The audacity
Who tells other people how to write?
I’ve been on Threads for a while now. While I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in its little algorithmic mind, I have noticed patterns. Shitposting gets more engagement than book-related posting, every time. The random air-travel outrage threads will never go away no matter how many of them you swipe left on. And publishing discourse runs in cycles and is simultaneously predictable and utterly wild.
So before the blowup about the agent who gave her client’s book to her other client to publish,1 there was the kerfuffle about an author2 charging hundreds of dollars for a “guide” to getting a six figure book deal. Plenty of people called this out as predatory for various good reasons, with the overarching theme being that she was selling an outcome—which is something no one can guarantee—rather than a service.
I was struck by the fact that the person running this grift was a debut author who had personally, from what I was able to gather, received only a single book deal in her career. One! Yet she was out here unabashedly claiming she could teach other people how to get what she had. I’m in much the same boat as her—though I’ve released two books, I’ve only signed one deal so far. Imagine! With my extensive3 and wide-ranging4 experience in the publishing industry, all this time I could have been making bank off the hope and ignorance of people a mere rung or two down the ladder from me!5
This newsletter isn’t really about publishing scams, though. The above is just an extreme example of the audacity (title shout-out!) needed to tell others what to do, especially in a creative field where the path to success isn’t always clear. The rules aren’t well defined, so a certain type of person decides to make some up and announce them as gospel. And hey, maybe these people are wrong, but they’re confident about it.
On a benign, non-scammy level, this audacity is present in writers who sell their services as editors or book coaches, or even offer them for free in the form of query reviews or writing advice on social media. Many of these writers don’t have formal credentials in writing or editing. Yet through years of studying and practicing their craft, they’ve developed enough expertise that they feel comfortable saying to people with less experience, or a different kind of experience: This is how you should tell—or sell—a story.
How does a person develop that certainty of being right? I’ve been writing my whole life, publishing for years, and I still feel a twinge of discomfort putting a “This is how you should” out in the world. If anything, I say This is how I do it or This is what has worked for me. I mean, I don’t know your life. I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with your book. Who am I to say I know better how to tell your story than you do?
On the other hand, I’ve published two novels and I read more fiction than like 90% of Americans, so my opinion must count for something. It’s not impostor syndrome6 that stops me from giving prescriptive advice so much as a fear of coming off like those jagoffs on Twitter/X who post engagement bait like “Your inciting incident MUST come no later than 5% into the novel!!” I’ve said before that writing rules are really style trends, e.g. “head hopping” without section breaks was fairly common in novels published before 2000 or so, and I personally would love for it to make a comeback. But I still take in and enjoy craft talk from authors whose advice-giving styles range from “This is how I personally approach this craft issue, YMMV” to “Do this or your book will be bad.” I don’t take everything they say as gospel, but what I’ve learned from them has allowed me to catch things in my own drafts that were, in fact, bad.
My process is fairly intuitive so I’m always impressed when people can consciously break down and take apart the ways in which they make their work better. It’s not leaching storytelling of its “magic” to apply some analysis to it, and can actually be really helpful in excavating problems with a WIP. I won’t lie though, I’m also intimidated by the vulnerability of putting such a huge part of your brain out there.
Plus I know myself and how lazy I can be, and sometimes what I really need is to riff on some YouTube rabbit hole I went down, not take a break from work only to talk about work. I love craft study but I am also bringing that 2002 LiveJournal energy to this space!! That said, I’m always happy to talk to people about writing or publishing. Just don’t expect me to tell you what to do.
Author updates
I’ll be at the Auk Market Book + Art Faire in Gainesville on August 18! I love Auk Market—it offers eclectic art and vintage goods, handmade jewelry and gifts, and is located within Curia on the Drag, a true community space. If you’re in the area, come by and check it out. Most of it will be indoors so we don’t sweat to death!
I also had a lovely afternoon signing books a couple of weekends ago at the shiny new Gainesville Barnes & Noble. I always enjoy face time with readers, the staff was so kind, and manager Jeff would not let me leave without a chai latte! Also I just noticed I have Snoop Dogg’s cookbook behind me in the pic and I love this for myself.
Weird thing I’m researching
Parabiosis, a laboratory technique (fairly common in aging research!) in which two organisms are surgically conjoined so they share circulatory and other physiological systems. Researchers do it to mice and rats not humans but still! Horror movie shit!!7
Reading/watching/listening
BENEATH THE RISING by Premee Mohamed - I really enjoyed her novella THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST and I’m looking forward to diving into this series!
S3 of The Bear has left me with an unhealthy level of investment in the characters’ lives and maybe a tiny bit of birth trauma (my husband during Nat’s birthing scene: “For TV labor, it’s actually pretty realistic! Except she’s not sweating as much as you did”).
If you enjoy my ramblings, you might like my books!
The Other Me, which PopSugar called a “Black Mirror-esque rabbit hole,” is an inventive page-turner about the choices we make and the ones made for us.
When I’m Her asks the question: How far would you go to get even with the woman who ruined your life?
After making her revise it 45 (FOUR. TY. FIVE) times! That’s what keeps gnawing on my brain
Don’t ask me for a link because 2-3 weeks later my brain has erased even the name of this author from my memory. Buuuut there are plenty more scam artists, so be careful out there!
Sarcasm.
Sarcasm.
Sarcasm, ofc.
Which has been going through a reframing—rightly, imo—as a systemic rather than an individual problem, and I personally am all for yeeting “impostor syndrome” as a concept into the sun
There’s an argument to be made that rodents tolerate it much better than humans would, but I still understand what the animal rights folks are on about.
your whole paragraph about how your process feels too "intuitive" to be able to break it down and also how vulnerable it feels to put your brain out there especially!!!!