Business
A few months ago, my younger daughter, then not-quite-sixteen, requested to drop out of high school.
A rising junior and easily in the top 2% of her class, she had learned from home since March of 2020. Unfortunately, Texas law required all students back in the classroom this fall, pandemic be damned. Despite the way she noticeably bristled each time we drove by the school building and the crying emoji drawn on the calendar square for August 17th, I thought she was resigned to returning.
I was wrong.
After considering every possible objection her father and I could have and preparing counterarguments for each point, she presented her case. With SAT and Texas Success Initiative exam scores qualifying her for college, we could not dispute that high school classes were academically pointless. She couldn’t care less about football rivalries, prom or walking the stage wearing purple and gold in 2023. Attending community college would allow her the flexibility to work, she reasoned, and work would force her to engage with people, something she did not do while surrounded by peers who seemed years younger than she felt. There were the financials to consider, too. Dallas County waives tuition for homeschoolers. That’s two years of free college.
Within a couple of weeks she had seamlessly morphed into a transitional adult with a license, car, Dallas College ID, and a barista job at one of our favorite coffee shops. Her confidence has grown as fast as her bank account.
Traditional schooling may be the most accepted path to getting an education, but there are alternate routes leading to the same destination. Students who are neurodivergent, quirky, have learning difficulties or, who, like my daughter, can’t be challenged in the era of No Child Left Behind, may thrive taking the scenic road alone rather than being funneled from point A to point B by way of crowded expressway.
Her transformation, and the vastly improved mental health that came with it, got me to pondering something in my own life. Why could I embrace her points about education without hesitation, yet I’ve spent decades of my life stuck on the traditional publishing on-ramp, refusing to acknowledge that it may be wiser to circumnavigate the gridlock than wait for it to clear? This stubbornness has persisted even when author friends who had been lucky enough to merge into traffic years ago now reported back that the road was riddled with vicious potholes and that unexpected lane closures often diverted traffic onto the shoulders.
“Sure, I’m on here,” they’d confide, “but only those driving Land Rovers are being invited past the construction right now. I’m in a Honda, so I’m parked, too.”
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image by SEWphisticate
Self-promotion isn’t the most famous naughty s-word, but it can still feel like a bad word to today’s authors. I hate self-promotion, you might say. I’m so sick of talking about myself on social media.With more and more options to reach readers directly comes an expectation that authors will do more and more to reach those readers themselves, often without publisher assistance.
So! How do you sell books without a single self-promotional tweet, post, or video?
Simple. In most cases, you actually shouldn’t be promoting yourself. If the goal is to sell books — or at least make people you don’t know personally curious enough about your book(s) to take action — you are not the product. “Buy my book!” doesn’t work if the reader doesn’t know you or know anything about the book in question.
Instead of self-promotion, think of the path to getting your book in front of readers on social media as a railroad track, with two parallel rails: be yourself, and take yourself out of the equation.
Be yourself. There are lots of names for this, and most of them sound like awful corporate-speak: curation! Branding! But let go of the labels. Being yourself on social media doesn’t mean sharing every last little thing. You’re not going to see Instagram posts from me about taking my car to the mechanic last Tuesday or the ancient celery I just found in the back of my produce drawer. But it means posting or talking about the things that interest you, especially where those things overlap with the books you write. If you’re spending some of your time on social media connecting with people who enjoy reading the books you like to read, chances are that when you have a book of your own to talk about, they’ll enjoy hearing about that too. Which leads to…
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In an earlier post for WU, I wrote about the process of writing my audio-first novel for adults, A Hundred Words for Butterfly, and how it had differed from other novels I’ve written, because of the fact I specifically created it for the audio format. Well, this week the novel has been officially released by its publisher, Spineless Wonders Audio, and is available now for purchase on lots of different platforms, including Google Audio, Kobo, Nook, Libro, Authors Direct, and others. Audible will also follow shortly. It’s been an amazing and exciting process, seeing and hearing the audiobook take shape as narrator (Sarah Kennedy) sound engineer (Echidna Audio) cover designer (Bettina Kaiser) and producer (Spineless Wonders) worked on different aspects of the book. It’s an absolutely wonderful production, making my story, characters and setting come to warm and evocative life, and I hope listeners will enjoy it and take it to their hearts. (You can watch a lovely trailer for it, which features extracts from the narration, here). But today what I want to write about for this post is highlighting the absolutely brilliant marketing strategy that was devised by the Spineless Wonders team, in consultation with me, to create as much buzz as possible around the book in the lead up to its release. And I thought my observations might be of interest and inspiration to other authors, and not necessarily just in relation to audio novels.
In Australia, Spineless Wonders are known and highly respected for their innovative and dynamic approach to publishing, and their marketing strategy for all their books and events has always been focused on imaginative community engagement. And as we worked on our plan for the marketing of A Hundred Words for Butterfly, that engagement became more important than ever, because a large number of Australians, including but not only in our two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, were (and still are) in lockdown due to an outbreak of the Delta strain of Covid19. (All of us working on it were in that boat). So it was even more crucial to come up with great ideas for activities that would offer people something fun, exciting and creative to do even when they were stuck in lockdown. After much discussion, we decided on three main themes/prongs for these.
First was writing, as represented by the #100words4butterfly writing competition, asking people to submit 100-word stories, poems, etc, inspired by four clever prompts linked to motifs in the book. (Prizes included a copy of the audiobook, plus entries published in a special digital magazine.) This comp was framed and run directly by the Spineless Wonders team and attracted lots of entries and great social media engagement, encouraged by striking marketing assets.
Second was a focus on the beautiful and fascinating Northern (or French) Basque country, which is the setting for most of the book. For this, I created intriguing blog posts and videos around what the Basque country, which is where my mother’s family comes from, means to me and my family. These were then shared on […]
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As a debut author not long ago, I was desperately uninformed about who’s who in the publishing world. I knew I’d be working closely with my agent from day one, and ultimately the editor who acquired my debut. What surprised me was that in the months leading up to my book’s release, this circle of key players grew wide (and fast!) No longer were only my agent and editor on phone calls. Soon, these were joined by publicity, marketing, sales…quite overwhelming, to say the least. At the time, I didn’t understand what each team was responsible for, or how they differed from one another (even now, I struggle to understand the difference between publicity and marketing!)
It takes a village, as they say, and my objective today is to summarize each of the (very) important players in the traditional publishing village. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are roles behind the scenes that aren’t listed here, such as finance, distribution, etc. However, I tried to include the players with whom an author is most likely to interact.
Core team: Agent & Editorial
Your agent and editor will be the individuals with whom you work most closely before, during, and after your book’s publication. Below is an overview of these roles.
Agency team
A lion tamer at Bertram Mills Touring Circus, Ascot, 1936. Photo by Edward G. Malindine
Certainly our work is the most important component of an author event. With that in mind, most of us choose what we’ll read with care, incorporating the anticipated audience, reading time allowed, and how much backstory setup is required for a particular passage. Maybe we practice reading aloud and timing ourselves. I know I do.
As a person who has issues with anxiety, I need to feel prepared. Yes, a large part of that is about what I’ll speak about or read. But I also pay more attention than I probably should to my personal presentation.
Below are some of the tricks I found during the pandemic launch of my debut novel. I used these all again for the launch of my second novel, two weeks ago. Note: Many of these are for virtual events, because #covid.
“Pointless fluff!” you might scoff. Perhaps. But for me, using these tools helps me feel prepared, and that takes the anxiety level down a notch.
Sound your best! Publishing Guru Supreme Jane Friedman recommends corded Apple earbuds with mic for good sound if you don’t want to invest in or wear a full-on headset. Keep a glass of water handy in case your voice gets scratchy. I once replayed a recorded interview where I had my volume turned way up and I was irritatingly louder than the interviewer throughout. You might ask your host to run a sound check with you ahead of time, or else ask someone you trust to tell you if your audio equipment needs to be upgraded.
Be aware of ambient noise. I have twice done live radio interviews from my closet, while three power mowers droned away outside the house. Will the air conditioner kick on while you’re talking? Turn it off. Might your landline ring from the table beside you, then broadcast a voicemail? Unplug it. Will your roommate walk through behind you, wearing skivvies, and shout that your puppy just made a mess on the carpet? Put a sign on the door.
Spend some time with your camera. First, be sure it’s quality and that your image isn’t grainy, thanks to old technology. Second, do not ignore camera angle! An adjustable laptop stand is great to set your screen and camera at eye level. If you don’t have one, prop up your laptop on a sturdy stack of books. If you use an external camera, be sure that is at eye level. Nobody wants to look up your nostrils, trust me. Try not to look at the screen while you’re speaking, look at the camera lens. Also, be sure there isn’t a big smudgy fingerprint over the camera lens on your laptop screen.
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I’m going to start today’s post with one of my favorite business words, “expectation”. Yes, I know, I speak of this word often as it comes up sometimes daily for me.
Considering a new marketing effort? Ask yourself, what is your expectation?
Jumping onto a new social media platform, ask yourself what is your expectation?
Just got a nice plug for your book on a great big website, ask yourself what is your expectation?
Good chance your expectation: a) will lead to disappointment as it’s more than the effort was intended to give b) doesn’t equate with the effort whatsoever c) is not realized because you don’t understand what you’ve committed to.
So be sure you’re asking questions. And if you don’t know what questions to ask, say so.
Today, I want to talk social media. With the practice of marketing on social media everyone has an expectation, an opinion, a gripe… But right now, we’ll talk about Facebook groups. I love them and I praise the dedicated readers who have started them. And I praise the savvy and well-meaning authors who have essentially shared their fan bases with other authors. And I say to the authors who have written off Facebook because they dislike it (I get it!), want to focus on one platform (your time is important!), and/or don’t know what they are doing on Facebook (there are people who can help!), please know that Facebook groups can be like that secret club you had when you were a kid. Yes, you’re older now, but isn’t there magic in communicating with people who all love the same thing?
As per my usual, I asked a couple of my friends and trusted colleagues in the industry for some help in answering the questions I’m being asked these days.
1.What would you like authors to know about outreach to group administrators for coverage in their group whether that be group takeover, cover reveals, Facebook live, etc.
Want a cover reveal- Absolutely! But you can’t spring a cover reveal on the admin and want it posted the next day. And please make it easy–Facebook group admins don’t get paid. So please size the graphics for Facebook and Instagram for them. Share the group’s posts if you’re able. Most group admin will also post to their FB pages and Instagram.
If you ask a group for a cover reveal and then never mention the group in your own social media, you took advantage of the group and its reach.
Participate. The authors who participate in Great Thoughts’ Great Readers routinely are the ones who get the most reader interaction. Post your #fridayreads. Comment on other author’s Facebook Lives, takeovers, and interviews.
Cross-Posting…for the love of books, please do not post the same content in various book groups. First, Facebook will mark this as spam. Next, many readers are in many groups. If you put the exact same post (even if you think it is thought-provoking and fabulous), in more than one group, you will not get great interaction. -Andrea Peskind Katz, founder of Great Thoughts’ Great Readers
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We wouldn’t need the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” if people weren’t always doing exactly that. The cover of your book is important! It makes a huge difference to how the book is perceived at every stage of the process, regardless of how your book is published or distributed. And making the most of the cover reveal is something any writer can do.
Fresh off my own cover reveal (about which more later), I thought I’d share a few tips that you can use as guidelines while you’re planning and executing on sharing that powerful first look at the cover of your upcoming book.
Here are three things you’ll want to do:
Plan ahead. When the final cover of your book hits your inbox, it’s tempting to just splash it all over social media immediately! But once it’s out there, it’s out there. Take the time to figure out how and when you want to reveal it and who should be involved. If you have a publisher, they might already have a plan; talk to them and to your agent. We’d all love to have our covers revealed on EW.com, with a built-in audience of millions, but those opportunities are few and far between. Your publisher might tell you to go ahead and let the cover loose on social media, or they might snag a slot with a site like Book Riot or Tor.com. Whatever happens, you’ll want to…
Coordinate. Now this is where the road starts to fork. Coordination will look very different if you’re a debut historical novelist with a cover reveal at a third-party outlet, an experienced self-published romance author pointing traffic to your own website, or a traditionally published author whose imprint is particularly good at coordinating social media promotion among its authors in the same genre. When the cover reveal for my upcoming epic fantasy novel Scorpica went live recently at Tor.com, I was thrilled to have the third-party reveal to get my cover in front of tons of readers of my new genre! But to supplement that, I came up with a couple of easy Canva graphics and emailed them to friends asking them (very nicely) to amplify the reveal on their social media. In some cases, asking your author friends to post on social is the entirety of the reveal, in which case you give them the full cover and ask them to post on a certain day. You can also do this with book bloggers or Bookstagrammers; the important thing is to coordinate it ahead of time, make sure everyone understands the timing, and also…
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Shaking off our pandemic-induced ennui and embracing what looks like a permanent empty-nester status, the ToolMaster and I are currently surfing a massive wave of decluttering. It’s the sort of purge I’ve craved for years. It’s also quite daunting.
We are both crafty, DIY types with multiple hobbies that require an infrastructure of tools and equipment. Our past careers required a substantial investment in books and paperwork, most of which will be required should we choose to practice again. In my case, I’ve also acquired a vast mountain of writing-related possessions. (Not that you’d know anything about that.)
Also, from an environmental perspective, we dislike the idea of discarding valuable items, even if currently unused. And Covid-19 only cemented our desire for thriftiness and self-sufficiency.
Still, pushing against all the reasons to hold onto our belongings, there is the undeniable craving for serenity and order…
To Keep or Discard? The Method.
Faced with competing urges, we knew we needed to settle on a good decision-making process. We found it in Marie Kondo’s approach.
You might be familiar with her work via the international bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, or the Netflix series, Tidying Up.
Essentially, she categorizes objects into five categories (clothing, books, papers, miscellany, and sentimental.) You begin by gathering all the items in one category in a single location. It’s important to tackle the categories in the prescribed order as they become progressively more difficult.
Then, picking each item up individually, you observe your body’s reaction to it. Those items which “spark joy” are kept and stored with the respect they deserve. Those which don’t are thanked for their past service and released back into the world, even if never used. (They’ve taught you the helpful lesson that you don’t actually love them or their ilk.)
Suspicious of the Woo?
Kondo’s “sparking joy” trademark phrase reportedly comes from her time as a Shinto shrine maiden. If it strikes you as too precious or spiritual, I’d still urge you give it a try. As the saying goes, your body doesn’t lie. We’ve found this a handy test to circumvent rationalized hoarding and parted with things we wouldn’t have otherwise. We’ve always felt freer for the decision.
But Jan, you ask, what the heck does this have to do with writing?
I’m close to being one of the least natural book marketers in existence, and my shy, introvert tendencies have only become more exaggerated with the pandemic. I haven’t sent a newsletter in a year and a half. It’s been a struggle to post anything online to my social media accounts. The enforced solitude has paradoxically made me crave even more solitary writing time, rather than activities pointed outward.
All the same, the decluttering process has reinforced marketing lessons I’ve encountered elsewhere, but never really understood.
May I walk you through a few items in the clothing and books section to illustrate, then summarize?
For example, what did I choose to do with Item #1, this sexy wardrobe element?
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The forthcoming launch of any book is a heavy lift, rife with news to announce, people to call, and updates to publicize.
But if you’re launching a debut? It’s an especially daunting endeavor because, well, you’ve never done this before! And the pressure is high: a splashy, big hit debut can make an author’s career. But conversely, a debut launch that doesn’t meet author or publisher expectations can be difficult to stomach, and this puts additional weight on second or third titles.
How is a debut author to know what, exactly, should be on his or her “task list” in the months approaching their big book launch? No doubt, authors publishing via the indie route will have more on their plate, but even traditionally-published authors are expected to take on much of the heavy lifting these days.
Below, I’ve pulled together a “playbook” for debut authors. Consider it a list of ideas for debut authors in the year leading up to their launch.
By all means, take this list with a grain of salt: there may be items on here that don’t apply to your specific circumstances or a suggested timeframe that needs to be reworked.
9-12 months until launch
6-9 months until launch
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On December 1st, 2020, actor Elliot Page came out publicly as transgender. And on December 4, 2020, I became a published writer.
There’s a story here, of course, connecting the two. It begins with an excited Facebook post on my end about the Elliot Page news–practically a national holiday for the transmasculine community!– followed by a text from my good friend and fellow writer, Sara Shukla, asking if I might be interested in pitching a short piece about Elliot’s coming out to her editor at WBUR–Boston’s NPR News Station.
I’ll be honest– my initial reaction was “no, thank you.” Though I’ve wanted to be a published writer since I was a kid, my dream is novels, not articles. And besides, I’m not a trained journalist or someone particularly important. I’d always assumed that if I published any sort of personal essay or the like, it would be to accompany my novel’s eventual publication, or perhaps afterwards, when I had some credit to my name. Who would want to hear anything I had to say now?
But like all great ideas, once it was planted, I couldn’t get it out of my head. My “no thanks” quickly became a “well, maybe” and then an “okay, so I drafted a short piece.” With some encouragement and coaching from Sara, I sent it off, figuring that at the worst WBUR would pass, and at best they’d take it and I’d get my fifteen minutes of attention from friends on Facebook and Twitter.
It was of course the best case scenario. Better even. Not only was the piece accepted, polished, and published within three days, but it wasn’t just my friends who saw it. Nor did its impact end with my fifteen minutes of (minor) fame. My article was seen by not one but two people who then reached out and asked me to write for their websites. Writer Unboxed was one of those opportunities. And I only received that opportunity because one writing friend encouraged me to take a leap I wasn’t sure I was qualified for, and another re-shared my work on Twitter and vouched for me as a writer.
I don’t tell you this story to brag, but because my experiences in the past few months have taught me a lot. I haven’t given up on my novel or that particular dream, far from it. If anything, freelance writing has shown me that the years pursuing writing have not been in vain. If you’re anything like me, years spent working on a novel, or multiple novels, or multiple drafts of multiple novels, can leave success and completion feeling elusive, at best. Freelance writing has been a way to hone my craft, make connections in the writing world, get my name in print, and even make a small amount of money. It’s an opportunity I didn’t realize was an option, and now I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned with you, including the whys, the hows, and a couple of warnings.
Potential perks of freelance writing for novelists-in-progress:
Complete the circuit. Writing a book is long and hard and sometimes feels like a dark slog through a cold forest in […]
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We’re honored to introduce you to today’s guest, author Catherine Adel West. Catherine’s powerful debut, SAVING RUBY KING, released just over a year ago and made an instant impact. TODAY, it was released as a paperback. It’s a multigenerational story about two friends–Layla and Ruby–and the lengths they’ll go to save their lives, their families and their friendship. Zakiya Harris, author of THE OTHER BLACK GIRL, calls Saving Ruby King is “a stunning force of a novel that has everything anyone could want in a family saga…”
We’re thrilled to learn that Catherine’s sophomore effort, BECOMING SARA KING, is in the works and will be released in 2022. More about Catherine from her bio:
Catherine was born and raised in Chicago, IL where she currently resides. She graduated with both her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois – Urbana. Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better than Starbucks, Doors Ajar, 805 Lit + Art, The Helix Magazine, Lunch Ticket and Gay Magazine. Catherine’s short story ORION’S STAR is featured in the forthcoming body positive anthology EVERY BODY SHINES (Bloomsbury, May 2021). In between writing and traveling, Catherine works as an editor.
Learn more about Catherine on her website, and catch her on Twitter or Instagram under the handle @cawest329.
Advocacy Is Not A Bad Word
My momma always told me, “Think before you speak.” I rarely applied this lesson when I was a kid. To me it somehow meant I wasn’t fully telling the truth, that there were little parts of me I couldn’t fully express. And my truth, as egotistical as I realize this belief is now, was the main one, the one that needed to be heard more than anything or anyone else.
Now out of my youth (somewhat), I realize my mom was teaching, or trying to teach me, about diplomacy; that there are various ways truth can be experienced and told. And my point can be made without razing the land, burning bridges, ignoring others’ feelings and thereby absolving myself of the consequences of my mouth and actions.
Nowhere have I learned this more than advocating for myself as a writer, as a black woman, as someone who’s always been desperate to be heard because the world does its absolute best to silence my voice.
Writing is the way I shout. I express. I fight. Writing is the way I try to advocate for my people, but I had a hard time properly advocating for myself.
When I got my first book deal, I was anchored to the idea of gratitude. So honored someone wanted my little ole book, I never stopped to think about what I wanted. How did I want the book to be represented? Marketed? How would it be edited? Could I trust someone else’s instincts to not sanitize the black experience but celebrate it? Could I trust myself to hold others accountable?
Was it wrong to ask myself these questions?
No. It wasn’t.
Making sure I knew what I wanted and getting what I wanted took time. It was my debut novel and something very close to my heart. And, after a lot of trepidation, […]
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So I went to see Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins story at TRIBECA Film Festival the other night, and Jackie’s daughters discussed how their mum and the late actor Roger Moore (James Bond) would send funny fax messages back and forth to each other. I found this greatly amusing. If only I had a fax machine to fire up. If only there were people left with a fax number that I could send ridiculous messages to? Instead, we have text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Facetime, and every once in a while that land-line phone will ring and the sound will entirely confuse you.
And because I have clients all over the country and sometimes all over the world, I hear a dinging sound all hours of the day, sometimes several a minute, and if mercury is in retrograde, all of the platforms and my various Apple products will ping and flash at once and then the internet will go out.
So in this post on Book PR and Marketing Questions Answered, I’ll discuss communications etiquette so that we can keep track of work streams. I also fielded some questions from the Writer Unboxed Facebook Group, so I’ll talk about local-market PR, book blog tours, and what it means when you get the holy grail of press for your book. As usual, I had a little help from my friends and industry colleagues.
As a book influencer, how do you want to be approached by a publicist or an author?
Please treat influencers professionally. We do the very best we can to promote books, and we are in your corner. Ask the influencer how they want to be approached. I prefer email. I cannot keep up with messages on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Business hours, please! I routinely get Facebook and Instagram messages from authors all weekend long. Many send a second message asking if I got the first. No, just no.
When you do contact an influencer, please tell them the name of the book, genre, publisher, and publication date. Rather than saying, “I need your address as I am sending you a book.” Ask, “Could I send you a copy of the book?” Some books do not appeal to every influencer, and most influencers are inundated with books. For example, I don’t read scary thrillers or horror. So I would likely say no if I were offered books in these genres.
Also, note, if you as an author or your publicist send the book right around publication day, you cannot expect instant coverage. –Andrea Peskind Katz, book influencer and founder of the Great Thoughts Facebook group and literary salon
In the day and age of texting and DM’ing, do you feel like you have to discuss with your clients how you want to be communicated with?
I think establishing those preferences at the start of a working relationship/campaign is really important and helpful to everyone. In most cases, when that’s clarified upfront and everyone is on the same page about the best and most effective way to communicate, there aren’t issues moving forward. I also think it’s useful for setting boundaries for everyone (ie: if you don’t respond to messages […]
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One learns a lot about one’s writing habits—and oneself—when cutting almost 19 percent of a manuscript, paring it from 119,000 words (476 pages) to 97,000 words (409 pages).
Mind you, this wasn’t a first draft—it had been reviewed twice by a Zoe Quinton, a developmental editor I very much respect and trust (and whom I interviewed here at Writer Unboxed). After our work together, she said:
“SO well done. I’m blown away by the amount of work you did, and how well you integrated all the pieces together to form a truly stunning, gripping whole. I loved every minute of it, and nearly cried at the end, even knowing what the basic setup would be. You’ve got a hell of a book here, one of the best I’ve ever worked on. Bravo.”
Once I began submitting to agents, however, with the exception of two agents I’ll discuss shortly, I either heard nothing back or got the seldom helpful, “Not for me, good luck with it elsewhere.” The two agents who provided some feedback said two very different but very helpful things. (It’s currently under submission with two other agents, one of who seems particularly receptive.)
The first of the two agents who provided notes complimented my writing but remarked that my use of a gay, bi-racial (Cambodian/African American) woman main character made the book virtually impossible to sell in today’s cultural environment given the #mystory movement.
The second agent, despite liking a great deal about the book, comparing it at one point to American Gods, felt a lack of “narrative urgency” in the writing.
In discussing all this with Zoe, she responded that my female character’s sexuality and race had raised no reds flags for her, and she is sensitive to such things. She also found comparing the book to American Gods then bemoaning a lack of narrative urgency puzzling, as Neil Gaiman’s novel is hardly a full-throttle page turner, but shares some of the philosophical, mythical, and historical texture of my book.
Let me be clear: I in no way fault Zoe for the extensive post-edit rewrite I ended up conducting. Her job was to read the book, note its shortfalls as she saw them, help me correct them, while at the same time being conscientious of what she saw as my voice, my style, and the type of book I seemed to want to be writing—a big, sprawling, dystopian journey covering a great deal of the American landscape with a mythical backdrop.
But given my respect for the two agents who gave me notes, I felt obliged to pay attention to what they were telling me.
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