Finally some helpful book publishing advice
Writing a book is an emotional minefield. Not only are you doing the hardest intellectual work of your life, but also at regular but random intervals every neurotic thought pattern, self-destructive habit, and mental health challenge you’ve ever had suddenly explodes anew right under your feet. Every feeling you thought you processed, every doubt you’d learned to live with, every fear you thought you faced, they all come back, now turned up to 11. And don’t even think about continuing to repress the feelings you haven’t wanted to feel, because they’ve all picked right now, in the middle of an incredibly high stakes professional situation, to unleash themselves into your subconscious and derail every productive intention you have until you do the painful work of recognizing and dealing with them.
And yet a lot of people do it. They write books and publish them and sometimes write even more books after that. Like every first-time author, I’m ravenous for publishing advice and insight from people who have been navigating this landscape longer than I have. At first I needed answers to “easy” (lol) questions, like how to get an agent or how to write a book proposal. Now that I’m in it, my questions are bigger and scarier and far less google-able. How do I trust my ideas? How do I get comfortable with my limitations? How do I show up, and keep showing up, when my instinct is to run and hide? And especially: Why is this so hard? Is it supposed to be this hard? Is it this hard for everybody? If so, why are they all acting so normal? Am I the only one freaking out over here???
If this is also you, please immediately click here and subscribe to the newsletter How to Glow in the Dark. It’s written mostly by the literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer (not my agent), and it’s one of the only semi-public sources of book publishing advice that actually tackles the emotional challenges of writing a book. I say semi-public because you have to be a paying subscriber for most of it; if you are even book publishing curious, it’s very worth it. Yes, you can find in the archives a lot of great practical advice about proposals and target audiences and author platforms. But it’s also a newsletter that recommends When Things Fall Part by Pema Chödrön as career advice, reframes perfectionism as an act of violence, and answers the question “What is the most significant thing(s) an author can do to make an agent’s job easier?” with a resounding, “Therapy!”
The overarching reality of book publishing Sproul-Latimer addresses is that there is absolutely no guarantees or certainty in anything we do. Authors, agents, editors—we all feel that fundamental uncertainty in different ways, but we all feel it. This is a professional field where you can and probably will work for years on an all-consuming project without knowing if or how much you’ll be paid for it. And honestly that’s kind of the least of it when it comes to the existential groundlessness you’re signing up for. Chronic, unending uncertainty is difficult situation for any human (see: When Things Fall Apart), but especially the anxiety-ridden perfectionists who make up such a large share of professional writers. It’s been a huge relief to read someone I don’t know, and who doesn’t know me, articulate so many of my suspicions and address so many of my worries. It’s good company through the minefield.