Archive - Industry Challenges of Before and After the Book Deal

Debuting in community—a conversation with Big Five authors about what publishing is really like

A video conversation with a Simon & Schuster author cohort - plus a summer fiction giveaway!

Jun 4

April 2025

Financial literacy post #02: How I make money as an author_Part 2

When things started working out for me, I kept my day job. Here's why.

Apr 16

Financial Literacy post #01: How I make money as an author

In which I illustrate how many side hustles it takes to stay financially afloat in publishing

Apr 9

March 2025

My top tips for AWP Los Angeles 2025

Practical advice if you're headed to the country's largest writing conference next week.

Mar 21

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

Or: Things you shouldn't do if you're aiming for brand heritage

Mar 12

February 2025

Audiobook palooza

Listen now | Hello and happy Wednesday.

Feb 5

10:53

January 2025

Decoding agent rejections plus a full list of resources for querying writers

Your one-stop-shop for everything you could possibly want to know about querying literary agents in North America, right now.

Jan 31

Query do's and query don'ts for 2025

Best practices and top tips for writers querying in all genres this year and beyond

Jan 15

Everything a query letter should contain in 2025

Part 1 of a January intensive on querying at Before and After the Book Deal

Jan 8

December 2024

I don't feel shame around this anymore

A follow-up video to Wednesday's post about revision

Dec 13, 2024

Is my novel submission-ready?

8 ways to judge whether your fiction manuscript is ready for a Big Five editor to read it

Dec 11, 2024

September 2024

"Knowable." "Discoverable." "Readable": Empowering new ways to think about platform.

Plus: how I built an IRL platform without an MFA.

Sep 25, 2024

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts