard.

• Week four: Decoding agent rejections. (That’s today!) What does “not right for my list” actually mean? Ditto, “I just didn’t connect with the material.” ??? I’m going to be blunt about rejection subtext, so buckle up.

Additional resources for querying writers:

I’m obsessed with helping writers query successfully. Here are classes I’ve developed and past posts devoted to querying that you might find helpful. Share with your querying friends!

• Query Writing masterclass: I’m super proud of this class I created that leads you—online and at your own pace—through everything you could possibly want to know about querying. From do’s and don’ts, formatting tips, making your author platform and author bio look more impressive than you feel it is, suggesting urgency and plot in memoir and finding the right title for books of any genre, this class covers it all. We use numerous examples from actual querying writers in this three-hour class, plus there are take home exercises to help improve your letter. You can sign up for the course through my website. (I will send you the course material when I get your registration.) If you are a paid subscriber, there is a discount code for the class after the paywall below.

• How many rejections should you stomach before giving up? This post is based on a subscriber’s question and includes candid advice on when to persist, when to revise, and when to move on to something else. (Never give up! I believe in taking time off, or pivoting to something else, but I don’t believe in giving up.)

• Re-querying agents with revised material: Also based on a subscriber’s question, this detailed post walks you through how “changed” your manuscript needs to be before you can send it to an agent you already queried (and who turned it down).

• Querying strategies when the world is really messy: I wrote this post in 2022 but the world is still a mess. It explains the rejection pyramid and shares general querying strategies (spoiler alert: my suggestion is to query in small batches.) Lots of reader questions answered in this one.

• Preparing your book’s title for the query circuit: The title of your book needs to do some serious heavy lifting when you go out on the query circuit. Sometimes, it’s better to query with a title that is communicative and storytelling-driven (and maybe a little obvious) rather than something opaque and poetic. This post tells you why.

• Does your author bio suck? It won’t after you read this.

• How to use your comp titles to make your project shine. Honestly? A killer book title and the right comps (used correctly) can get you through the door. Here’s how and why.

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Are you rejected? Is there still hope? Understanding your rejections on the query circuit.

After last week’s Q&A session, I promised to summarize the urgent questions. What most people are struggling with is disorientation: not knowing whether they’ve actually been rejected by an agent or what a rejection means. Accordingly, I’m going to share a candid breakdown of what rejections mean between the lines. I’ve written about this in a gentle manner in the posts above, but today I’m going to be extremely blunt.

When agents send rejections, they tend to use language that is so vague, it can leave writers confused as to whether or not they’ve actually been rejected.

Best of luck placing your work elsewhere.

We’ll be rooting from the sidelines.

This isn’t right for my list.

I’m going to decode the most frequent phrases for you. I’m also inviting people to share rejection phrases in the comments and I’ll help decode those, too. I’m interpreting the phrases for all genres of writing—this isn’t just for fiction.

Ready? Here we go.

What agent rejections say versus what they actually mean: Courtney Maum’s extremely candid breakdown.

Rejection phrase 1: “Ultimately, I didn’t connect with the voice as much as I hoped to.”

What this rejection means:

Read more

What a week we’ve had behind us. For everyone affected directly, relationally, and psychosomatically by the Los Angeles fires, you are in my heart. GoFundMe.org has created a centralized hub of verified donation efforts to help those in need in California, and this Google Doc (created by the Mutual Aid Network of LA) has a list of shelters and animal centers, along with volunteer opportunities.

On the topic of water (or lack thereof), I want to share a discovery that is making the internet rounds about artificial intelligence, the plague known as “AI.” It takes AI eight ounces of water to generate a response to basic questions (the more complicated your question, the more electricity and water AI needs to use). I was horrified to learn this—I’ve enjoyed generating images for this Substack via AI and I’ve found ChatGPT to be a great research assistant, but that’s a bottle of water per result, so I won’t be availing myself of AI anymore. If you use Google as your search engine, you’ll see that AI results now show up first in search results. To override this nuisance, you want to include “-AI” at the end of your search term.1 Right now, this manual entry is the only way I’ve found to stop Google from wasting water when I’m looking something up that is absolutely not worth wasting water for.

It’s mind-blowing that so many California-based tech companies are forcing water and energy-gobbling artificial intelligence upon us when California is literally on fire? It’s hard, in 2025, to be shocked by hypocrisy and greed, but I’m actually shocked.

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Moving on to further challenges in the world of publishing.

Querying is hard. Querying takes grit, savvy, an endless bounty of patience. And it can take many, many rounds over (I’m sorry!) many, many years. Which is why we are in this together over January, during a mini querying intensive. Last week, we looked at everything a query letter should contain in 2025.

This week? It’s query do’s and don’ts.

I very much wanted to organize my “do’s” and “don’ts” into a table format, but Substack doesn’t offer a cell-grid as a tool, and taking screenshots of tables makes it hard for some to read, so, I’ll do my best to make the below list legible. To avoid this being the longest Substack essay ever, you’ll find hyperlinks to previous articles I’ve written about querying to make this entry as comprehensive as possible.

I’m separating these best practices into three components: Conceptualizing the query letter, preparing it, and following up after it’s been sent.

Step 1: Conceptualizing the letter as a whole:

In which we think through our letter before we type it up.

Don’t include the entire synopsis of your story and/or project in your query letter.

Do tease just enough of the story that the agent has to ask for pages—there should be a question posed in your query letter that the agent has to read some of the manuscript to answer. Querying necessitates just the right balance of telling and withholding, so make sure you get that balance right.

Don’t assume you have the right book title to query with just because your work-in-progress has had this name for a long time.

Do ask yourself whether your book title is doing as much heavy lifting as possible in the storytelling department to help the agent grasp the stakes and setting from the opening of your letter. A savvy title will allow the agent to envision your book cover by the letter’s end. A shoddy book title will leave the agent wondering why the book is named what you have named it. Don’t be shoddy this year! Aim for savviness instead.

Don’t self-deprecate.

Do position yourself as a capable emissary for your book. Modern authors are expected to be engaged (and engaging) ambassadors for their books in the real world and the virtual one, shilling their wares, going on podcasts, penning vulnerable personal essays, and generally being extroverted (or faking extroversion) for about 1.5 years during pre-pub, pub and post-pub, after which point they can crawl back into their caves and write another book. Accordingly, agents are looking for professionalism and confidence in our query letters. While reading about your project, agents are going to ask themselves:

“Can I get this person lecture gigs or are they unable to speak in front of crowds?”

“Can I trust that this potential client would do a good job on NPR?”

“Will this writer use the ‘cc’ option incorrectly on emails to their publisher and cause me tons of stress?”

“Is this the kind of person I can trust to go out on book tour and not internally combust?”

If your letter has undercurrent of Eeyore-ism (“I know you probably don’t have time to hear from a nobody like me,” “I don’t have any fancy publications so I probably can’t compete,” “I know I’m older than you probably want your debut authors to be,”) you are handing agents a reason to agree that you’re not their ideal client. They already have a hundred reasons to reject queries from the slush pile, so don’t help them reject yours!

Don’t hide your lack of publications out of shame.

Do the aspirational pivot instead.

This is one of my favorite tricks for query letter writing, the aspirational pivot:

Read more

I want to start with a welcome to new subscribers. I’m thrilled to have you here, especially at the start of a New Year when so many of us are either gearing up to meet a goal, or perhaps unburdening ourselves of a goal that has become meaningless, toxic, or is bringing frustration instead of joy. I’m proud of the supportive and dedicated community we’ve built where people want the best for one another, because rising tides, can, in fact, lift a lot of boats. To that end, some housekeeping:

• Commenting will always be a privilege reserved for paid subscribers. This helps keep the comment section a safe and positive space for me and others that use it.

• Respectful disagreement is okay, but generally, I like to run a pleasant ship. Writing and publishing is hard and it’s only getting harder, so I won’t tolerate people in the comments being mean to other writers, squashing people’s dreams, or stomping around like holy know-it-alls. When you post in the comments, please remember that you are interacting with real, hard working humans who want desperately with all their beings to be published, to get their stories out into the world. Please speak to others (and me!) with consideration and civility.

• If you decide that you don’t want to be here, at the top of each emailed post in blue there is a button reading “Unsubscribe.” You don’t need to email me to have me unsubscribe you, nor do you need to email me to let me know you are unsubscribing.

That’s pretty much it for housekeeping! Let’s get to the Q-word.

Given that it’s a new year and many of you will be reading this with renewed inspiration and energy to tackle writing goals, I thought we might spend most of January talking about querying1. I don’t always break months out into themes, but this January, I want to. Here’s how it will go:

• This week we’ll explore components of a competitive query letter in 2025.

• Next week, I’ll compile a list of do’s and don’ts regarding querying that go beyond the letter itself to general etiquette.

• Week three, I’ll do a Friday office hours where paid subscribers can write in with query-writing related questions. If you want to participate in that Q&A, you can upgrade with this button.

  Upgrade to Q&A

• If I think it’s helpful or necessary, I’ll compile a round-up of the most popular questions or confusion points with my opinions and answers.

And then we’ll move on to other topics! If you aren’t in the querying trenches, don’t worry— I’ll share other content this January as well.

By the way, if you are REALLY in the thick of it with querying and submissions, you might enjoy these online masterclasses I offer to illuminate why writers aren’t getting the “yes”s that they want:

• Query Writing 2.0: How to get an agent in a competitive market

• Hook them from Page One: Why your opening pages are important and how to get them right

• What’s wrong with my book: A revision masterclass

These can be signed up for directly through my website and I’ll email the video and supporting materials once I receive your registration. Some of these classes are discounted for the new year that we’re in.

What does a query letter need to contain in 2025?

A query letter is an author’s attempt to pitch their current project (generally a novel, memoir, memoir-in-essays, short story collection, anthology, graphic novel or graphic memoir, or book proposal) and themselves to a literary agent who will (if they choose to represent the author) aim to sell the project to an editor.

These days, query letters are nearly exclusively sent via email. (I’m old enough that I sent query letters via post when I was starting out and received responses in actual envelopes! Pretty crazy, huh?)

Query letters are meant to be succinct distillations of:

1. Your book and its genre, subject matter, plot and saleability (meaning, why would total strangers want to buy this book?).

2. Your ability to be a team player on a publishing team and an ambassador for your book.

3. Your writing experience.

To that end, query letters should be concise. Four to five paragraphs max.

Most people think the goal of a query letter is to win the author a book deal. But that’s not right. That’s the end goal; that’s the dream! But the purpose of a query letter is to seduce the agent into asking to read pages. That’s it. That’s the most a query letter can do—get the agent to ask for chapters or the entire manuscript. After that, the onus falls to your manuscript (and platform, I’m afraid) to complete the wooing.

Query letters can be written in a variety of tones and generally should be similar to the energy of the manuscript. I have a three-hour class that teaches you how to write a query letter, but a useful formula for query writing is this:

Who needs to accomplish what by when, where, and why? (And why am I the person to write it?)

I don’t care if you are writing a cookbook or a memoir or a memoir that’s a cookbook,2 a literary novel or a commercial one, if you can’t apply this formula to your project, it’s often because your project has no stakes, timelieness, or plot. You need one of these three things to get past the red rope of publishing. Life will be easier for you if you have all three, but you can get by with one.

Once you have the answer to the above formula, there are certain components that need to be in your query. They don’t need to appear in the order I’m presenting them, but they do need to appear.

Here are the components I think all query letters should have in 2025, regardless of genre:

Read more

Today’s post is a follow-up video to Wednesday’s post about revision. Revision can feel never-ending, like a tremendous muddy slog, and when we don’t have an agent yet or we’re getting lots of rejections, it can sometimes feel pointless. As with all things Before and After the Book Deal, I’m about keeping things manageable, upbeat, and even fun. That’s why this video shares a change of heart I’ve had in my attitude toward revision. I do hope that you like it. If you’re in the revision trenches, like I am, you might find these past posts and resources useful:

• How to accomplish a massive revision without losing your mind

• The logline as revision tool

• How to write a beat sheet to tame unruly work

• Is my novel submission-ready? (That’s last Wednesday’s post.)

• What’s Wrong with My Book: A revision masterclass (This is a three-hour online masterclass I teach— the video of the class is discounted to $39. If you’re interested in it, send me a DM!)

In the meantime, I hope you like this video featuring the novel-revising top bun that I’ll be wearing until I get this manuscript into perfect shape.

This video is free but it takes energy and time to make and share. If you enjoy my video posts and feel called to back my efforts to make writing and publishing less opaque and more joyful, please consider supporting my work with a paid subscription.

Upgrade to support

In the comments, feel free to share your own thoughts about revision. How can we change our mindsets around immense revisions and go from “What a drag that I have to do this; what a bummer that I haven’t gotten this right yet,” to “It’s so interesting that my characters still have more to tell me. What a lucky writer I am that I get to listen.”

And thank you for listening to me!

Courtney

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Ready? Set? Submit! Wait, am I really ready? How can I possibly know?

There’s nothing easy about deciding when your manuscript is ready to query to literary agents—nothing easy about it at all. In most cases, it will just be you, the manuscript, and perhaps some beta readers—you won’t generally have a literary professional on your side when you start querying. Your manuscript either finds an agent on the query circuit, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t find an agent, either there is something off with the timing or marketability of the book, or the problem is your manuscript—the writing isn’t quite there yet or it’s overlong and convoluted. It will be hard, at this stage of the process, to discern why your manuscript didn’t find an agent—often, you’ll just have to keep revising and querying in the relative dark. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: publishing isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes perseverance and heroic amounts of stamina (plus a smidgen of denial).

So deciding when a book is ready to go out on submission should be easier, right? (“Querying” is when you’re searching for literary agents to represent your project; “submission” is when your literary agent sends your book out to an editor [or editors] in hopes of landing a book deal.) At the submission level, you have an agent, the agent has read your material (and perhaps helped you revise it), and when the agent deems the manuscript ready, they’ll prepare a submission list of editors and start sending your manuscript out. Easy peasy, right? Nope. Whether this is a writer’s first time on submission or sixth (that’s my case), it’s never easy—or obvious—to judge whether an agented manuscript is ready for editors or needs just one more revision. I put that in italics because there’s no such thing as “one more revision.” Revision is a lifestyle. It never really ends.

An update from the front lines of my own novel revision: that’s exactly where I am right now; the “one more revision” stage. I’d hoped we would be ready for submission this December, but the gauntlet has come down from both my husband and my agent, the only people who read my early drafts: I need one more revision before we can go out. And it’s kind of a big revision, given that many items need to be addressed, streamlined, elevated, cut. Thankfully, there aren’t any structural changes this time around, but still I’m looking at 6 weeks worth of work minimum; possibly two months.

Am I upset that I have to revise this book again? On Friday, I have a little video coming to explain my feelings about this final revision. Spoiler alert: it involves my husband, a clipboard, and our couch. But until Friday when that video airs, I’ll share that I’m not upset, because I’m clear-eyed about what it takes to sell a novel to big five editors in this current market and I can see that my novel’s not quite there yet, according to my own criteria. Pray tell, what is this criteria? I’m glad you asked.

The eight elements your novel must have to stand a fighting chance with Big 5 editors in 2025

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know I publish happily with different partners: I have self-published (thanks, Troy Book Makers!), I’ve published with micro-presses (hi there, Cupboard Press); Indies (Tin House! Catapult!); I have published an Audible original (Jeff Bezos, it’s complicated); and I have novels out with Penguin Random House (Simon & Schuster and Putnam imprints, but both times with the same editor).

Before I start writing a new novel, I know whether I’m aiming for an indie partner or a big editor, and this time—with this novel—I’m going for the Big Five. I haven’t published with the big lads since 2017—I’ve done three indie books since then—so this could be something of a commercial relaunch for me and thus, the stakes are high. When we finally do go on submission, we’ll be submitting in an ultra competitive market during a Trump regime which—because of Trump’s daily histrionics and need for endless drama and attention—will mean even less room for book coverage and book reviews, which makes publishers less optimistic about securing coverage for new titles. Paper and ink remains expensive AF so publishers—the big ones—are going to prioritize their bottom lines over artfulness and craft. Editors are busier than ever, which means they have less time to edit, which means that even someone at my level needs to be turning in the tightest of tight manuscripts, which is why I have been revising this dang novel for nearly a year. These are general considerations for Big 5 publishing partners. Here are further considerations for people hoping to go on submission with novels, specifically, in the year ahead:

8 things your novel must have to enjoy a fighting chance with Big 5 editors in 2025

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It very well might be the mission of my life to help writers push back against the frankly outdated and unhelpful insistence that writers-who-want-to-be-authors must spend most of their creative output and energy building an online presence. It’s just not a helpful directive. In fact, it’s meaningless. “Get an article to go viral!” “Build an army on Substack!” “Start a podcast!” Okay, but…how do we do this? Why do we do this? Where is the data that such enormous extra labor works?

Having a presence online does matter if you want to break into publishing: I do think that is true. But equating “platform” with a given amount of followers does not publishing success, make. Today, I want to introduce three ways to think about platform that could result in joyful and impactful human relationships instead of an arranged marriage with your phone.

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I’ll be using my direct lived experience to support these three perspectives because I took a circuitous, off-beat path to publishing that might be inspiring to some. I don’t have an MFA. I went to college but I didn’t study English there—I studied Comparative Literature and worked in French translation. I didn’t take a writing workshop until I was in my thirties. In my twenties, I lived in France and had no writing friends. I wrote alone, revised alone. I read books alone and discussed them with no one. I got an agent early in my twenties for a novel I’d written in my free time before work, but I did not get my first book deal until I was nearly 34. For someone who has published 5 books, I don’t actually have an impressive following on either Twitter or Instagram, and the community I’ve built on Substack occurred after the publication of my fifth book.

While I’m lucky that I broke into publishing before gatekeepers started insisting that new authors come with a zillion followers, I’ve been publishing long enough to tell you that a robust online following is a flawed way to judge whether someone deserves representation and a book deal. Being discoverable online is important—no doubt about that. But having followers for the body count is not only tacky and insipid: it might not lead to sales. If I’ve learned anything about having a vibrant author life, it’s more important to have “1000 true fans” than 10,000 bots.

On the topic of 1,000 true fans

Despite researching the answer, I’m not sure who first coined the concept of “1000 true fans” but the idea—at least in publishing applications—is that if you can reach a point in your career where there are 1,000 real people out there who will spend money on your books, drive out to your lectures, talk about your work to other people and basically exist online and IRL as your true supporters—than you can’t do much better than that. You can’t do much better than that, literally. At a certain point, it doesn’t matter if you have 10,000 or 30,000 followers or even more than that— unless you are Beyoncé or Taylor Swift or Michelle Obama—it’s going to be hard to gain more than 1000 true fans no matter how high your follower count climbs.

If you have an author friend with a big following, ask them how many pre-orders they sold for their last book. If the same friend has a substantial following here on Substack, ask how many subscribers pay for their content. The numbers will surprise you. The writer and comic book author is consistently transparent about his free-to-paid conversion rate and—being the mensch that he is—shared via direct message that he has 44,764 free subscribers and 938 who pay. This right here, folks, is the “1000 true fans” adage in action. (Please consider subscribing to Russell’s newsletter, The Author Stack where he is delightful and delightfully lucid about growth strategies on Substack.)

Earning yourself one thousand true fans is a meaningful, needle-moving accomplishment that will take hard work and time. But judging from my own experience, getting there requires:

1) Doing something that people can celebrate and follow.

2) Having human friends in the same industry you’re trying to break into.

The good news is that both these things are pleasurable pursuits that will net you quality content and quality friends. In the rest of this post, I’m going to show you how I built a true network of readers by tackling my knowability, discoverability, and readability year by year. Please put on your seatbelt for this stroll down memory lane.

#1 Gaining Knowability as a Writer (or: making human friends)

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But since I’ve been deep (very deep) in French vacation mode, I have a few announcements before we can talk craft.

• Need a web designer? And a discount? At Little Lion Creative, founder Emily Homonoff provides web design (and redesign) and branding services for the curious and creative. Clients are authors, practitioners, small businesses, and anyone who's dedicated to their craft. Email emily@littlelioncommunications.com for more information, and mention this post to receive 10% off services for first time customers! 

• New podcast alert! Substack’s own has launched a podcast, and I’m on episode 04, talking about publishing secrets. I think my episode goes live next week but in the meantime, you can listen to Substack’s beloved discussing the intersection of art and advocacy.

• Want to join me in Mexico next February? Que buenas noticias! I’m part of the faculty for the 2025 San Miguel Writers’ Conference in Mexico! They’ve got early bird pricing going on until August 31st if you’d like to escape with me to San Miguel in February. I’ll be teaching one class on memoir writing and one on boosting platform and discoverability, plus, I’ll be taking appointments for private consulting sessions on any topic of your choice. If you do enroll, and you’d like to arrange a one-on-one consultation with me in Mexico, you can reach me at thequerydoula (at) gmail (dot) com to do so.

Please note: these private consultations will take place outside of the conference and will not be affiliated with it, nor will they be listed on the conference website. Pricing will match what is listed on my website.

• August AMA: Thank you to everyone who asked a question in last week’s AMA session! I’m getting through your questions slowly, but thoughtfully. If you want to ask a question this month about anything having to do with publishing or writing but you’re not a paid subscriber, it’s easy to upgrade. And don’t forget to look through everyone’s questions and my answers: there are some great dialogs going on and lots of confusion getting less confused!

Upgrade to ask a publishing question

• September memoir class approaching! In September, I’m holding the penultimate Turning Points masterclass, and this one is on all things memoir! You can sign up through my website www.courtneymaum.com/courses . If you can’t join us live, no problem— I’ll send out the video and transcript after the class to everyone who enrolls. If you have a memoirist friend who is struggling with rejection, this would make a thoughtful gift. Remember: paid Substack subscribers get a discount to all Turning Point classes! The discount code will come right after the paywall in this post.

Now back to our regular programming!

Should I be writing an essay collection instead of a memoir?

When you decide to write about your life, or a certain period or event you lived through, many people jump to writing a memoir without giving consideration to other memoir forms. There are so many kinds of memoirs (fictionalized memoirs, reported memoirs, hybrid memoirs, experimental memoirs…) but today, I want to focus on the memoir-in-essays.

In my experience, essay collections are the right choice for writers in the following four situations. Let’s learn what those are.

Four reasons your project might work better as an essay collection than as a memoir:

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As promised, I’m following our “Craft from the Couch” discussion with bestselling author M.L Rio about deadlines with some thoughts of my own on Time Management.

Over the winter, I taught a class on Time Management so some of you will be familiar with the techniques I’m going to mention. To me, time management is mostly about managing energy and emotions and erecting boundaries that you encourage others to respect. If you don’t have time to read this entire post today, those are my trade secrets.

If you do have time, these are the elements of time management we’ll be looking at after the paywall:1

• How to understand what you should be spending time on

• How to understand who you should/shouldn’t be spending time with

• Determining your identities and how to protect them

• Energy blocking: what it is and how it works

• How to write during the time you’ve set aside for writing

Please note: the video of the three-hour Time Management class I taught is available for purchase. Simply write me at the querydoula (at) gmail (dot) com for special pricing. In the class, I share unique, effective techniques that will change the way you approach your down time, work and social life, allowing you to liberate more space (emotionally and physically) to do creative work.

Let’s get down to business. We’ll tackle free time, first.

Time management tip #1: Managing your free time

When we’re young, time is a renewable energy source. Time feels so abundant, there is even time to waste! But as we get older (I’m 45 myself), time becomes a luxury and many of us—writers especially—have to spend time defending the time we have to write.

To me, this is an argument for spending your time wisely, which means not wasting time on activities and people who aren’t filling your cup

When I work with clients to improve their productivity, I have them draft a simple list of “likes” and “dislikes” in several spheres: the domestic sphere, the social sphere and the professional realm.

Once we have those worksheets filled, I’ll guide them through the “dislike” column and discuss how to eliminate wasted time and energy so that the person can spend more time doing what they like. My Time Management class will walk you through exactly how to do this2, but here are two screenshots from my own worksheets.

First up, you’ll see my professional “likes and dislikes” list. The yellow circles represent items I feel I can act on, protect against, and improve.

And here, you’ll see the resolutions that I set after examining my professional likes and dislikes:

In the above screenshot, I’m working through professional pressures I’ve felt over the past few years to:

1) accept invitations to teach at writers conferences.

2) find a speaking agent to boost the amount of paid speaking gigs I do.

But if I compare these pressures to my initial list of professional likes and dislikes, I see that both line items are going to bring more dislikes into my life than likes. Accordingly, I came up with a way to teach more and to speak more, but on my own terms.

This exercise helps differentiate what you want (or think you want, or perhaps envy about others) from what brings you happiness and ease. (I’ll walk you through exactly how to craft this exercise and the insights you can glean from it in the course itself.)

New subscribers: Interested in reading the rest of this post? I’m offering a special “dog days of summer” discount for paid subscriptions to my Substack. Click this link to use this offer to unlock the rest of this post and my archives.

https://courtneymaum.substack.com/dogdays

#2: Understanding who you should (and shouldn’t) be spending time with

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Hello my writer friends, and Happy Wednesday.

This week (and probably next), I want to talk about the problems in our writing that cause problems for us and what we can do about both fronts. (By the way, have you seen the French dark comedy about woke culture called PROBLEMOS? It’s so flipping funny. Highly recommend.)

I am hyperproductive in the making of problems in the manuscripts I write. Not fun and useful problems that create tension for my characters and move the plot along, but existential, mushy, shape-shifting problems that make me feel that my writing is collapsing like a house of cards.

Us writers, we are in the business of making problems for our characters. What puts us out of business is when we make problems for ourselves. When the problems in our narratives hold us back as the work’s creator, that is when the gears wear out and start to grind. Time and time again, especially with fiction (memoir is a little easier because I don’t need to invent things), I commit the following mistakes in my initial drafts that impair my forward progress:

• Overcomplicating the plot (Which overcomplicates everything and makes the project virtually impossible to pitch out loud or in writing.)

• Cerebral-izing the stakes (I make the stakes too brainy and interior, instead of action-focused and supportive of the plot.)

• Getting in the weeds about logistics (You want to hear exactly how a person crossed a room, how many steps it took for them to get there, and what they thought and touched along the way? See my early drafts!)

• Moving my characters around too much geographically (In the first draft of my novel TOUCH my heroine was in an airplane every day on a lecture circuit. This made it impossible for her to form connections with anyone, nor could we get attached to a specific location or immerse ourselves into a setting other than the inside of a commercial plane. What was I thinking? I wrote the entire book this way for several drafts!)

These four pitfalls are specific to me, my process, and my particular brand of writing, but they lead to hard, dark places that all creators encounter at some point:

1. The project stops bringing us joy.

2. The project finds us more frequently in a state of flux than flow.

3. The project has limited chances at success. (“Success” in my case currently means selling the project to an editor, but in the past it has meant not placing an essay, not getting a short story accepted, not getting a grant or prize that I applied to, not getting an agent, not getting chosen for a panel, you name it: rejection has many forms!)

All three of these states suck. I have been stuck in the first two quagmires for a month now but glory glory hallelujah I have finally found my way out by unsaddling one of my main characters from a plot line that was doing me—and her, and my novel—far more harm than good.

Do you know how I finally came to the decision that the character arc I’d spent a year building for a primary character was wrong? By pitching the book out loud to someone other than my agent, who’s been my sounding board for problems until now. The person I pitched my book to was my husband, and I could tell from his expression as I got into the wife’s timeline (in my novel, the husband gets one POV, the wife gets the other) that the woman’s storyline was as convoluted and static as I feared.1 Have you noticed I haven’t sent out any posts with prescriptive writing advice recently? Partly it’s because my brain has been sluggish post-surgery, but also it’s because I’ve been quicksanded by WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS WOMAN’S CONVOLUTED AND LETHARGIC STORYLINE!!!!

While making the decision to burn this woman’s story down (I’m not burning her down, she’s getting a different arc), I was forced to face five truths that I know about successful writing projects, but hate acting on.

I thought I’d share these truths so you can stare them down in the privacy of your own struggles, and decide whether they are something that you, too, need to address.

Before we get to these five truths, I want to mention that we’ll be tackling narrative problems and “stuckness” in my June 5th revision masterclass. Throughout the course we’ll tackle problems that make a project of any genre unsellable, and we’ll have a special section devoted to memoirs, as memoirs are so dang hard to get right! This is the last masterclass I’m teaching under the Turning Points umbrella until the fall. Please join us here. (Scroll down to sign up for the June 5th class and move through checkout to register.)

Can’t make it for the live class? No worries. Video is always available for everyone who enrolls. Want to watch one of our past classes? Email me at thequerydoula (at) gmail (dot) com for pricing.

Without further ado, here are the 5 truths I accepted before demolishing a character arc that I’ve been working on for an entire year; the truths that made me realize that this woman’s storyline was bringing down my entire book.

The 5 Truths about writing that I wish weren’t true, but are:

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Did you all do the eclipse? In my part of Connecticut, the eclipse was super duper visible until 3:10pm when the eclipse was supposed to peak, at which point we couldn’t see jack sh*t. I very much enjoyed all the radio stations playing eclipse-themed songs on my drive home though— that was a highlight.

I’m beyond excited for our query writing class next week. I’m still looking through the query letters that enrolled students shared to pick a few to workshop during class— thanks for your patience as I look through these great letters! If you want to join us, we’re nearly at capacity, but we have a few spots left! You can register for the query class here, and if you can’t join us live on April 17th, no worries: the video will be shared with all participants after class and video-watchers can follow up with a question about the material presented.

Sign up for the query class

Today, we’ll be discussing the preparatory things people should do before they start a newsletter. A few weeks back, I ran a class on all things platform1, and understandably, a lot of the questions and concerns were on the topic of newsletters. It’s my impression that people—both gatekeepers and other writers—are out there telling writers to “just go start a newsletter” like it’s an application you can download, and just start winning at.

I ran through my own newsletter timeline in the platform class, but preparation and honesty are concepts that I care about, plus, I want you to set yourself up for realistic (and realizable!) success, so I’ll share that timeline again, here.

When I decided I wanted to have a newsletter, I began it on Mailchimp in 2019. Originally, it was called “Maumalog” and I wrote about whatever the heck I felt like. But more and more, especially with the release of my publishing guidebook, Before and After the Book Deal in 2020, I found myself writing about all things publishing. The thing was, I had a lot of friends and family members subscribing to my Mailchimp who weren’t in the writing world, and I didn’t want to bore them with publishing-related posts. So I hired someone (she’s not doing this work anymore, otherwise I’d name her) to help me set up “segments” in my Mailchimp so that people could opt in for Maumalog content (my personal musings) or publishing advice that I called “Get Published, Stay Published,” or, if they wanted to, they could sign up for both.

I ran my Mailchimp for a few years. I got enough followers that it became expensive to maintain— at the end, I was paying over $70 a month to publish my own content. It was actually my agent who told me to go to Substack; she thought it was absurd that I was paying to publish my own advice. (Best nudge you ever gave me, dear Rebecca!)

Because I’m technically inept, and also of an age where I’ve learned that paying experts to do things I’m bad at pays off in the long run, I hired Miller Coffey (they/them) from Bellflower Media to help me migrate to Substack. All praise Miller, because it was Miller who asked me why I wasn’t giving my newsletter the same name as my bestselling guidebook. Wasn’t that creating brand equity confusion? Yes, Miller, it was. Thanks to Miller’s help, I got my first post for “Before and After the Book Deal”—the Substack—live in the spring of 2021.

I brought about 3K subscribers with me from my Mailchimp, which was a great and solid number to start with. I also came to Substack about a year before a tsunami of content creators in the publishing and craft spaces arrived, which certainly helped me carve out and maintain a space for my content.

But me writing about writing started a full decade before I launched a newsletter. The first piece I published about the writing life was “A Field Guide to AWP” which came out via Tin House in 2012. I kept writing about writing, and I kept working on my own writing, and the next publishing-related piece that got a lot of eyeballs was a 2015 Buzzfeed essay called “Why being being a debut author isn’t exactly a dream come true.” (The clickbait title was their doing, not mine ;) At the time the piece went live, I had a novel out with a major publisher and another one en route. I continued writing about publishing in between publishing fiction, nonfiction and short stories of my own. Finally, in 2020, I went big with all my writing thoughts and published the guidebook to the industry that this newsletter is named for in January of 2020.

My point here is the math. I started having real success on Substack in 2022. That’s an entire DECADE after I started writing about my passion topic: what it’s really like to be a published author. For ten entire years, I was pitching and writing and publishing some of my pitches, while working on book-length manuscripts and doing storytelling series and reading series and volunteering to read slush piles at literary magazines and going to conferences and trying to make friends and hustling like my very life depended on it.

My success on Substack didn’t happen overnight. Success doesn’t work like that, and it really doesn’t work like that in the world of writing.

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While it might be hard to hear, it takes a long time to make a newsletter take off, and more than anything else, it takes publishing about your chosen topic outside of your newsletter to build buzz around whatever newsletter you will eventually launch.

A caveat: the following seven tips are for newsletters that focus on a certain topic and come out fairly regularly, not author newsletters which exist to keep you in touch with readers and fans on a sporadic basis or when you have something to promote.

With that said, here are the seven truest things I know about starting a newsletter:

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