Introducing The Savanah Project
An opportunity to watch a book proposal get built behind the scenes
A few months ago, I was contacted by a western influencer I already followed online, @thevelvetspur - a.k.a. Savanah McCarty. I’d started following Savanah when I was writing THE YEAR OF THE HORSES—she was one of several female ranchers whose content I admired; a horse trainer and owner of an equine therapy ranch out in Montana.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Savanah was working on a memoir. She’s had a hypercolor life, and not all of those colors are pretty. Savanah made it through a childhood of abuse and abandonment where she was a ward of the state, and ended up dedicating her twenties to the establishment of a nonprofit equine therapy center for foster children and teens in Northern California. When that nonprofit became so successful it was damaging her mental health, she stepped down as its executive director and traveled to Montana with three of her horses: a state she had always dreamed of living in, where she yearned to start again.
Savanah started writing her book two years ago. But in 2022, she suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a riding accident that made it impossible for her to keep going with the project. That’s why she got in touch with me. With my passion for horses, mental health, and storytelling, it makes great sense for us to partner. I’m also hoping (perhaps hoping against hope in this crazy publishing market) that it will make financial success too, as Savanah is diligently trying to get her life and business off the ground again after her accident left her riddled with debt from neurosurgery and an emergency life flight and rising prices throughout the state have made it hard for her to find secure housing for herself and client horses. (I have to say, having just returned from Bozeman, the money charging through that state right now is terrifying and whatever “affordable housing” looks like there, I certainly didn’t see it. And as for the American medical and health insurance establishments: I have no words.)
I mention these financial details because I’m doing The Savanah Project on spec—it feels important to me that any disposable income Savanah has goes to local people who need mental health support in her community. I’m going to help Savanah build out a book proposal first with me positioned as her co-author, and then, if it sells, I will write it in her place. What’s particularly exciting about this project is that I have a good chunk of pages from her original manuscript which will allow me to identify and channel her true voice. I’m thinking of this collaboration as more of a channeling or a translation project than a ghostwriting partnership, and both Savanah and I are super excited to let you in behind the scenes as we re-build the ladder to her dreams.
Here's what you can look forward to from the Savanah Project section of my Substack:
I’ll be sharing milestones, conundrums, legal issues, new chapters as well as excerpts from Savanah’s original manuscript. Big picture: you’ll watch us expand the scope of Savanah’s original concept (which was envisioned as novella-length) into a commercial memoir pitched via book proposal.1
Should you feel called to support us beyond the scope of your current subscription, there are three ways to do so:
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Most Savanah Project posts will be behind a paywall to help me fund this project—thank you for understanding.
Without further ado, I want to kick things off by showing you how Savanah and I narrowed in on a memoir title and subtitle for our book proposal along with some bonus cover teasers.