I don't *think* heaving face-first into a trash can three days ago disinhibited me so much that I'll answer all your publishing questions in painfully…
26
These things aren't just unnecessary; they indicate to me that an author is still focused on meeting their own emotional needs and hasn't thought enough…
3
Commercial book editors (and readers!) expect authors to play a highly specific role on the page...and authors too often show up to auditions having…
11
Forget that stupid "put on your own oxygen mask" cliché. Please allow me to turn over your seat-back safety card and point out the TRULY useful metaphor…
1

February 2023

This is the single most common, gnarly professional conflict that comes up in book publishing. If you're an author stuck in it right now, here's the…
2
You must read HOW TO TALK SO KIDS WILL LISTEN AND LISTEN SO KIDS WILL TALK if you want to be a Good Art Friend (and effective publishing communicator).
2
A story that is literally about some things I dug up in the woods recently but more figuratively about creative success, criticism, trauma, and becoming…
15

January 2023

Relational energy is real. Our intimate relationships have a material effect on our cognition, and as such, they can make or break a publishing career.
4
If you find your executive function overtaxed by stress--or that part of your brain is feeble by nature--I recommend the opposite approach: make tedium…
11
Hand me a draft manuscript: within minutes, I can generally tell you exactly how the author responds to acute stress. The signs manifest on the page in…
8

December 2022

An end-of-year post in memory of Mike Rose, whose final book, WHEN THE LIGHT GOES ON, will publish on February 28, 2023.
I go particularly deep on the publicity one.
2